Bilingual program broadens SAIF’s customer service

In the 1990s a group of SAIF employees began to discuss the possibility of organizing a bilingual team at the company.

"At that time only about four people in the company spoke Spanish," says Christina Hoffman, SAIF claims supervisor, "and we were used occasionally to translate. There was no real structure to it; we just helped where we could. We needed to find a better way of meeting those needs."

As SAIF's business increased, so did the demand for Spanish-speaking adjusters. By 2006, the company was looking at ways to approach a bilingual program and beginning to recruit and hire bilingual staff. SAIF Loss Control partnered with Tomás Schwabe at OR-OSHA to create loss prevention materials, and classes conducted in Spanish were added to the schedule of SAIF's agriculture safety seminars — the free, four-hour safety workshops that are held around the state for agricultural employers and employees.

"We gathered feedback from Spanish-speaking customers," says Julia Stewart, who, as part of her job, supervises several bilingual claims adjusters and assistants. "Their response came as no surprise to anyone. They told us that if they could call and speak to someone in Spanish, that would be preferable to speaking through an interpreter."

"We asked existing staff who either spoke Spanish as their native language or were fluent in it as a second language if they would like to work a desk that handled requests for Spanish-speaking adjusters," says Hoffman. "We had great results."

"I was attracted to SAIF by the request in the job announcement for someone who was bilingual," says Luz Martinez, claims adjuster. "About 60 percent of the claims I handle are from workers who request communication in Spanish."

Martinez said that her background made this position especially meaningful for her. "My parents worked in agriculture, and they faced many of the same issues as the people I help each day. I am glad to have a skill to give back to the people who need it. I'm excited that SAIF is headed in this direction."

Martinez says that when she came to this country at the age of nine, she didn't speak English, like many of her customers. "I know what it is like to not understand," she says. "Having that history and background helps me understand how our customers feel. I've been where they are now."

In addition to working a desk in Claims, Martinez and others on the bilingual team help out at SAIF's agriculture safety seminars. Spanish-language seminars have been held this year in Wilsonville, Salem, Hillsboro, and The Dalles.

Recently, four new bilingual claims adjuster trainees were hired, and they have just completed their training. One of the new adjusters is Kathleen Straub-da Silva. She majored in psychology and romance languages in college and is fluent in Spanish and Portuguese. She lived in Chile for one year and in Brazil for a year and a half.

"I have spoken Spanish since I was 16," she says.

Straub-da Silva also speaks some French and Italian, and she says she likes the idea of being able to use her language and cultural skills in a way that benefits others.

As the program has grown, workers are responding positively to the changes, and many employers are beginning to request bilingual adjusters to serve their employees.

Currently SAIF has more than 20 adjusters, four attorneys, and an investigator who are fluent in Spanish, as well as four adjusters who are fluent in Russian. SAIF has identified Russian and Vietnamese as the next priorities for its bilingual program.

In addition to adding bilingual staff, SAIF also reworked its printed material. About 30 letters and documents that are often needed in Spanish have been translated using American Translators Association (ATA)-certified translators. In addition, Spanish-speakers can access a Spanish page on SAIF's website that links to the Oregon Workers' Compensation Division's Spanish website. A Spanish-language Injured Worker Guide will be available on saif.com.

"We're not finished yet," says Hoffman. SAIF is also testing bilingual software that has been used by NASA, the U.S. Navy, and Fortune 500 companies. This will help translate information for the internet and various printed documents. "We are building custom dictionaries," says Hoffman, "that will include language specific to our audience and our industry."

"We want to provide clear and consistent information for our Spanish-speaking customers," says Hoffman, "and we are making great strides in that direction."