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ENTREPRENEURSHIP eMODULE

Author: Juan José ArevalilloProvider: Hermes Traducciones y Servicios Lingüísticos, SL, Madrid, SpainSubject area: specialised translationTitle of the resource: eTransFair e-module on EntrepreneurshipLicence: CC BY 4.0

ENTREPRENEURSHIP MODULE1

In this module you learn about translation industry entrepreneurship. The module consists of units and each unit deals with a different aspect of the topic (see table below). At the beginning of each unit you find the learning outcome to be reached after completing the learning activities. You also find information on the learning context, e. g. competences required for the specific content provided in the unit, technical and other requirements and your workload given in minutes. For your orientation an overview of the activities and their main characteristics (title, description, rationale, etc.) are also provided, together with the activities to be done in each case. At the end, a reference for further reading is given.

Please feel free to add your own examples (own activities, best practices, used methods, assessment techniques etc.) to the list of units because not all aspects of entrepreneurship could be considered in this module.

Below you will find the module’s structure divided into units and indicating the topic to be dealt with.

Entrepreneurship Module

Unit 1 General characteristics of translation industry: facts, figures, trends, access

Unit 2 Translation companies and freelancers: legal aspects, associations

Unit 3 Organisation, structure and business management systems

Unit 4 Ethics, good practices and standardisation, project estimation

1 This module could either be used for individual training or as part of an existing training programme. All activities within the modules are only inputs and cannot be regarded as an entire course or constitute the main part of a training course.

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Table of contents

ENTREPRENEURSHIP MODULE...............................................................................................................1

UNIT 1: General characteristics of translation industry: facts, figures, trends, access.......................3

Activity 1: Background of translation industry................................................................................5

Activity 2: Factors and trends driving translation industry.............................................................9

Activity 3: Advantages & disadvantages of translation industry...................................................11

UNIT 2: Translation companies and freelancers: legal aspects & associations.................................13

Activity 1: Types of companies and differences between companies & freelancers....................15

Activity 2: Professional associations.............................................................................................18

Activity 3: Recruiting staff: professional competences and profiles.............................................23

Activity 4: CV and professional image for companies & freelancers.............................................26

Activity 5: Professional image on social media.............................................................................30

Activity 6: Productivity..................................................................................................................32

UNIT 3: Organisation, structure and business management systems..............................................34

Activity 1: Required functions in a company................................................................................36

Activity 2: Business plan & SWOT analysis....................................................................................39

Activity 3: Companies’ finances....................................................................................................43

Activity 4: Business control: process indicators, KPIs & objectives...............................................49

UNIT 4: Ethics, good practices, standardisation & project estimation..............................................54

Activity 1: Ethic codes in translation industry...............................................................................55

Activity 2: Main issues related to good practices in translation industry.....................................58

Activity 3: Benchmarking: good & bad practices in translation industry......................................62

Activity 4: Pricing in translation industry......................................................................................66

List of references..............................................................................................................................70

Links.................................................................................................................................................72

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UNIT 1: GENERAL CHARACTERISTICS OF TRANSLATION INDUSTRY: FACTS, FIGURES, TRENDS, ACCESS

Learning outcome

After completing this unit, trainees will understand the general scenario in which professional translation services provided both by companies and freelancers take place.

Learning context

Pre-requisites

Having a general overview of professional translation industry and of translation both as a process and a product.

It is recommended to take the Project Management module before or at least in parallel.

If possible, Quality Management module could add some useful elements for this module.

Learning Environment

Computer and beamer or flipchart

Time/Workload

240 minutes

Overview of learning activities

Title Description Rationale/goal Type of activity AssessmentEstimated timeframe

1. Background of translation industry

Discussion about facts, figures and other aspects featuring the international and national translation industry

Raising awareness of translation industry to touch base with real-world aspects of professional translation industry

Collecting ideas within individual info-mining, presenting ideas by groups within the class, conclusions assisted by trainer, and presentation

Not assessed,

practical work in groups

60 minutes (homework)

60 minutes (for trainer’s presentation)

2. Factors and trends driving translation industry

Discussion about trends in translation industry

Brainstorming about the most important factors and trends in translation industry

Survey among students to collect views on the main factors and trends governing translation industry

Not assessed, practical individual and group work

60 minutes (in class)

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3. Advantages & disadvantages of translation industry

Discussion about strengths and weaknesses in translation industry

Brainstorming about what the translation industry can provide professionals with as advantages and disadvantages

Discussion with trainees to see what they consider to be the main advantages and disadvantages in this industry and final summary

Summative assessment

60 minutes (in class)

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Activity 1: Background of translation industry

Background for trainees

The main idea of this activity is as follows:

trainer will introduce trainees to translation industry and propose trainees some topics for info-mining;

trainees will look for information about facts, figures and other aspects featuring the international translation industry;

trainees will look for information about facts, figures and other aspects featuring the national translation industry if they follow the general trend of international figure;

for initial info-mining trainees will mainly use the links of EUATC (www.euatc.org), CSA (https://www.commonsenseadvisory.com) and the Language Technology Centre (LTC, https://publications.europa.eu/en/publication-detail/-/publication/ef5bebf0-a901-4df1-8cd4-d2e77cfa1841) provided in this module to work with reliable information about translation industry, though other references coming out of their own info-mining are welcome;

trainees will collect ideas and reach common points with the help of trainer; trainer will summarise the previous ideas and findings as a conclusion.

If trainees cannot access CSA’s proprietary information, they can find summaries of the reports on their website, or trainer can provided with some information about it.

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https://publications.europa.eu/en/publication-detail/-/publication/ef5bebf0-a901-4df1-8cd4-d2e77cfa1841


https://www.commonsenseadvisory.com/

http://www.euatc.org/


Background for trainers

The main idea of this activity is as follows:

trainer will introduce trainees to translation industry and propose trainees some topics for info-mining;

info-mining and discussion about facts, figures and other aspects featuring the international industry;

info-mining and discussion about facts, figures and other aspects featuring the national industry to see if they follow the general trend of international figure;

collecting ideas and see their common points; conclusion with a summary of all the previous ideas and findings.

The core idea is making trainees aware of teamwork, which is one of the most valuable assets in translation industry, but at the same time after this activity trainees should have a general view of how the translation industry is organised with some facts and figures, which can be very useful to set up the scenario of the whole module.

Knowing the industry in which future translators must work is a key aspect to be successful. However, finding useful information on facts and figures is not easy, as it can be reliable enough or is outdated, in which case the obtained details could be misguiding. Fortunately, there are entities very worried about having and working with reliable information on the whole industry. In the bibliography of this module trainers and trainees will be able to find many references, but EUATC’s and CSA’s reports are the most updated and reliable in terms of European and worldwide reports respectively. For this reason, we recommend trainers and trainees to use those references for the whole module, as they will be able to find information about many core aspects of this industry. EUATC’s reports are free from EUATC. Those of CSA are not free, but summaries can be found on their website as listed in the bibliography. If trainees cannot access that payable information, trainer can show them the graphs below.

Some of the different issues should be covered in this activity are turnover, competition, activity, sales, rates, staff, certification, technology, training, challenges, trends, etc.

As a reference for inspiration the trainer, a few images are included with information on some of these issues for a start:

Language Market Growth (source: The Language Services Market: 2018, p. 2)

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Service Market Share in Translation Industry (source: The Language Services Market: 2018, p. 3)

Projected Language Market Share (source: The Language Services Market: 2018, p. 6)

Sales volume (source: EUATC’s 2018 Language Industry Survey: 2018, p. 4)

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Vertical markets for companies (source: EUATC’s 2018 Language Industry Survey: 2018, p. 6)

Vertical markets for freelancers (source: EUATC’s 2018 Language Industry Survey: 2018, p. 6)

The availability of information for national markets depends very much on the local initiatives of associations or some entities. You can find countries having a lot of information and some others which lack any kind of reliable information. For the purpose of this activity, trainer and trainees can use the report on the size of the European translation industry developed by LTC as listed in the bibliography.

We should take into account that the concept of national market is getting more and more blurred, as companies bid for international tenders and there is a higher competition among the stakeholders, resulting in price decrease (Carmona, 2018), so in general terms national markets follow the trends of the international one. In case of languages very spread all over the world (e. g. Spanish), there could be even a higher competition and some differentiation due to specifi locales.

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Activity 2: Factors and trends driving translation industry


Trainees will concentrate on the following tasks:

from the previous activity trainees will select those trends which could modify the way translation industry is changing;

those trends will be commented on by trainees and trainer to draw conclusions on how the industry could evolve.

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This activity is a continuation of the previous one, in which trainees should have identified some of the current trends and factors driving translation industry. Trainees will focus now on potential trends which are impacting translation industry for future development. So, trainer should proceed in the following way:

from the previous activity trainees will select those trends which could modify the way translation industry is changing;

those trends will be commented on by trainees and trainer to draw conclusions on how the industry could evolve.

The core idea is making trainees be aware of the potential future scenario on this industry supplementing the current one which trainees have worked on before.

Trainee should take into account that CSA spotted in its 2016 annual report the following factors:

Language software changes how both language service providers and end-buyers manage business globalization. Augmented translation, neural machine translation, automated content enrichment, and lights-out project management benefit from mainstream information technology such as big data and artificial intelligence.

Consolidation of suppliers proceeds. Management and administration activity is happening up and down for verticals, intellectual capital and staff, and cross-border purABC Productionss that give LSPs sales and production footholds around the planet. As predicted, aggressive acquirers led to the scarcity of desirable providers in verticals such as life sciences.

Investors seek profitable opportunities in the language sector, with private equity groups (PEGs) acquiring leading suppliers over the last two years. We count at least nine PEGs with major holdings in our list of the largest 100 suppliers.

Demand for language services has grown on multiple fronts, with requirements for new content types, on-demand services, platforms ranging from mobile to the Internet of Things, and pervasive spoken-language support.

Take some of the factors spotted in CSA’s 2018 report into account: the market for outsourced language services and supporting technology grew 7.99% from 2017 to 2018. But the growth over the next two years will decline between 6.00-7.50% in 2021. The language services industry has more or less the same challenges right now, with the impact of external forces on the market, such as the currency exchange rates. From here we can think that annual turnover is growing but at a slower pace.

Also, machine translation is changing the shape of the industry with new services and even impacting staffing with more full-time linguists on companies’ payrolls.

Factors for future growth are focussed on the new demands and market requirements which indicate a rising opportunity mainly due to the impact of new technologies. Technology is increasing demand through digital transformation, artificial intelligence, voice-enabled content, but there are some external factors which could prevent from a fast growth, namely, political turmoil, economic uncertainty or setback of budgets.

As it can be seen in the previous comments, translation industry depends on many circumstances external to it, not necessarily dealing with verticals but also with the trends of international politics and economics.

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Activity 3: Advantages & disadvantages of translation industry


After trainees have worked on the characteristics of the translation industry, they should draw their final personal conclusions on which potential advantages and disadvantages taking place in this industry according to the previous findings.

It is expected that trainees will work on a brainstorming session guided by the trainer.

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Once that trainees have worked on the characteristics of the translation industry, they should draw their final personal conclusions on which potential advantages and disadvantages we can find.

As a guidance for trainer, trainees could work at least on the following ones:

Advantages• A big market which steadily grows every year.• Significant annual growth rate, much higher than other industries.• A big universe of programmes and applications in constant growth and evolution thanks to

applied technology.• Anti-crisis industry.• Geometric growth of instant communication and information media among professionals:

blogs, forums, social networks, etc., which facilitates a cooperative working environment.• Exchange format standards: TBX, TMX, XLIFF, etc., which allows professionals to work on

any platform.• Remote work possibilities.• MT translation post-editing as a new and solid service.• Many possibilities for new professional profiles beyond the pure language services.

Disadvantages• Margin reduction.• Enormous pressure from customers to reduce translation rates by using technologies (not

always properly used…).• Fierce low-cost competition.• Gigantic atomisation of industry.• Dubious information sources.• Customers not knowing translation processes.• Uncontrolled use of MT in inadequate professional environments.

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UNIT 2: TRANSLATION COMPANIES AND FREELANCERS: LEGAL ASPECTS & ASSOCIATIONS

Learning outcome

After completing this unit, trainees will understand the general scenario in which professional translation services provided both by companies and freelancers take place.

Learning context

Pre-requisitesHaving a general overview of professional translation industry as covered in unit 1.

It is recommended to take the Project Management module before or at least in parallel.



Time/Workload

450 minutes



1. Types of companies and differences between companies & freelancers

Discussion about the different formats in which professionals can access translation industry and how they can evolve

Raising awareness of how new entrants can work in this industry

Checking the local requirements for playing as companies or freelancers

Not assessed,


60 minutes

2. Professional associations

Identification of professional associations on the side of companies and translators

Knowing the most influential associations in translation industry

Searching for national and international associations related to translation industry and drawing a diagram of relationships


60 minutes

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3. Recruiting staff: professional competences and profiles

Identification of competences a translator must have and other profiles in translation industry

Raising awareness of the professional profiles usually required by employers

Info-mining on required competences for translators.

Searching for other professional profiles

Not assessed,


60 minutes (class)

4. CV and professional image for companies & freelancers

Identification of key points in professional CVs and awareness of different platforms in social media

Knowing the recommendations for job applications, CV creation and presence in industry

Searching for translators’ CVs and companies’ profiles.

Creating CVs and creating a mock profile for job posting

Peer assessment

120 minutes

5. Professional image on social media

Creation of a professional profile on a professional platform

Developing skills for summarising CV content and publish it on a professional platform

Creating a profile on https://about.me/

Hetero-assessment

60 minutes

6. ProductivityAwareness of your daily productivity

Raising awareness of how many words a trainee is able to translate per day

Translating small pieces of different texts and calculate translation speed rate

Self-assessed

90 minutes

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https://about.me/


Activity 1: Types of companies and differences between companies & freelancers


As it happens in most industries, entering the marketing may take place by means of two ways: either as a freelancer or as a company, and translation industry is not an exception. Quality standards use the same term both for companies and freelancers: TSP (Translation Service Provider) or LSP (Language Service Provider), which are defined as “a person or organisation delivering translation services”, namely, a physical person or a commercial company.

Aspects such as taxation, start-up, social security and other legal issues may vary according to each country, though they are more or less similar.

Trainees will search for information on legal and tax requirements for freelancers and companies as new entrants in translation company according to their countries and will work on their similarities and differences. Trainees will present their findings in groups.

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As it happens in most industries, entering the marketing may take place by means of two ways: either as a freelancer or as a company, and translation industry is not an exception. Quality standards use the same term both for companies and freelancers: TSP (Translation Service Provider) or LSP (Language Service Provider), which are defined as “a person or organisation delivering translation services”, namely, a physical person or a commercial company.

Aspects such as taxation, start-up, social security and other legal issues may vary according to each country, though they are more or less similar.

We should consider freelance translators as some kind of a unipersonal company, as they share many duties with companies, such as:

Registration in official commercial and professional databases. Beginning-of-activity declaration. Registration in VAT and other tax systems. Registration in Social Security or equivalent.

All this conveys a series of legal and tax activities they must comply with, such as: Presenting legal forms in Admin offices. Issuing invoices. Recording income and expense items. Calculating net income. Delivering partial payments of personal and corporate taxes and VAT. Calculating depreciations and fiscal incentives. Keeping accounting.

The main difference between translators and companies falls on responsibility. Freelancers usually take responsibility with their own patrimony, whereas companies take a limited responsibility with their capital, though they could have to do it with their personal patrimony in specific cases.

Obviously, freelancers do not need any specific structure other than the one which allows them to play in translation industry: a small physical space for their equipment and other tools, whereas a company should require some structure and different functions.

However, a freelancer can grow with more services and have a high turnover, in which case it could be better for him/her to become a company so that they could have more tax and legal benefits. In the following graph you can see a potential evolution from freelancer to a group of freelancers, and from there to a real company, which could also evolve in a higher structure with different options and growth, and even just the other way round:

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Possible evolution from freelance translator to translation company (source: Hermes Traducciones & Juan José Arevalillo)

We should not forget that a potential way to enter the market for an individual translator is being employed by a company, in which case he/she could work in a translation company, a translation agency (normally acting as an intermediary), a company of other vertical industries or government or official bodies. Each of them shares characteristics but the operation is far different.

If you enter the market as a freelancer, he/she must personally deal with the following aspects: Start-up requirements. Taxation. Operations. Communication with industry. Knowledge updating by his/her own.

On the other hand, the employed translator has a very different scenario: No start-up requirements. Taxation by the company. Follow company’s operation rules. Communication with industry through the company’s internal organisation or their

departments. Knowledge updating provided by the company.

To sum up, we could say that freelancers are obviously more independent, but employed staff is relatively more secure than freelancers.

Taking all this information into account for the trainer, trainees will search for information on legal and tax requirements for freelancers and companies as new entrants in translation company according to their countries and will work on their similarities and differences. Tra Trainees will present their findings in groups.

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Activity 2: Professional associations


Trainer will request trainees to search for professional associations of translators and translation companies at international and local level, and they will try to show the interactions between those international associations and the national associations. Once found, they should look for specific cooperation cases at European level.

Trainees should also focus on entry requirements for each association, so that they can find common patterns and differences among them, as associations do not necessarily operate in the same way and with the same goals.

As a starting point, trainees can use the links related to professional associations provided in the recommended links of this module.

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Everybody knows that union means strength, and every industry is organised by professional associations. Translation industry replicates the structure on other industries, so we will not find any strange organisation.

Both companies and freelancers have their own associations and all of them do influence the way industry work normally with an outside-inside effect. In the following graph we can check this general structure:

Overview of structure and influence of associations (source: Hermes Traducciones & Juan José Arevalillo)

We can see that all levels are inter-related and normally those of higher level influence the contiguous lower levels by means of recommendations, good practices, standards, training, etc.

Among the different activities these associations perform we can find the following ones: Joint promotion of members. Quality standards development. Organisation of training and other activities. National and international exchange. Relationship with other industry associations. Relationship with EU, Government and universities. Members’ defence and arbitration. Higher professional awareness. Industry reports and surveys. Buying power for insurances, hardware, software, etc.

In the following table, we can see the different types and scope they have:

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Scope Translation professionals Translation companies

Global

FIT (Fédération Internationale des Traducteurs) – members are national associations

No global association with individual members

No global umbrella association

GALA (members are individual companies)

European

FIT Europe – members are national associations

No European association with individual members

EUATC (members are national associations – 1 per country)

ELIA (members are individual companies)

NationalNational associations of translators (members or not members of FIT)

National associations of translation companies (members or not members of EUATC)

EUATC is an umbrella organization for national associations of translation companies throughout Europe, without being limited to the EU. Among other things, the EUATC provides a united voice for translation companies. It promotes the highest standards of quality and business practice and helps to improve the training of translators. As an example, the organisation and members of EUATC are depicted in the following image:

Organisation of EUATC’s members (source: Hermes Traducciones & Juan José Arevalillo)As an example, EUATC’s goals, as these can be more or less shared by any translation company, and even translators’:

Support national associations. Promote industry at European level. Promote international co-operation. Develop relationships with academia. Develop relationship with translation professionals. EN 15038 – initiated by EUATC. Annual International Conference TUpdate. Memorandum of Understanding on Traineeships – European Masters of Translation. Liaising with EU institutions (Directorate-General Translation). Participation in EU projects.

European Master of Translation.

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Agorà. Transcert. Qualetra. LindWeb. Optimale. Support of Expert. Support of eTransFair.

Among other company associations we can find the following with more or less the same aims:

Other company associations (source: Hermes Traducciones & Juan José Arevalillo)

At a national level, the possibilities are manifold: some exist on their own, and others belong to a higher structure. For instance, Spanish Asproset belongs to an umbrella organisation, EUATC, which only accepts one national association per country (in the image below you can see how its logo shows how it is a network member of EUATC. However, you can see Aneti’s logo, the other Spanish company association, which cannot belong to EUATC, but it is a member of Elia, which accepts individual companies and associations:

Consolidated logo of Spanish Asproset (source: Hermes Traducciones & Juan José Arevalillo)

What happens with company associations, so does it with freelancers. In the following image you can see some of the most known translator associations in the world:

International translator associations (source: Hermes Traducciones & Juan José Arevalillo)

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In the same way, the national associations of translators can act individually or associated to an umbrella organisation, as the Spanish Asetrad, which integrates into FIT as umbrella organization. Moreover, associations such as ATA admit corporate members too, not only individual translators.

In some cases, as in the Spanish network of translator associations, different national associations can form a virtual network of cooperation, in this case RedVértice, which provides a common image for some activities:

Virtual network of Spanish translator associations (source: Hermes Traducciones & Juan José Arevalillo)

There are cases such as Finland, Hungary and Germany, in which both translator and company associations have created an agreement covering the contractual relationships between them for specific jobs.

Taking all this into account, trainer will request trainees to search for professional associations of translators and translation companies at international and local level, and they will try to show the interactions between those international associations and the national associations. Once found, they should look for specific cooperation cases at a national level.

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Activity 3: Recruiting staff: professional competences and profiles


Trainees will brainstorm on the necessary competences for a translator, and afterwards for a specialised translator. They will compare their conclusions to the translators’ competences stated in ISO-17100 standard.

Once they have done it, they will think of other professional profiles related to language services and they will comment on the necessary competences for those profiles. Trainees should add any other competences they could think of when those profiles required specific skills not covered by the standard. As a supporting list for this, trainees can use the competence card produced by eTransFair projects (see website https://etransfair.eu/).

Trainees have also a lot of materials regarding new skills and profiles on the website of the Translating Europe Forum 2017 (https://ec.europa.eu/info/events/translatingeurope-forum-2017-2017-nov-06_en ) .

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https://ec.europa.eu/info/events/translatingeurope-forum-2017-2017-nov-06_en



When we think of translation, we do it with two ideas in mind: both as a process and as a product. They are two concepts which can often confuse people due to its polysemic nature. For Hatim and Mason (1995: 13), there is a significant importance, as they think that only the end product is eligible for assessment, and not the process which caused it, which are more related to the project management side rather than translation itself. In fact, this essential difference is the corner stone of project management.

However, quality standards for translation services which scope aimed at certification by companies conveyed the fact that processes must be audited. This was a change in industry as to the perception of translation only as a product or service. For this reason, there was a new focus on other professional profiles other than translator, necessary for the whole process. Technology also contributed to extend those profiles up today, and trends point at even more new language-related profiles. The following graph shows how language services were distributed according to CSA’s last report on language industry.

Service Market Share in Translation Industry (source: The Language Services Market: 2018, p. 19)

The main reference we can find for this is the ISO-17100 quality standard for translation services, which reads as follows regarding translators‘ competences:

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Translators‘ competences in ISO-17100 standard (source: ISO-2015)

To achieve these competences, the ISO-17100 standard states the following:

The TSP shall determine the translator’s qualifications to provide a service conforming to this International Standard by obtaining documented evidence that the translator fulfils at least one of the following criteria:

a) has obtained a degree in translation, linguistics or language studies or an equivalent degree that includes significant translation training, from a recognized institution of higher education;

b) has obtained a degree in any other field from a recognized institution of higher education and has the equivalent of two years of full-time professional experience in translating;

c) has the equivalent of five years of full-time professional experience in translating.

This standard, as well as its predecessor EN-15038, refers to translators in general terms, with no specialisation. For this reason, EU-funded eTransFair project has produced a competence card aiming at specialised translators. Trainers should use this competence card for this activity by surfing its website.

This effort has also been covered by other EU-funded projects such as Optimale, TransCert and Agorà among others, so all these could be a reliable source of information for this activity.

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Activity 4: CV and professional image for companies & freelancers


One of the main concerns of trainees when they are about to join the market is how to efficiently present their skills to potential employers or customers. In the case of freelancers, CV is the most usual tool in which all the competences, skills and experience are mentioned as some kind of a marketing tool.

CVs are an essential tool for translators, which means that it cannot be taken lightly.

Trainees are required the following for this activity:

Round 1 Look for CVs of professional translators in the Internet and download them. Each trainee will

download two CVs. Try to draw common points found in all the downloaded CVs by brainstorming. Try to find potential improvements in those points or in the found mistakes. Trainer will check all the trainers’ findings with his/her checklist. Trainer and trainees will reach an agreement of the elements a CV must have.

After this, the students will work on their own CVs and update them according to the previous conclusions.

Round 2A job posting is published with the following specifications:

The English/Spanish Translator/Linguist will be a member of the Customer Communications and Translations Services Team. This team's core objective is to improve customers' experiences with ABC Productions by ensuring that all translations are the result of a linguistic, contextual, and cultural analysis.

Translation Services Team provides consistent translations that are grammatically correct and contextually accurate. The Translator will be responsible to perform accurate and high-quality translations of Customer Communications. The desired candidate must thrive in a fast-paced environment. In addition to translation responsibilities, the person in this position will also play a critical role in maintaining strong controls on all translation projects from beginning to end as well as providing industry expertise to improve our internal translation processes.

Key Responsibilities: Execution of priority translations in support of Customer Communications, including different

types of documents. Conduct translations ensuring thorough quality control process that will result in consistent

and accurate translations. Edit, review, proofread internal and external translations. Ongoing management/usage of translation tools including: translation memory, term bases,

style guide, glossaries, CAT Tools, etc. Act as a subject matter expert in broader discussions about English and Spanish linguistic and

cultural specifications. Champion good communications best-practices, including message alignment across the

organization as well as internally and externally

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Champion translation process improvement initiatives; be innovative and proactive in finding ways to improve current processes to improve stakeholders’ experience

Liaise with process stakeholders on an ongoing basis to ensure process adherence Set and continually manage translation project expectations with team workflow manager Provide additional support in the production of internal resources (project descriptions, style

guides, training material, Third Party Provider guidelines, etc.) as needed or requested.

Qualifications: M. A. or B. A. Degree in related field: Translation, Linguistics, Applied Linguistics,

Communications, Editing. Native fluency: able to speak, read, and write fluently in English; near native fluency in

Spanish required. Capable of providing English to Spanish and Spanish to English written translations. Experience in financial, legal and marketing. Understands cultural context in Spanish content to provide relevant translation. Experience working with CAT tools preferred. Familiarity with the ‘translation-back translation’ accuracy quality check process. Detail Oriented. Must work well with a team of linguists, translators, content specialists, and other partners;

able to accept and provide peer review of translation work. Proficiency in Microsoft Office Suite (Word, Excel, PowerPoint), are required. Strong working knowledge and diversified experience in operations preferred. Strong oral and written communication skills and effective time-management, organizational,

and leadership competencies. Ability to exercise the skills necessary to identify situations that require attention and

resolution as well as recognition of issues requiring escalation to manager. 5 years of minimum experience required.

Taking all these requirements into account, trainees will create a mock CV customised to this job posting and attach a cover letter.

Trainees will exchange their CVs and letters with other students, who will assess the work.

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One of the main concerns of trainees when they are about to join the market is how to efficiently present their skills to potential employers or customers. In the case of freelancers, CV is the most usual tool in which all the competences, skills and experience are mentioned as some kind of a marketing tool.

Many things have been said about creating CV, but there is no de-facto standard format in translation industry. Any format can be valid, as the most important issue is content, which can also depend on the type of job we are interested in or we are applying for. The CV for a translation job may not be the same as for a reviser or project manager job, so we should be careful with this.

We should consider a CV as a live document which should be constantly updated and customised to specific needs. Trainer could use the following checklist for this activity in order to know the basic elements a CV should have:

Personal details: full name, birth date, full address, professional telephone (normally cellular) and electronic address.

Academic details: year of graduation, specific degree, master and/or post-graduation courses, etc.

Specific courses related to language industry which could have a special importance for the job.

Other academic details of interest: publications, thesis, etc. related to the job. Language combinations: there is no need to specify levels. If somebody says he/she is an

EN-FR translation, it is supposed that the level in that combination is really high and professional, with no nuances.

Other skills: revision, review, post-editing, interpreting, DTP, sub-titling, testing, software, engineering, etc.

Professional experience including jobs, period and company names.

We should understand the following list as a guideline, as some other elements could be there too when necessary. In addition, find below some recommendations which can help trainees when writing their CVs:

Do not worry very much about format, but content, though the format should be easily readable.

Try to make your CV fit in one or two pages at the latest for an easy reading. Highlight your strong features. Adapt them to the desired job. Make them clear, accurate and direct, without redundancies and superfluous statements. No typos nor spelling mistakes: language is our professional weapon!! Do not exaggerate nor lie… If your CV is not in your mother tongue, make sure that you have it revised by a native

speaker. Mention your professional association membership. Daily translated words: it is not a must, but it is an indication of your professionalism and

abilities. Many CV readers can be surprised to see it and can be a competitive advantage. Do not mention your translation prices: you can set them at a later stage. Miscellaneous: other non-professional activities which you could relate to the job, such as

leisure, sports, travels, etc.

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In some countries, a photo of the candidate could be welcome, but in others it is not at all. It will depend on the local codes.

In some countries, a motivation or cover letter is nearly compulsory (even handwritten in UK and France). Though it is not a must, it is recommended to attach it to the CV when necessary, as it can provide with some added-value information.

Social media and websites have been a revolution for job posting, so translators can use them to be present in the industry, but they must be extremely careful with their publications. Needless to say that this is directly related to digital marketing issues, which is not the core of this module, but it has to do with it. FaceBook, Twitter, Instagram or LinkedIn can be very efficient tools, but also a danger if they are not monitored in the right way. In fact, companies can use those media to stalk on candidates.

One of these platforms for translators is https://about.me/, where they can have a summarised CV on only one screen. This is a good exercise for trainees, as they must concentrate on the key issues to be shown in this shop window. In fact, trainees will work on a profile of https://about.me/ in the next activity.

Companies have the same needs a translator, but obviously they do not use CVs. Instead of creating them, they receive them… But they need to show the market their capacities and competitive advantages, so their presence on the Internet is essential. Thence, they massively use websites, social media and any other channel for visibility. The most professional media for companies is LinkedIn and FaceBook company pages. They are exposed to the same risks as the freelancers, so all this activity must be monitored and be consistent with company’s marketing and strategic policies.

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https://about.me/

https://about.me/


Activity 5: Professional image on social media


As we have seen in the previous activity, keeping a public professional profile on social media is extremely important. That profile must not clash the personal one, so they should be clearly differentiated.

Trainees will do the following: Enter the professional platform called https://about.me/ and explore it. It is a platform allowing professionals to insert their profile but limited to only one screen. Look for profiles of translators on that platform for reference. Create your own professional profile on that platform.

After creating the profiles, they will be assessed by trainer.

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https://about.me/



As we have seen in the previous activity, keeping a public professional profile on social media is extremely important. That profile must not clash the personal one, so they should be clearly differentiated.

There is a professional platform called https://about.me/ which can be a very good practical exercise for trainees, as the space for inserting information is limited to one screen, which involves a screening process by trainees to show what it is really important for that profile.

Trainees will write their own profile on that platform. It is strongly recommended for trainees to look for professional translator profiles in that platform for reference and inspiration.

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https://about.me/


Activity 6: Productivity


In activity 4 of this module, it was mentioned that some CVs can include the daily productivity rate of a translator. This can be a hint of professionalism in those CVs, so translators are recommended to mention it when possible. We should take into account that productivity is a key topic in translation industry these days in the sense that translators should try their best to make the most out of their work, and daily translation rate is essential for that.

This productivity increase can be reached by different ways: typewriting speed, deep knowledge of a specific topic or specialisation, use of CAT tools, use of macros or other applied technology, etc.

The activity will be as follows:

Trainer will deliver three different English texts with 200 words approximately each and with different levels of difficulty.

Trainees will have 20 minutes for translating each text. When they reach the 20 minutes, they will stop where they are and start to translate the next text, and so on. Translation will be done without any CAT tools.

Trainees will count the translated words in each text and use a proportion to know the final word count translated in 60 minutes (20 minutes x 3 texts). That way they will know their daily production rate.

For self-assessment of this activity, the reference of 2,500-3,000 words/day will be used, meaning the maximum mark of 10 points or 100%: e. g. if we take 2,500 words as the maximum mark, and we reach 250 words, the calculations will be as follows:

(2,500 words/day) / (8 hours/day) = 312.5 words/hour

312.5 words/hour = 10 points250 words/hour by trainee = 8 points.

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In activity 4 of this module, it was mentioned that some CVs can include the daily productivity rate of a translator. This can be a hint of professionalism in those CVs, so translators are recommended to mention it when possible. We should take into account that productivity is a key topic in translation industry these days in the sense that translators should try their best to make the most out of their work, and daily translation rate is essential for that.

This productivity increase can be reached by different ways: typewriting speed, deep knowledge of a specific topic or specialisation, use of CAT tools, use of macros or other applied technology, etc.

The main reference is the number of words translated per day. It is usual to ask trainees about their daily translation rate and they do not have any idea about it, or what is worse: they have not thought of that…

As a useful practical exercise, trainer will select three different English texts with 200 words each approximately and with different levels of difficulty. One of them could be a technical text; other could be a marketing text or a user’s manual text; the last one could be a text coming from the Internet. Trainer is free to select the texts he/she considers as most appropriate.

Trainees will have 20 minutes for translating each text. When they reach the 20 minutes, they will stop where they are and start to translate the next text, and so on. Translation will take place without any CAT tools.

Trainees will count the translated words in each text and use a proportion to know the final word count translated in 60 minutes (20 minutes x 3 texts). That way they will know their daily production rate.

For self-assessment of this activity, the reference of 2,500-3,000 words/day will be used, meaning the maximum mark of 10 points or 100%.

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UNIT 3: ORGANISATION, STRUCTURE AND BUSINESS MANAGEMENT SYSTEMS

Learning outcome

After completing this unit, trainees will understand the way companies work internally, as well as their structure and organisation to be able to provide their services. In addition, they will know how metrics are used to measure business objectives.

Learning context

Pre-requisitesTaking the two previous units of this module.

It is recommended to take the Project Management and Quality Management modules before or at least in parallel.



Time/Workload

420 minutes



1. Required functions in a company

Raising awareness of the minimum functions and departments required in a translation company

Raising awareness of the internal operation of a company

Presentation by trainer, who will present the main functions of a company and start a discussion about those functions

Not assessed,


60 minutes

2. Business plan & SWOT analysis

Discussion about how the strategies of a company are set with a business plan both at start-up and as a control mechanism

Raising awareness of the metrics companies take to develop and maintain business

Presentation by trainer

and practical exercises in group


120 minutes

3. Companies’ finances

Identification of the main items a budget should have

Raising awareness of the items of a budget and accounting control at start-up and normal

Presentation by trainer and practical individual work

Not assessed,

practical individual work

120 minutes

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operation

4. Business control: process indicators, KPIs & objectives

Activating knowledge on the companies’ metrics to measure their operations

Getting familiar with concepts of business intelligence

Presentation by trainer and practical exercise


120 minutes

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Activity 1: Required functions in a company


A company is an entity basically formed by people, aspirations, achievements, assets, and technical and financial abilities. All these features allow companies to focus on product manufacturing or transformation, or service delivery to meet the existing requirements and demand from society, aiming at having profits or being useful for society.

The company must clearly set where it is going to. It is a vital and priority question, as it will set objectives, strategies, organization and behaviour. Customers and the product or service they need are the corner stone of a company. What customer believes, sees, thinks and wishes must be an objective fact for the top management. Only by knowing customer’s reality, situation, behaviour, expectations and values, will we be able to determine what our company is.

Trainer will explain the different aspects to considered for a company, as well as the way companies structure their departments to meet all the requirements.

After trainer’s presentation, a discussion will start to speak about potential structures according to the size of the company and about which departments are always necessary in those structures and will propose a standard structure for a mid-sized company.

Finally, trainers will draw an organisation chart to represent that standard structure.

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A company is an entity basically formed by people, aspirations, achievements, assets, and technical and financial abilities. All these features allow companies to focus on product manufacturing or transformation, or service delivery to meet the existing requirements and demand from society, aiming at having profits or being useful for society.

The concept of company relies on the following principles: Create, develop and publish the company’s system to all stakeholders: dynamic interaction

and set objectives. Raise awareness that a company is a social organisation with rules, functions and people by

creating a working atmosphere. Manage duly each resource and asset of the company. Distribute positively the communication within the company. Encourage positive commitments.

The company must clearly set where it is going to. It is a vital and priority question, as it will set objectives, strategies, organization and behaviour. Customers and the product or service they need are the corner stone of a company. What customer believes, sees, thinks and wishes must be an objective fact for the top management. Only by knowing customer’s reality, situation, behaviour, expectations and values, will we be able to determine what our company is.

Taking all this and all the forces driving the company, we must study the theory of a translation company as envisaged by Beninatto and Johnson:

Core functions and the values they enable (source: Beninatto and Johnson, 2017: 11)

These diagram shows how a translation company’s management must take all the external influences in its internal structure into account. For Beninatto and Johnson (2017: 11) we have the following relationships:

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MANAGING DIRECTOR

FINANCE

QUALITY MANAGER

ADMIN PRODUCTION

PROJECT MANAGERS

TRANSLATORS

TRANSLATION TEAM

COORDINATORS

INTERNS

INTERNAL AUDITORS

REVISERS AND

REVIEWERS

TECHNOLOGY

APPLIED TECHNOLOGY SPECIALISTS

PROOFREADERS

SALES VENDOR MGMT.


Market influencers: industry forces leading to risk and opportunity. It is the external force from new entrants, suppliers, customers, substitutes and rivalry.

Support activities: create a framework to minimise risk and maximise opportunity to empower the Core Functions. They are formed by management, structure, culture, finance, facilities and human resources, technology and quality assurance.

Core functions: add value. These are the heart of a translation company: vendor management, project management and sales.

With these forces and relationships in mind, translation companies can organise their own structure according to the objectives, activities and functions they want to accomplish. For this reason, they can empower some functions more heavily than others without having a fixed pattern for all companies. In the following diagram, we can see the structure of a mid-sized certified translation company. The possibility of having some mixed functions should also be taken into account: e. g. instead of having one department for Administration and another one for Vendor Management, there could be only one covering both, or other combinations.

Organisational structure of a mid-sized certified company (source: Hermes Traducciones & Juan José Arevalillo)

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Activity 2: Business plan & SWOT analysis


One of the most important tools a company has in order to devise its strategies is the business plan, which is a written document extremely useful to analyse a business concept in depth and complies with the following functions:

Identify, describe and sum up the business idea as much as possible. Check technical, commercial and financial feasibility. Plan strategies to be followed, the necessary phases and the required resources to

convert that business idea into an operating company.

Trainer will explain its characteristics and components in a presentation.

Another tool used by companies is a SWOT (strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats) analysis, which is a framework for identifying and analysing the internal and external factors that can impact the feasibility of a project, product, place or person.

This analysis can be the starting point of a business plan or the result of it. If the former, it contains the guidelines the top management has thought of to be implemented in the company strategy, which will be developed more in detail in the business plan. If the latter, it is the result of the guidelines devised in the business plan. In any case this SWOT analysis can be updated too in parallel with the business plan.

In the following image a SWOT analysis is included. This analysis is an adaptation of a real case which aim was creating a new translation company association to replace an existing old association. There you can see the different areas featuring the internal and external origin of each area, and the identified positive and negative circumstances.

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Sample of a SWOT analysis (source: Hermes Traducciones and Juan José Arevalillo)

Based on the previous sample, trainees will create a SWOT analysis for a new translation company in your country. Trainees, with trainer’s guidance, will identify circumstances and conditions and place them in the right area of the chart (strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats). For this exercise, trainees can check some of the conclusion, facts and figures of their national market as developed in the previous units, taking the specific local characteristics of any type governing the existence of the company into account.

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Improvisation is not one of the recommended feature in business. Companies devise their strategies by means of different tools. One of the most important tools is the business plan, which is a written document extremely useful to analyse a business concept in depth and complies with the following functions:

Identify, describe and sum up the business idea as much as possible. Check technical, commercial and financial feasibility. Plan strategies to be followed, the necessary phases and the required resources to

convert that business idea into an operating company.

The goals of a business plan are as follows:

Assess the investment possibilities. Know the mission-critical aspects of production and market launch. Assess whether an economic initiative is sustainable along time. Be a core tool for decision-making, making alliances and, ultimately, being successful in

projects by means of real and relevant information.

A business plan usually has the following components:

Executive summary. Product description and distinctive value. Potential market. Competition. Business model and financial plan. Management team and organisation. Growth stage and implementation plan. Strategic alliances. Marketing and sales strategies. Main risks and exit strategies.

The business plan is a live document which can be updated as to guidelines and objectives after the period it covered has finished. In this case it is updated according to accomplishments, risks and other changes experienced by the company.

Another tool is a SWOT (strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats) analysis, which is a framework for identifying and analysing the internal and external factors that can impact the feasibility of a project, product, place or person.

This analysis can be the starting point of a business plan or the result of it. If the former, it contains the guidelines the top management has thought of to be implemented in the company strategy, which will be developed more in detail in the business plan. If the latter, it is the result of the guidelines devised in the business plan. In any case this SWOT analysis can be updated too in parallel with the business plan.

In the following image a SWOT analysis is included. This analysis is an adaptation of a real case which aim was creating a new translation company association to replace an existing old association. There you can see the different areas featuring the internal and external origin of each area.

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Sample of a SWOT analysis (source: Hermes Traducciones and Juan José Arevalillo)

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Activity 3: Companies’ finances


One of the most useful tools for company control is finance since it helps, as managers, add the most value to that company. When we think of the values of a company, quality of the offerings, company culture or staffing can come to our minds as some of the most conspicuous factors, but finance is always on the top, allowing us to be in business. In fact, finances are present in the whole life of a company: start-up, life of business and exit. Finance is essential to the survival of a business.

We strongly recommend trainees to read the article entitled “Finance for the Life of Your Language Services Business” (source: Williams, 2011) whose reference can be found in the bibliography for a better understanding of the business plan and finance.

In order to get familiar with finance processing in a translation company or in a company in general, trainees will be presented by trainer with some samples taken from Williams (2011) as a reference. After that, students will play the role of a finance manager and will estimate the costs of a company when starting-up and after it.

To proceed with that, trainees are provided with some samples below which represent the different items to be taken into account for start-up and maintenance, including income and costs. Trainees should use MS-Excel or a similar tool to replicate the following samples based on the quotation forms of a translation company. It is recommended that trainees should use formulas to automate some calculations, normally those marked with 0 €.

For this exercise, it is not necessary to build a real-world scenario, but use only mock figures. The ultimate goal of this exercise is for trainees to become familiar with a professional finance environment in a translation company. All these considerations can be also applied to freelancers, though some of the items could be optional or not used.

In the same way, trainees should try to interconnect with formulas the sheets they will work on so that they can take values from each other.

Sample of estimated sales template of a translation company (source: Hermes Traducciones).

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Sample of start-up costs template of a translation company (source: Hermes Traducciones).

Sample of business maintenance sales template of a translation company (source: Hermes Traducciones).

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Sample of income & cost statement of a translation company (source: Hermes Traducciones).

Once finished, trainer will check trainees’ output and assess them.

These templates have a practical goal, as they could be used by trainees in a future professional environment, where all those items must be taken into account, recorded and controlled.

For more information on concepts and terms related to finances, see the information at https:// www.investopedia.com and more particularly at:https://www.investopedia.com/terms/e/ebitda.asp or https://www.investopedia.com/terms/e/ebit.asp.

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https://www.investopedia.com/terms/e/ebit.asp

https://www.investopedia.com/terms/e/ebitda.asp

http://www.investopedia.com/



One of the most useful tools for company control is finance since it helps, as managers, add the most value to that company. When we think of the values of a company, quality of the offerings, company culture or staffing can come to our minds as some of the most conspicuous factors, but finance is always on the top, allowing us to be in business. In fact, finances are present in the whole life of a company: start-up, life of business and exit. Finance is essential to the survival of a business.

Normally, trainees are reluctant to work with finance, accounting and numbers, but, once in industry either as a company manager or as a freelancer, all this will be a constant in their professional lives. For this reason, it is necessary to get familiar with the way companies or translators can control their business. We strongly recommend trainees to read the article entitled “Finance for the Life of Your Language Services Business” (source: Williams, 2011) whose reference can be found in the bibliography for a better understanding of the business plan and finance. In the following images, you can find examples of how different aspects of business are covered:

Sample of sales forecast of a translation company (source: Williams, 2011).

Sample of start-up costs of a translation company (source: Williams, 2011).

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Sample of operating costs of a translation company (source: Williams, 2011).

Sample of cash flow statement of a translation company (source: Williams, 2011).

Sample of income statement of a translation company (source: Williams, 2011).

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All these tables show an example of the way income and costs are controlled in a translation company. The provided information is the essential basis for finance and top management to make informed decisions on strategies, buying policies, acquisitions, mergers, sales, marketing, outsourcing and many other activities.

Concepts such as EBITDA, EBIT, net income, interest, etc. are taken from this financial control mechanism. EBITDA (earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization) is an indicator of a company's financial performance and is used as a proxy for the earning potential of a business. Its formula is

EBITDA = Net Profit + Interest +Taxes + Depreciation + Amortization

EBIT (earnings before interest and taxes) is an indicator of a company's profitability too. It is possible to calculate it as revenue minus expenses, excluding tax and interest. EBIT is calculated as:

EBIT = Revenue - Operating Expensesor

EBIT = Net Income + Interest + Taxes

EBIT is also referred to as operating earnings, operating profit, and profit before interest and taxes.

For more information on these and other terms, see:https://www.investopedia.com/terms/e/ebitda.asp or https://www.investopedia.com/terms/e/ebit.asp.

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https://www.investopedia.com/terms/e/ebit.asp



Activity 4: Business control: process indicators, KPIs & objectives


In the previous units we can see how a company declares specific objectives which should be faced in its operations. Reaching these objectives means the survival of the company, as these are usually of many types: financial, commercial, operating, quality and the like.

If companies are certified to a quality standard -and even if they are not-, they must have a quality system in place. When we refer to a quality system, it is indeed a management system.

Trainer will present trainees how quality management systems work in translation companies, focusing on objectives and KPIs.

Objectives are measured with KPIs, which can be explained as follows:

They are financial and non-financial metrics, used for quantifying objectives reflecting the performance of an organisation and which in general are included in the strategic plan.

They are used in business intelligence to prescribe a line of future action. Using indicators are really the only useful link between generated reports and business

objectives. When analysing KPIs, they are metrics clearly describing the performance of a process, so

they should be intimately linked to company’s objectives.

For this activity, trainees will think of 10 KPIs of a translation company. Trainer will assess the KPIs delivered by trainees.

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In the previous units we can see how a company declares specific objectives which should be faced in its operations. Reaching these objectives means the survival of the company, as these are usually of many types: financial, commercial, operating, quality and the like.

If companies are certified to a quality standard -and even if they are not-, they must have a quality system in place. When we refer to a quality system, it is indeed a management system.

A management system is a proven structure for the on-going management and improvement of policies, procedures and processes of an organisation. These points should be considered when we talk about a management system:

Companies work as complete units with a shared view. Companies have shared information, comparative evaluations, teamwork and an operation

consistent with the most stringent quality principles and the environment. A management system helps achieve objectives of an organisation through strategies,

including process optimisation, management-centred approach and disciplined thought.

For these reasons, a business management system is actually considered as a quality management system. For a mid-sized company, it is imperative to count on a management system to face such so many challenges. The following chart shows many of those challenges and how they are all inter-related:

Challenges faced by a company (source: Juan José Arevalillo)

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If a company is unaware of this scenario and has not a system capable of meeting these needs, it is in jeopardy. To cover all this, companies use performance management systems (PMS2). The keys for a PMS are the following:

Fundamental for the so-called Business Intelligence: a set of strategies focussed on administering and creating knowledge on the environment through the existing data analysis in an organisation or company, which could also be related to Big Data.

Fundamental for general and strategic decision-making as objectively as possible. Fundamental to set a company’s objectives.

The steps for a PMS are as follows:

1. Clear definition of personal and general objectives according to selected processes.2. Definition of Key Performance Indicators (KPI) linked to the activities of those processes.3. Definition of the objective values of each indicator and the minimum thresholds.4. Identification of manual, automatic and semi-automatic data sources for registration.5. Monitoring of the values of indicators.6. Establishment of compensations.

In Project Management e-module trainees could check how a company counts on a structure depicted in its process map to cover all the necessary strategic, operating, support and quality procedures. The following image shows how a PMS is integrated into all those procedures, providing registers, data and other vital information so that objective accomplishment can be monitored:

PMS integrated into the process map of a translation company (source: Hermes Traducciones & Juan José Arevalillo)

Objectives are measured with KPIs, which can be explained as follows:2 In translation industry this acronym can also be found to refer to (translation) project management systems which could appear as (T)PMS acronym.

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They are financial and non-financial metrics, used for quantifying objectives reflecting the performance of an organisation and which in general are included in the strategic plan.

They are used in business intelligence to prescribe a line of future action. Using indicators are really the only useful link between generated reports and business

objectives. When analysing KPIs, they are metrics clearly describing the performance of a process, so

they should be intimately linked to company’s objectives.

Those objectives are set, measured and reset in a continuum, restarting the cycle with new and updated values for an on-going quality improvement, as shown below in the so-called Deming Cycle or PDCA Circle:

Deming/PDCA Circle (source: https://www.researchgate.net/figure/Deming-cycle-PDCA-cycle_fig1_282425842)

Those objectives should preferably comply with the features of the SMART model:

Specific Measurable Attainable Realistic Timely

As we said, those business-related KPIs can be related to objectives. In fact, a company should not have a huge number of objectives to be able to concentrate on them, but the number of KPIs can be higher as pure process indicators. In fact, one objective could be formed by a group of selected, vital KPIs as considered by top management. Even, in some contexts KPIs are used as synonyms of objectives.

For instance, a company could set the following KPIs:

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• Business• Global turnover growth to 32%.• Turnover growth in all the business units in 10%.• Profitability percentage 5% increase by business unit.

• Customers• Reaching 9 points out of 10 en annual customer satisfaction survey.• Higher number of dealers than previous year.• Higher number of customers per area than previous year.• Customer retention percentage of 90%.

• Operating• Defining a governance pattern (difficult to measure).• Being certified to ISO-17100 standard.• 85% of approved quotations.

• Human resources team• Performance assessment system: individual and collective objectives, aptitude and attitude

objectives, development, etc.• Staff churn percentage lower than 5%.

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UNIT 4: ETHICS, GOOD PRACTICES, STANDARDISATION & PROJECT ESTIMATION

Learning outcome

After completing this unit, trainees will be able to identify the ethical codes typical in translation industry, as well as the recommended best practices and project estimation.

Learning context

Pre-requisites

Having a general overview of professional translation industry as in the previous units.

It is recommended to take the Project Management module before or at least in parallel, specifically activity 6 in unit 2.



Time/Workload

240 minutes


Title Description Rationale/goalType of activity

AssessmentEstimated timeframe

1. Ethic codes in translation industry

Identification and discussion about existing ethic codes in translation industry

Raising awareness of existing ethic codes recommended by professional associations

Presentation by trainer and info-mining on existing ethic codes related to translation practices

Not assessed,


60 minutes

2. Main issues related to good practices in translation industry

Identification of the main issues translation industry has to deal with related to good practices

Raising awareness of good practices in translation industry


Not assessed

60 minutes

3. Benchmarking: good & bad practices in translation industry

Knowledge of benchmarking as used in translation industry

Raising awareness of how benchmarking can be used in translation industry both as good or bad practices


Not assessed

30 minutes

4. Pricing in translation industry

Recommendations to calculate translation rates

Knowing how to calculate translation rate per hour and

Practical exercise

Hetero-assessment

90 minutes

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per hour and word word for translators

Activity 1: Ethic codes in translation industry


Most professional associations in translation industry have their own code of conduct to be adhered to by their members, so it is a commonplace in this industry both for companies and translators.

Trainer will present the general concepts existing in those code of conducts.

Based on all this, we can see that most professional associations count on a code of conduct their members must adhere to, as in the list below:

https://www.gala-global.org/membership/gala-member-code-conduct-and-non-disclosure-agreementhttp://www.fit-europe.org/en/what-we-do/completed-projects/codes-ethicshttp://atanet.org/governance/code_of_ethics.phphttp://elia-association.org/download/elia-code-of-professional-conduct-and-business-practices/

Trainees will check these codes of conduct and some others they could find at a national level and will mention the common features among them as their info-mining conclusions.

Finally, trainer will comment on those conclusions and compare them to the list he/she has.

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http://elia-association.org/download/elia-code-of-professional-conduct-and-business-practices/

http://atanet.org/governance/code_of_ethics.php

http://www.fit-europe.org/en/what-we-do/completed-projects/codes-ethics

https://www.gala-global.org/membership/gala-member-code-conduct-and-non-disclosure-agreement



When we refer to ethics, we could do it in a very general way, so it is important to define ethics.

Webster (https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/ethics): 1. The discipline dealing with what is good and bad and with moral duty and obligation.2. A set of moral principles: a theory or system of moral values.3. The principles of conduct governing an individual or a group.

Oxford (https://en.oxforddictionaries.com/definition/ethics): 1. Moral principles that govern a person’s behaviour or the conducting of an activity.2. The branch of knowledge that deals with moral principles.

We can see in these definitions the common denominators of conduct, moral principles and govern. From here we could set the following ethic values:

integrity, transparency, responsibility, security.

And out of them, we can also set the following set of professional values: rigour, independence, leadership, loyalty, orientation to objectives, orientation to customer, innovation, co-operation, proper use of resources.

Based on all this, we can see that most professional associations count on a code of conduct their members must adhere to, as in the list below:

https://www.gala-global.org/membership/gala-member-code-conduct-and-non-disclosure-agreementhttp://www.fit-europe.org/en/what-we-do/completed-projects/codes-ethicshttp://atanet.org/governance/code_of_ethics.phphttp://elia-association.org/download/elia-code-of-professional-conduct-and-business-practices/

In some cases, that code of conduct gave rise to the appearance of standards, as it happened with EUATC’s first code of conduct, which was the origin of the European Standard for Translation Services EN-15038, which read as follows:

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https://en.oxforddictionaries.com/definition/ethics

https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/ethics


Sample Basic Code of Conduct of an Association Member of EUATC1. Member companies shall only deliver jobs to their customers that have been carried out by

competent professionals. 2. Member companies shall revise/review their translations before delivering them to the

customer. 3. Member companies shall apply the quality control systems approved by the Association.4. Member companies shall take out a professional civil liability insurance policy for coverage as

recommended by the Association with regard to possible errors or omissions in translations. 5. Member companies shall safeguard the confidentiality of current and former customers and

shall not disclose or use confidential information to the prejudice or detriment of said customers or for the financial benefit of the member company.

6. Member companies shall not unjustifiably criticise the translations of other companies or translators to attract customers.

7. Member companies are under the general obligation to engage in fair and reasonable trading practices as regards their current or former customers, other member companies, other members of the profession and the public in general.

8. Member companies shall not include claims that are misleading or cannot be demonstrated in their advertising and promotional material.

9. Member companies shall not engage in practices or behaviour that are detrimental to the reputation or the interests of the Association.

10. In the event of a disagreement between customers and member companies, the latter must agree to act according to the decision issued by the Governing Board of the Association or the Arbitration Panel to which the matter is referred.

To sum up, a code of conduct in translation industry has the following common features: ensure open and appropriate communication between members; perform collaborative services with experienced professionals able to provide quality work; ensure that translation work is performed only by qualified translators translating only into their

mother tongue; have and/or make available the necessary technical and logistical infrastructure to fulfil each

task as outlined in the joint project; adhere to the quality standards and processes defined by the industry; meet all deadlines as defined in project schedules and agreed between the parties; respect the terms and conditions agreed between the members participating in a joint project; guarantee that all project-related materials remain strictly confidential; give the customer all the assistance and service; respect and implement all decisions made by the association that may affect the code of

conduct.

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Activity 2: Main issues related to good practices in translation industry


The codes of conduct covered in the activity 1 of this unit have many commonplaces as to ethics and behaviour of translators and companies individually and as a whole.

Trainer will present those commonplaces organised according to the following list explaining specific real examples in each category:

Profession undermining and professional solidarity. Unfair competition and inadequate conditions. Low translation fees and rates. Acceptance of non-realistic translation projects in terms of quality. Competence in source and target languages. Specialisation. Confidentiality and non-concurrence. Responsibility of translations and professional insurance. Property of translations and memories. Arbitration in conflicts. Relationship among other professionals.

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The codes of conduct covered in the activity 1 of this unit have many commonplaces as to ethics and behaviour of translators and companies individually and as a whole.

We can sum up the following main issues related to ethics in translation industry: Profession undermining and professional solidarity. Unfair competition and inadequate conditions. Low translation fees and rates. Acceptance of non-realistic translation projects in terms of quality. Competence in source and target languages. Specialisation. Confidentiality and non-concurrence. Responsibility of translations and professional insurance. Property of translations and memories. Arbitration in conflicts. Relationship among other professionals.

Let’s have a look at some cases dealing with each category proposed by Hermes Traducciones:

Profession undermining Services which do not follow industry’s good practices: no revision by a professional other

than the translator(s). Non-paid internships. Use of interns as massive labour resources: for instance, more than 10% of the total in-

house staff. Use resources that are not really professional and that only speak a certain language without

a real profile.

Profession Solidarity Do not accept abusive working conditions. When outsourcing to another TSP, appropriate contractual conditions shall be guaranteed. No unjustified change in the contractual conditions shall take place in the terms of payment,

rates or delivery times. Do not criticise other TSPs to attract customers.

Unloyal Competition & Low Rates Prices/rates well below the standard. Prices offered to customers without calculating your real costs. Benchmarking techniques by simulating fake translation requests in massive emails to

translation companies… Unpaid crowd-sourcing translation.

Acceptance of non-realistic projects in terms of quality Improvisation of translation processes. Crazy turnaround times. Formats not supported by TSP. The management of NO…

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Specialisation Do not accept projects of specific fields unless it is revised and/or reviewed by a real domain

specialist. Revision: bilingual checking of translation to comply with correctness of translation,

grammar, style, spelling, format, etc. Review: monolingual checking of text by a domain specialist. The typical way of losing a customer…

Confidentiality and non-concurrence The TSP must refrain from revealing confidential information to third parties or otherwise

using same while or after collaborating with other TSPs. The TSP is under the obligation to keep professional secret while collaborating with other

TSPs or professionals. Any development by an employed translator remains the property of the employer, unless

otherwise agreed. An employed translator must/should not work for other TSPs, unlike freelancers that do not

have those restrictions unless otherwise agreed.

A real conflict dealing with confidentiality:1. The translation company TSP1 outsources a translation required by CUSTOMER1 to

the freelancer TSP2.2. TSP2 starts the translation and have some doubts when translating. Instead of asking

TSP1, on his/her own she goes to a public forum called XYZ.COM and enters his/her query…

3. On the query text the name of CUSTOMER1 is included.4. CUSTOMER1 has a series of engines checking at any moment if their name appears

at places where it should not.5. CUSTOMER1 discovers that the text in question belongs to a text delivered to TSP1

for translation.6. CUSTOMER1 sues TSP1 for revealing confidential text of a product not marketed yet.7. TSP1 goes against TSP2 for that breach.8. TSP2 had signed a contract with TSP1 in which it was expressly mentioned that

he/she could not reveal any details of that project without customer’s prior consent.9. The result…10. TSP2 had to pay a fine of €30,000…

Responsibility of translations & professional insurance The TSP delivering a translation service is responsible for that service, as stated in

ISO-17100 standard. If there is an outsourcing chain, the responsibility keeps the same among the respective

customer and provider. A professional liability insurance covers the risks of legal claims arisen from bad translations

or services. The policy of those insurance services should normally cover at least the annual turnover of

previous business year.

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Property of Translations and Memories The legal owner of the translation is always the requester, provided that the translation

service is paid. For this reason, translation memories belong to customer as a principle, but there is a lot of

controversy about it in the industry. If service is required with the use of a translation memory, the memory should belong to the

requester. If service is required without the use of a translation memory and the TSP uses one, the

memory remains the property of the TSP. BUT there are some laws and case law on databases which could be applied… MLVs and big customers have developed cloud-based applications so that TSPs work

real-time with a memory on MLV’s premises. That way, the memory is always on the servers of end customers.

Arbitration in Conflicts In the case of serious conflicts in translations, most professional industry associations offer

arbitration services for the involved parties.

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Activity 3: Benchmarking: good & bad practices in translation industry


Benchmarking is a common technique in any industry to gather information about competition or own performance.

Planners sometimes become too comfortable with the way things are going and overconfident that the past is a good indicator of the future. It is often better to keep challenging the status quo and not simply accept things as they are. One way to do this is through benchmarking, namely, the use of external and internal comparisons to better evaluate one’s current performance and identify possible ways to improve for the future.

So, we can consider benchmarking as a good practice, provided that it is a process through which information is compiled and new ideas emerge, by comparing a company’s metrics with the ones of industry leaders or competitors. So far, so good…

But this practice can have a dark side too, if used as a hidden tool to obtain information on prices and procedures forgetting about ethics, so that the cheating company can send customers of the benchmarked company a cheaper offer...

Trainer will present trainees different examples of benchmarking as good and bad practices, so that trainees can know and understand some bright and dark day-to-day processes of translation industry.

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Benchmarking is a common technique in any industry to gather information about competition or own performance. If we look up in dictionaries, we can see the following definitions for benchmark:

https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/benchmarkinga. Something that serves as a standard by which others may be measured or judged.b. a point of reference from which measurements may be made.c. a standardized problem or test that serves as a basis for evaluation or comparison (as of

computer system performance).

https://en.oxforddictionaries.com/definition/benchmarka. A standard or point of reference against which things may be compared.b. A test designed to evaluate or compare the performance of computer hardware or software.

From these definitions we can deduct that it serves as a reference for companies.

Planners sometimes become too comfortable with the way things are going and overconfident that the past is a good indicator of the future. It is often better to keep challenging the status quo and not simply accept things as they are. One way to do this is through benchmarking, namely, the use of external and internal comparisons to better evaluate one’s current performance and identify possible ways to improve for the future.

The purpose of benchmarking is to find out what other people and organisations are doing very well, and then plan how to incorporate these ideas into one’s own operations. One benchmarking technique is to search for best practices —things people and organisations do which help them achieve superior performance. Well-run organisations emphasise internal benchmarking that encourages all members and work units to learn and improve by sharing on another’s best practices. They also use external benchmarking to learn from competitors and non-competitors alike.

So, we can consider benchmarking as a good practice, provided that it is a process through which information is compiled and new ideas emerge, by comparing a company’s metrics with the ones of industry leaders or competitors. So far, so good…

In the following image there is a real example of a benchmarking developed by a company to know its position in the industry:

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https://en.oxforddictionaries.com/definition/benchmark

https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/benchmarking


Sample of a benchmarking of a translation company (source: Juan José Arevalillo)

But this practice can have a dark side too, if used as a hidden tool to obtain information on prices and procedures forgetting about ethics, so that the cheating company can send customers of the benchmarked company a cheaper offer...

These are some characteristics of a fishy benchmarking: Emails simultaneously sent to massive translation companies in the industry. Email sent from free individual email accounts o from a friend working on other industry. Requesting translation fees and prices for a big number of languages. Fictitious decoy with sample files which have been used in other projects or taken from the

Internet. Requesting information on company’s procedures. Unclear answers to questions or queries from the email message recipients. Possible spelling mistakes and errors in the text. Etc.

Now we are showing a real email (we have changed some personal details) received by a group of translation companies. One of the recipients of this message replied to the sender providing the required details. One week later one of the customers of the recipient who replied received an offer from the sender with lower rates than the ones offered by the recipient. After 10 years of work with the recipient, the customer decided to start working with the sender…

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From: [email protected]

Sent on: Tuesday, 6th July 2017 15:25

To: undisclosed recipients

Subject: Translation to several languages

Good afternoon,

I am writing to you to request you a quotation of the attached document that I need to translate into different languages.

The languages in question are: English, French, Italian, Portuguese (Portugal and Brasil), German Russian, Bulgarian, Chinese, Corean and Japanese.

Thanks in advance!

Regards,

Cris

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mailto:[email protected]


Activity 4: Pricing in translation industry


As we have seen in activity 3, pricing is one of the most sensitive topics in translation industry. If you enter a translator forum, you will notice that it is a recursive topic with many opinions, but usually without mentioning any figures, only recommendations. In fact, mentioning minimum prices as a recommendation can be a legal issue and run against anti-trust policies. There are examples of fines to associations which publish a list of minimum prices.

In any case, one of the very first things a new translator will have to do is creating their own rates per word and hour so that he/she can use it for their language services. For this purpose, translators look for information in forums and social media, but the information can be misguiding with lower or even higher prices than translators could expect in exchange of their services.

It is the translator that must analyse his/her own circumstances and financial needs to balance it with his/her pricing.

The exercise of this activity aims at providing a tool for future translators so that they can estimate their own prices without any external influences. The first step is knowing the difference between cost and price/fee, namely:

• Cost: the amount of money internally incurred in delivering the project, namely, translation, revision and management (these three must be always calculated), and other additional services which customers could additionally request.

• Price/fee: the amount of money quoted/invoiced to customer for delivering the services based on a price per word and per hour.

A translator has a series of costs to be active in translation industry. In activity 3 of unit 3, trainees worked with cost categories. For this exercise, trainees should estimate the monthly costs they have to be in the market based on those categories and also add the personal costs he/she has to cover, such as leisure, food, transport and any other items not related to business which have to be covered to survive every month with the money earned in business. We will call this operating/survival costs.

Therefore, trainees will estimate this monthly cost in any category and have a total monthly cost. Then to convert to a cost per word and hour, the following parameters should be considered:

Cost per word: estimate how many words he/she can translated every day, following market standards (normally 2,500-3,000 words/day) and set the number of working days in a month (normally 20-22 days/month).

Cost per hour: estimate how many hours and days he/she works. They will normally be 8 hours a day and 5 days a week.

To calculate those prices, trainees should follow these guidelines:

Cost per word: divide the monthly operating/survival costs by the number of monthly translated words.

Cost per hour: divide the monthly operating/survival costs by the number of monthly working days.

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Once the translator has obtained these costs per word and hour, setting the price for both of them is very simple: he/she only has to add his/her margin with a percentage over the costs.

The costs will mark the minimum threshold translators can use for their services, and prices can vary according to the fact that they work with direct customers or with other translation companies and the like. It is the translator that decides how variable they can be according to his/her needs and customers.

It is also the translator that decides what values to use for these estimations, taking holidays and week-ends into account. In this case guidelines are focussed on a monthly estimation using daily values, but it is also possible to calculate all this cost on a yearly or simply daily basis, which results will be virtually the same. In the case of a yearly estimation a more accurate estimation is required, though. In this exercise trainees should focus on a theoretical, simpler analysis based on a monthly production. If trainees want to go deeper in this, they can visit the site of the Spanish translators association at https://asetrad.org/preguntas-frecuentes/cuanto-cobro, where they will find a free Excel-based tool which will help them set their fees with much more detail, taking into account all possible variables and oriented at a real-world professional scenario.

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https://asetrad.org/preguntas-frecuentes/cuanto-cobro



As we have seen in activity 3, pricing is one of the most sensitive topics in translation industry. If you enter a translator forum, you will notice that it is a recursive topic with many opinions, but usually without mentioning any figures, only recommendations. In fact, mentioning minimum prices as a recommendation can be a legal issue and run against anti-trust policies. There are examples of fines to associations which publish a list of minimum prices.

In any case, one of the very first things a new translator will have to do is creating their own rates per word and hour so that he/she can use it for their language services. For this purpose, translators look for information in forums and social media, but the information can be misguiding with lower or even higher prices than translators could expect in exchange of their services.

It is the translator that must analyse his/her own circumstances and financial needs to balance it with his/her pricing.

The exercise of this activity aims at providing a tool for future translators so that they can estimate their own prices without any external influences. The first step is knowing the difference between cost and price/fee, namely:

• Cost: the amount of money internally incurred in delivering the project, namely, translation, revision and management (these three must be always calculated), and other additional services which customers could additionally request.

• Price/fee: the amount of money quoted/invoiced to customer for delivering the services based on a price per word and per hour.

A translator has a series of costs to be active in translation industry. In activity 3 of unit 3, trainees worked with cost categories. For this exercise, trainees should estimate the monthly costs they have to be in the market based on those categories and also add the personal costs he/she has to cover, such as leisure, food, transport and any other items not related to business which have to be covered to survive every month with the money earned in business. We will call this operating/survival costs.

Therefore, trainees will estimate this monthly cost in any category and have a total monthly cost. Then to convert to a cost per word and hour, the following parameters should be considered:

Cost per word: estimate how many words he/she can translated every day, following market standards (normally 2,500-3,000 words/day) and set the number of working days in a month (normally 20-22 days/month).

Cost per hour: estimate how many hours and days he/she works. They will normally be 8 hours a day and 5 days a week.

To calculate those prices, trainees should follow these guidelines:

Cost per word: divide the monthly operating/survival costs by the number of monthly translated words.

Cost per hour: divide the monthly operating/survival costs by the number of monthly working days.

68


Once the translator has obtained these costs per word and hour, setting the price for both of them is very simple: he/she only has to add his/her margin with a percentage over the costs.

The costs will mark the minimum threshold translators can use for their services, and prices can vary according to the fact that they work with direct customers or with other translation companies and the like. It is the translator that decides how variable they can be according to his/her needs and customers.

It is the translator that decides what values to use for these estimations, taking holidays and week-ends into account. In this case guidelines are focussed on a monthly estimation using daily values, but it is also possible to calculate all this cost on a yearly or simply daily basis, which results will be virtually the same. In the case of a yearly estimation a more accurate estimation is required, though. In this exercise trainees should focus on a theoretical, simpler analysis based on a monthly production. If trainees want to go deeper in this, they can visit the site of the Spanish translators association at https://asetrad.org/preguntas-frecuentes/cuanto-cobro, where they will find a free Excel-based tool which will help them set their fees with much more detail, taking into account all possible variables and oriented at a real-world professional scenario.

Example of word/hour cost and price

The following example should be used by trainer as a guide for the exercises he/she will have to check and assess. Let’s suppose the following:

Monthly cost: 1,800 €. Daily translated words: 2,500 words. Hours per day: 8 hours. Working days per month: 20 days. Margin for price: 150%.

Cost per word 1,800 € / (2,500 words x 20 days) = 0.036 €

Cost per hour 1,800 € / (8 hours/day x 20 days) = 11.25 €

Both individual costs will be the minimum threshold under which translators should not set a price. Otherwise, they would be losing money. From there up, they can use the price matching their needs.

Price per word Margin of 150% over cost per word: 0.036 € + (0.036 € x 150 / 100) = 0.036 € + 0.054 = 0.09 €

Price per hour Margin of 150% over cost per hour: 11.25 € + (11.25 € x 150 / 100) = 11.25 € + 16.88 € = 28.13 €

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AREVALILLO, J. J. (2012). “La traducción automática en las empresas de traducción”. Revista Tradumàtica, no. 10, December 2012. 179-184. <http://revistes.uab.cat/tradumatica/article/view/n10-arevalillo-doval/pdf>.

ASETRAD, Asociación Española de Traductores, Correctores e Intérpretes. <http://www.asetrad.org/index.asp?op=9>.

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BONTHRONE, ROBIN (1998): «The Quality Wars. Barbarians at the Gate: The Abuse of 'Translation Quality' in Europe», Language International, vol. 10, n.º 2, 12-15.

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CEN (2006): EN-15038 - Translation Services – Service requirements. Brussels: CEN.

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<https://www.euatc.org/industry-surveys/item/447-2017-language-industry-survey-report-is-available-

for-network-members>.



<https://www.euatc.org/industry-surveys/item/403-2016-european-language-industry-survey-report>.

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FIT, Fédération Internationale des Traducteurs. Translator’s Charter. <http://www.fit-ift.org/translators-charter/>.

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ISO (2005): ISO-2005: Quality Management Systems – Fundamentals and Vocabulary. Geneva: ISO.

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d2e77cfa1841>.

MORENO, M. 2014. El gran libro del community manager. Barcelona: Grupo Planeta.

NOGUEIRA, D. (1998). “The Business of Translating”. Translation Journal, vol. 2, n. 4, October 1998. <http://translationjournal.net/journal/06xlat1.htm>.

RICO PÉREZ, C. & GARCÍA ARAGÓN, Á. (2016). Análisis del sector de la traducción en España (2014-2015). <http://abacus.universidadeuropea.es/handle/11268/5057>.

ROMAINE, M. & RICHARDSON, J. (2009) State of the Translation Industry 2009 Smarter, more casual. <https://workfortranslators.files.wordpress.com/2009/10/mygengo_state_of_translation_industry_2009.pdf>.

WILLIAMS, M. (2011). “Finance for the Life of Your Language Services Business”. ATA Chronicle, vol. XL, n. 4. Alexandria: American Translators Association. 24-29.

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LINKShttp://atanet.org/



http://www.aneti.es

http://www.asproset.com/


http://www.fit-ift.org/

http://www.redvertice.org/

https://about.me/

https://asetrad.org/



https://en.oxforddictionaries.com

https://etransfair.eu/



https://www.euatc.org



https://www.iti.org.uk/

https://www.merriam-webster.com

https://www.researchgate.net/figure/Deming-cycle-PDCA-cycle_fig1_282425842

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https://www.researchgate.net/figure/Deming-cycle-PDCA-cycle_fig1_282425842

https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/benchmarking

https://www.iti.org.uk/



https://www.euatc.org/




https://etransfair.eu/

https://en.oxforddictionaries.com/definition/benchmark



https://asetrad.org/

https://about.me/

http://www.redvertice.org/

http://www.fit-ift.org/


http://www.asproset.com/

http://www.aneti.es/



http://atanet.org/

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