A popular old adage goes “The more, the merrier”. Today in the United States, this saying could be changed to “The more culturally diverse, the richer”. This is also when it comes to increasing the quality of public services (ie. healthcare) making businesses more profitable, and contributing to create a better, more diverse society within the community.
According to a recent report published by the Pew Hispanic Center, Latinos represent 13 % of the U.S. work force and the Latino labor force is growing at about three times the rate of all other workers. By 2010, the number of Latinos in the workforce will comprise an estimated 20.9 million, having grown by 95 % since 1990. In the same time span, the non-Latino workforce will have increased by just 12 %.
Unfortunately, Hispanic/Latinos report that discrimination and a lack of understanding for their culture is a reoccurring problem. Eight out of ten Hispanic/Latinos say they experienced some form of discrimination at their workplace. When asked for the reason they were treated unfairly, they said say it was due to: language barriers (35%), their physical appearance (24%), or a combination of the language and physical appearance (20%).
As businesses and organizations see the importance of Latinos in the market place, they have made tolerance and diversity in the workplace a key priority all over the country. This has turned from being a passive part of the business plan to an active strategy for growth and sustainability. Equally, as more Hispanic/Latinos win local and statewide elections, the focus to Hispanic/Latino oriented issues will continue to grow in importance. Those who come in on the ground floor to embrace cultural integration at their workplaces now will make their business more profitable. Trend setting managers are thinking more strategically in how to effectively employ their Human Resources to benefit from the diverse and cultural population within their workforce.
According to a survey by human resources professionals from Fortune 1000 companies, diversity initiatives have a "direct impact" on their company's bottom line and have helped their organizations "keep a competitive edge." The survey, released by the Society for Human Resource Management and Fortune Magazine, found that 79 percent of respondents felt their company's diversity initiatives improved corporate culture, while 77 percent said it improves recruitment of new employees. The vast majority (91 percent) of human resources professionals believed that diversity initiatives helped their organizations stay more competitive, while 79 percent said that diversity improved employee morale.
The most apparent initiative was breaking through the language barrier. Even though the vast majority of Hispanic/Latinos are bilingual (83 percent nationwide), the Latino population speaks Spanish in a 96 percent of the cases.
That is, the United States is the fifth largest Spanish-speaking country in the world and has created a need by companies and public services (such as healthcare institutions) to provide bilingual services, in order to richen and ensure the quality of their product or service, and provide a safer, happier working environment for all their employees. Bilingual employees are more valuable because they can communicate with more than one type of customer. As well, employees who are only semi-fluent (versus fully bilingual) in English might be hesitant to share their ideas with management because they are not comfortable with the language. And those ideas left unsaid could cost the company money in the long run.
A company that establishes an equal value culture among their workforce is more likely to succeed in the short run than one that does not. That is why today, to be successful in Corporate America, creating a culturally-diverse environment is essential to incorporate in a successful business plan.
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