In the late 1990s at Jungle Laboratories, close to 15 percent of its workers were Spanish-speaking with limited English-language skills. The company president, Buddy Johnson, noticed that this group of employees communicated almost solely in Spanish with each other. He had three concerns.

First was safety: not being able to communicate is dangerous when working with machinery with moving parts. The second concern was productivity: training suffered from the language barrier. The third was the culture of the company.

Johnson wanted a workplace whose policies and corporate culture fostered camaraderie. He also wanted a family atmosphere, which required communication among employees. He decided the best way to achieve this was to provide on-site English language classes, free of charge during the workday. Employees participated in the program voluntarily by attending classes two hours twice a week.

One employee felt it was a great opportunity for them, but it also showed that the management cared about them. Without this kind of training, workers who lack English proficiency have a tougher time finding jobs.

Jungle Laboratories no longer offers on-site classes, but now pays for English language training through their tuition reimbursement program.