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With an estimated 43,200,000 native speakers in the US, Spanish is the second most spoken language in the country. Globally, the size of the Spanish-speaking population is second only to Mexico and actually larger than Spain. As our nation’s Hispanic community continues to grow, it’s more important than ever for businesses to learn how to attract Spanish-speaking workers.
Learning how to hire in Spanish might seem overwhelming at first. But the value of finding ways to include Spanish in your hiring process for the benefit of native speakers is too great to ignore.
Unlocking a significant portion of the workforce
By 2050, Hispanics will represent nearly 30 percent of the US population. For companies not prepared with hiring tools in Spanish or without Spanish translations for hiring procedures on hand, this demographic shift (and its dramatic effect on the job market) could prove challenging.
But with an effective strategy in place to recruit those native Spanish speakers, your business will gain both a new source of potential applicants and a competitive edge in the hiring process.
This is especially valuable when you consider the ongoing worker shortage. Even though many industries have now rebounded since the pandemic, leisure and hospitality are still 500,000 workers short. Not to mention, 2.1 million manufacturing jobs could go unfilled by 2030.
This is precisely why tapping into the 62.6 million Hispanic population for hourly workers makes sense.
Ensuring equal opportunity by providing multilingual applications
When it comes to differentiating yourself as an employer, providing Hispanic applicants with the option to choose a hiring experience in their native language is a smart strategy. Not only for the convenience, but offering Spanish applications lets you make sure everyone gets a fair chance.
Why? Applicants who are otherwise highly qualified and ideal fits for your workforce may not be comfortable with (or may even feel intimidated by) completing a job search in their second language.
Being thoughtful enough to include hiring tools in Spanish and give applicants equal employment opportunities is also good business. Making accommodations to remove biases and ensure people are hired based primarily on skills and competencies will give you an edge in the war for talent, especially when those Spanish-speaking applicants share their positive experiences with friends.
Creating a more inclusive environment for your customer base
Hiring more Spanish speakers for your open hourly roles isn’t just about diversity and inclusivity at your workplace. Welcoming bilingual employees to your staff can also prove helpful for serving customers, providing support, and building relationships in the Hispanic community.
Hiring managers must be intentional about creating inclusive work environments. By prioritizing how to attract Spanish-speaking applicants to your business, you also impact its sustainability.
Adding bilingual employees to key positions across your company conveys a subtle message to the Hispanic community among your customer base. They feel seen, valued, and heard. In turn, your team will get to see things from a different viewpoint and understand another culture better.
Building loyalty with the Hispanic community now can be lucrative for your business in the future.
Developing a strategy to reach more Spanish-speaking applicants
When opening new job positions and actively recruiting more hourly workers for your business, keep the needs of your Spanish-speaking applicants in mind. With its recent upgrade, Workstream makes it possible to recruit Spanish-speaking employees without manually translating everything yourself.
A smarter way to hire and retain hourly workers, it allows your applicants to find your job postings, apply to them, schedule their interviews, and receive automated messages about their applications’ status—all in Spanish from start to finish. By providing a hiring experience in a language native to a large portion of the US, businesses will be able to better connect and tap into a broader applicant pool.
If you’re a Workstream customer, log in to start hiring in Spanish today. If not, schedule a quick demo to see how Workstream can transform your recruitment strategy.
