Professional Translation Services: Hiring and Retaining the Best Professional Certified Human Translators
By: L. Amado – 01/22/2010
As is the case with any business the most valuable resource in any professional translation service company is its people.
A professional translation service company can spend a fortune in the latest computers, professional translation software and translation memory management tools and it all would go to waste if those tools are not manned by professional translators.
Much in the same way, a professional translation service company can have in place professional translation and language quality assurance processes which look great on paper and they will still have little or no impact in the professional document translation process if the people in charge of putting them into practice are not up to the task.
Professional translation services companies must strive to hire and retain highly qualified certified professional translators and reviewers with experience in the field and who are highly motivated. It is also important to point out that ideally, in order to assure the highest quality of professional document translations, professional certified translators and reviewers/proofreaders should be native speakers of the target language and highly proficient in the source language in question.
Some professional translation service companies choose to work with the linguistics and related departments of universities, colleges and other higher education organizations in the places where they conduct their business for a better chance at catching the best talents.
Most professional translation service companies develop and maintain professional translator networks and databases to have in hand a readily available pool of highly motivated and professional language translation specialists. Professional certified translators and linguists may then be categorized by field of expertise, level of experience and internal professional translation Quality Assurance results.
Emphasis should be on hiring and retaining professional certified translators but also on providing and encouraging training and specialization whenever possible. Languages are living, breathing organisms and terminology changes very rapidly, particularly in highly specialized technical domains.
Professional translation service companies such as Legal Translation Solutions and its parent company, ASTA-USA Translation Services, Inc., understand that the single most important factor for success is their human resources and that it is impossible to consistently provide high-quality professional translation services without a readily available pool of highly motivated professional certified translators and linguistic experts.