The Ontario College of Social Workers and Social Service Workers (OCSWSSW) is the provincial regulator for social work and social service work professions. Their core mandate is the protection of the public by ensuring that registrants uphold high standards of ethics, competence, and professionalism. Multilingual communication is critical because all external materials, including website content and newsletters, must have French equivalents due to legislative requirements.
The Challenge: Administrative Burden and Inconsistency
Before partnering with us, OCSWSSW managed their translation requirements using a roster of freelance translators. While this roster provided the necessary expertise, it created some operational pain points.
Key challenges included:
- Issues with consistency across the work of different individual translators.
- Project management complexity.
- Difficulties meeting required turnaround times.
OCSWSSW needed a solution that offered cost efficiencies, high standards, and consistency, especially considering the diverse audiences they serve.
Why OCSWSSW Chose to Partner with Us
Finding a partner who could address challenges related to efficiency, consistency, and, critically, data security was a priority. Several factors stood out in the decision to work with Alexa Translations:
1. Data Protection and Regulatory Credibility A primary factor for OCSWSSW was the credibility established through our partnerships with known financial institutions. These relationships gave the team crucial reassurance and confidence from a data protection standpoint. This commitment was further solidified by data hosting in Quebec and our status as a Canadian company.
2. Efficiency and Adaptive Technology OCSWSSW was looking for solutions that demonstrated efficiencies and upheld regulatory excellence. Our adaptive translation technology was a key factor in the selection decision. This technology gives greater consistency in terminology use across all translated documents, while learning from preferred edits and previous translations.
3. Comprehensive Support and Management OCSWSSW was looking for certified translations, confidentiality, and subject-matter expertise. Beyond these requirements, the ability to support various file types, including for projects like video transcripts, was highly valued.
The Solution: Embracing Technology for Clarity
While initially focusing on translating documents during their trial, OCSWSSW is interested in expanding to other formats, such as extracting transcripts from their educational videos.
Their team found our platform’s project management side to be easy to use and appreciated the project management dashboard interface as another element that would streamline their current translation workflows. The dashboard allows for efficient tracking and organisation of multiple projects, replacing their previous system of complex Excel sheets and manual tracking.
Here’s how working with Alexa Translations aligns with OCSWSSW’s strategic goals:
- Efficiency & Innovation: Helps to streamline translation processes, reduce costs and aligns with their commitment to agility and smarter use of technology.
- Accessibility & Inclusion: Allows for faster translations while maintaining accuracy which help them communicate clearly with their French-speaking communities, thereby supporting equity and transparency.
- Quality & Risk Reduction: Alexa Translations has built-in expertise to help support quality control and allows for information to be translated accurately and consistently.
“We’re excited to be partnering with Alexa Translation and the work ahead which allows for smarter and efficient use of technology as part of our regulatory role.” – Denitha Breau, RN, MSN, MBA Registrar and CEO, Ontario College of Social Workers and Social Service Workers
