EBECatty Posted April 20, 2021 Share Posted April 20, 2021 Does anyone have recommendations for getting plan materials (SPD in particular) translated into Spanish? A quick search doesn't seem to turn up any firms focused on translating or providing ERISA documents in particular, but I thought familiarity with plan concepts would probably help provide a more accurate substantive translation. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bill Presson Posted April 20, 2021 Share Posted April 20, 2021 Most (if not all) of the document providers that I've seen provide this as an option. William C. Presson, ERPA, QPA, QKA bill.presson@gmail.com C 205.994.4070 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
EBECatty Posted April 20, 2021 Author Share Posted April 20, 2021 Thanks. We tried our document provider, FIS/Relius. They didn't have any full-document translations, but recommended us to a few outside services. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bill Presson Posted April 20, 2021 Share Posted April 20, 2021 3 minutes ago, EBECatty said: Thanks. We tried our document provider, FIS/Relius. They didn't have any full-document translations, but recommended us to a few outside services. That shocks me. I would have sworn they provided Spanish versions of the participant material. Wow. William C. Presson, ERPA, QPA, QKA bill.presson@gmail.com C 205.994.4070 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Riley Britton Posted April 20, 2021 Share Posted April 20, 2021 55 minutes ago, Bill Presson said: That shocks me. I would have sworn they provided Spanish versions of the participant material. Wow. Why would this shock you? If you can't speak English how are you even working?? You might as well have translations in every language, lol! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bill Presson Posted April 20, 2021 Share Posted April 20, 2021 1. It shocks me that Relius doesn't have it available because FTW does and I thought most of the document providers would. 2. I wasn't aware that speaking English was required to work. /sarcasm off 3. There are requirements for appropriate notices in a language if the plan covers a large enough group that is literate only in that language. 125Guest, ratherbereading, Luke Bailey and 1 other 4 William C. Presson, ERPA, QPA, QKA bill.presson@gmail.com C 205.994.4070 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
EBECatty Posted April 20, 2021 Author Share Posted April 20, 2021 53 minutes ago, Bill Presson said: 3. There are requirements for appropriate notices in a language if the plan covers a large enough group that is literate only in that language. To be clear, Relius does provide the notice, but it simply directs the participant to the plan administrator to get help with the other language. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bill Presson Posted April 20, 2021 Share Posted April 20, 2021 50 minutes ago, EBECatty said: To be clear, Relius does provide the notice, but it simply directs the participant to the plan administrator to get help with the other language. Understood. But FTW actually provides a Spanish version SPD. I thought Relius did as well. William C. Presson, ERPA, QPA, QKA bill.presson@gmail.com C 205.994.4070 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Riley Britton Posted April 21, 2021 Share Posted April 21, 2021 16 hours ago, Bill Presson said: 1. It shocks me that Relius doesn't have it available because FTW does and I thought most of the document providers would. 2. I wasn't aware that speaking English was required to work. /sarcasm off 3. There are requirements for appropriate notices in a language if the plan covers a large enough group that is literate only in that language. I am pretty sure that if you don't speak a word of English it's going to be very hard to get hired, say for instance, at a TPA, so yeah, it kind of is a requirement to work here. As my husband says, This is America, Jack from Coming to America... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RatherBeGolfing Posted April 21, 2021 Share Posted April 21, 2021 1 hour ago, Riley Britton said: I am pretty sure that if you don't speak a word of English it's going to be very hard to get hired, say for instance, at a TPA, so yeah, it kind of is a requirement to work here. As my husband says, This is America, Jack from Coming to America... I'm not sure if you have just misunderstood the question here or if there is more to it on your end. If you think that not speaking or understanding english is going to prevent people from finding employment, you need to seriously reconsider. As Bill points out above, the plan is required to post notices in other languages if there are enough employees who need it in order to understand the notice. You cant just say "sorry, you need to learn english!" Maybe it's a product of where you live and work. I'm in the Southeast, and non-English speaking employees are just not uncommon here. In my immediate practice are, we have large communities of Spanish, Creole, and Tagalog speakers. Also consider the employees who are studying to learn English but still only have limited understanding of the language. It may be your clients responsibility to put things in a language that they do understand. C. B. Zeller, 125Guest and Bill Presson 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pam Shoup Posted April 21, 2021 Share Posted April 21, 2021 We have used a local high school Spanish teacher for translation services for many things. We use the built in translator in word for a bulk of the translation and then have the Spanish teacher clean it up from there. We contract the service by the hour. You could contact a local high school, college or a tutor and probably find someone who would be willing to freelance and do translations. Relius does provide their website, app and VRU in Spanish, but we have not seen it with their plan document software. RatherBeGolfing, ratherbereading and Bill Presson 3 Pamela L. (Bobersky) Shoup CEBS, RPA, QKA AMI Benefit Plan Administrators, Inc. 100 Terra Bella Drive Youngstown, Ohio 44505 800-451-2865 www.amibenefit.com Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RatherBeGolfing Posted April 21, 2021 Share Posted April 21, 2021 1 hour ago, Pam Shoup said: We have used a local high school Spanish teacher for translation services for many things. We use the built in translator in word for a bulk of the translation and then have the Spanish teacher clean it up from there. We contract the service by the hour. You could contact a local high school, college or a tutor and probably find someone who would be willing to freelance and do translations. Relius does provide their website, app and VRU in Spanish, but we have not seen it with their plan document software. Great advice! ratherbereading 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ricardo Ochoa Posted April 22, 2021 Share Posted April 22, 2021 Good evening, I am an American Translators Association English to Spanish certified translator. I have worked many years in HR both in the US and in Mexico/Latin America and I am familiar with the cultural and legal practices in both areas. I support companies who need to reach their Spanish-speaking employees with versions of their communications in Spanish. The documents include SPDs, Employee Guidebooks, Union Contracts, Open Enrollment communications, Safety Manuals and similar. If you think I can be of help with your needs, please contact me through this forum and we can discuss more in detail. Thanks. Alonzo Church and ratherbereading 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Create an account or sign in to comment
You need to be a member in order to leave a comment
Create an account
Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!
Register a new accountSign in
Already have an account? Sign in here.
Sign In Now