Translating Safety: How to Build a Multilingual EHS Program eBook

Multilingual safety programs are hard to get right.

You may be managing safety materials in 10 or more languages. Different teams write those materials over the years and use different terms for the same hazard, so a confined space entry permit can show up three ways across your training, your SOPs, and your signage. And many companies bolt translation on at the end instead of building it into the program from the start. The result is a program that looks complete on paper but is a headache to manage and leaves gaps in what workers understand. Those gaps lead to citations, accidents, and sometimes fatalities.

Did you know? The Bureau of Labor Statistics reports that 1,229 Hispanic and Latino workers died on the job in 2024, a fatality rate 30% above the national average. More than two-thirds were foreign-born.

The legal risk is just as serious, and most employers underestimate it. OSHA judges your safety training by whether workers understand it, not by the paperwork you keep. Inspectors talk to workers directly and ask them to describe the hazards their training covered. If a worker can't describe those hazards, OSHA cites the employer, even when the documents are translated.

So how do you build a program that meets OSHA's comprehension standard?

That's what Translating Safety is for. Drawing on OSHA enforcement policy, peer-reviewed research, and 30 years of helping manufacturers communicate across languages, the eBook covers:

• How OSHA enforces comprehension and what inspectors look for

• How to decide which documents to translate first

• What eLearning and video translation require beyond a script

• How translation memory and a shared glossary prevent terminology drift

• When AI translation with human review fits, and when it doesn't

• What to look for in a translation partner for compliance work

If you manage EHS, training, or compliance at a workplace with multilingual workers, download our eBook to learn how to prioritize what to translate, what OSHA penalties can cost you, and how to build a safety program that protects the people on your floor.