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Process Revamp: Communications & Translation Strategy

The challenge

Following a significant corporate restructuring, the team lost roughly half its people and half its language footprint — at the same time the organization entered an intensive cost-savings period. The existing translation process, built for a much larger team, relied on a single external vendor for all translation needs and ran on 13+ distribution lists, four regional mailboxes, and language-by-language sends for every global communication. A lower-cost AI-assisted translation tool had been under consideration for months without moving forward. This situation required someone to step in, build the case, and implement a new approach — and I took that on.

Approach

  1. Audited the previous year's external vendor translation requests and mapped each against the AI translation tool's capability by content type and sensitivity — demonstrating that applying the new framework retrospectively would have identified substantial annual cost savings.

  2. Built a clear vendor decision framework: the AI translation tool for everyday and non-sensitive content, while the vendor is reserved for legal or legally reviewed materials.

  3. Reassessed the required language footprint for the post-restructuring organization and identified languages that could be responsibly retired.

  4. Redesigned the delivery model — each language as its own individually labeled, clickable PDF attached to a single global email that mirrors the original communication's banner, format, and subject line.

  5. Presented the full package — cost-savings analysis, decision framework, language footprint reduction, and new delivery model — to the HR director.

What I built

  • Vendor decision framework by content type and sensitivity

  • Cost analysis identifying substantial annual cost savings based on prior-year data

  • Revised language strategy reducing footprint

  • New global delivery model — language-specific PDFs, replacing 13+ distribution lists and four regional mailboxes with a single send

  • Process documentation and communications TAT guide covering intake, turnaround standards, and translation requirements

At A Glance

Overview:

Redesigned vendor strategy, language footprint, and delivery model for HR communications — identifying substantial annual cost savings and replacing 13+ distribution lists and four regional mailboxes with a single global send.

Outcome:

  • Substantial annual cost savings

  • 11 → 9 languages consolidated

  • 0 vendor uses since launch

Reflection:

What had previously required 13+ distribution lists, four mailboxes, and significant coordination time now requires a single send. That efficiency isn't a process improvement — it's what makes the work sustainable.