Here you are, you have done it! You have finalized your content and your translation budget is approved, but when you call your language service provider to set up a project you hear that your dedicated translation team is not available – they’re out on holiday.
Anyone who interacts regularly with international business partners is familiar with the feeling – the rest of the world seems to have far more holidays and vacation time than the United States. In comparison to the 5 -15 paid vacation days and 8 holidays many Americans have, Western Europeans average 30-38 days of paid leave (public holidays plus paid days off work).
Just as US business pretty much comes to a halt over the Thanksgiving and Christmas holidays, other countries have similar periods where it’s all but impossible to reach business associates. China and Japan celebrate Golden Week, during which millions of people travel cross-country to gather with their families. Life in Israel and the Jewish community focuses on multiple high holidays every autumn. As a nation, the French take les grands vacances in July and August, and Western Europe celebrates a much longer Easter holiday than in the US. Commerce generally slows down or grinds to a halt during these periods.
The most common business model in the translation industry revolves around the use of translators who reside in their native countries and these translators obviously want to observe national holidays and go on vacation like the rest of their neighbors. In addition, many of them are freelancers and arrange their work so that they can take even longer vacations and breaks.
SO HOW CAN YOU ENSURE THAT YOUR DEDICATED TEAM OF TRANSLATORS WILL BE AVAILABLE WHEN YOU NEED THEM?
Being aware of when your international business partners’ national holidays are is an important first step. Many global corporations have internal systems for notifying employees about global operation closures. You can also expect your language service provider to keep an up-to-date overview of the availability of your translation resources. But the most important way to ensure the availability of your dedicated translators is to involve your language service provider in long-term project planning and provide adequate advance notice of upcoming projects. This will secure the availability of your dedicated translators despite vacation or holiday schedules and if necessary allow your language service provider to put trained backup resources in place to meet your schedule. This is especially important for projects that overlap extended holiday periods and for critical translations with regulated short turnaround times, for example, the translation of adverse medical event reports for ongoing clinical trials.
To ensure that our clients do not experience delays in project turnaround for their time-sensitive projects, Ingenuiti maintains project managers and translators on call over holiday periods to meet specific client needs and requirements.
We look forward to working with you to make vacations and holidays restful and relaxing – for everyone involved in your translation projects!
