Bilingual staff help libraries create meaningful connections that foster a feeling of inclusion and belonging with populations that otherwise would be left out of our services. Over many months, Anythink libraries developed a simple but intentional Bilingual Pay model that helps reward and retain staff who are bilingual in Spanish, without adding additional tasks to their workloads. We created a process, a procedure, and criteria for selecting a vendor for testing, as well as secured funding for this new benefit, so it is sustainable over time. This presentation will explain the process of building a bilingual pay model that adapts to the size and needs of your library, as well as considerations and best practices discovered through the research of best practices in Colorado and other parts of the country.
