Your supervisors are not going to become benefits experts, and there is no reason that they should. They do, however, need to understand just how important benefits are.

I am going to give some more advice here, and you may not be happy about it. So be forewarned.

We now know that bilingual supervisors have an enormous impact on benefits understanding and utilization. However, they are not prepared to give advice on this topic, and often wind up providing misleading, incomplete, or outright incorrect information.

Spanish-speaking employees often feel that if one of them accepts a promotion, that person has sold out to the Dark Side. He is no longer one of “us,” he is one of “them.”

There are a few common benefits questions that might be brought to a bilingual supervisor, rather than to HR or the broker.

Bilingual supervisors and foremen are very rarely prepared to give well-informed, up-to-date advice about employee benefits. However, all too often, they are all too willing to address questions they don't really know the answers to.

When a benefits package needs to be explained in Spanish, employers, brokers, and benefits managers normally turn to two strategies.

Spanish speakers very often think that an employer would prefer to replace a higher-paid senior employee with a new-hire who will work for less per hour.