ULMA Construction obtains the highest level of the silver rating of the Quality Certificate in BIKAIN Linguistic Management
In a public ceremony held this Wednesday at the Euskalduna Palace in Bilbao, the President of ULMA Construction Raul Garcia and members of the Basque Committee received the BIKAIN certificate, alongside representatives of 34 other entities, from the Minister of Culture and Language Policy, Bingen Zupiria, and the Deputy Minister of Culture and Language Policy, Miren Dobaran.
ULMA Construction received the assessment made by an external and qualified evaluation team of BIKAIN on the presence, use and management of the Basque language at its Oñati head office for the second time, the first being three years ago. A maximum of 1,000 points can be obtained through the BIKAIN system. The qualification obtained this year by ULMA has meant a 70% growth compared to that obtained in 2014.
This evaluation process was an opportunity and a great help for ULMA in terms of enhancing the strengths that allow us to generate a favourable dynamic for the management of the Basque language, identify improvement objectives, and lay the foundations for continuous improvement. Aspects such as corporate image, relations with customers, internal communication, people management, external relations, and the management system are part of the areas analysed.
According to the evaluation team, these are the three most important strengths of ULMA Construction: First, the majority of ULMA Construction workers – 96% – understand Basque, many speak it and, for many of these, Basque is their natural working language. Second, the evaluation team wished to highlight the great effort made by ULMA in recent years in people management and internal communication in the field of Basque.
Finally, the evaluators considered indisputable the commitment acquired by the bodies with respect to the Basque language. They highlighted the involvement and impact of the President, the directors and the social bodies as essential for ULMA Construction to reach the point where it currently is. They have been, by and large, the drivers, showing an exemplary attitude and promoting the presence and use of Basque in all forums.
Finally, they congratulated ULMA for integrating the specific objectives with respect to the Basque language within the company’s management system. Additionally, they explained that the evaluation by the Basque Government has been very positive as regards the pilot programme that ULMA joined two years ago and which ends this year.
