Ask Mauricio—Part
II
by Mauricio Velasquez
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| Editor’s Introduction |
Mauricio Velasquez has been a featured ANLA Management Clinic
speaker for the past few years on workforce issues (Hispanic/Latino
Workforce, Sexual Harassment). ANLA has launched a consultant
partnership with Mauricio as an ANLA member benefit. This column is the
second in a regular series that is aimed at answering your real-life
questions about ever-shifting workforce issues. Read
on…
We are generating a very healthy national conversation about the
emergence of diversity issues and, specifically, Latino-Hispanic
workplace issues in our industry. When I spoke at the
last ANLA Management Clinic, the NJ/NY Nursery and
Landscape Expo, and the massive New England Grows
show, we conducted a very informal survey or poll. Altogether,
I presented to more than 600 landscape
professionals, growers and related industry personnel.
Here are some of the tried and proven "best practices" that are
working and showing results for many of your
colleagues. Each bullet is a different response to the
poll from a different landscape professional or grower.
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What are you doing for your Hispanic/Latino Workforce? |
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Work hand-in-hand with my Spanish employees; they help me in
Spanish, as I help them with English during the day.
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Provide transportation to and from work.
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Hold a safety meeting every Monday.
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Sponsor a company day at a baseball game.
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Improve property services, serve box lunch for employees,
sponsor soccer league for employees.
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Work hand-in-hand with my Spanish workers; use nonverbal
communication.
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Recently installed English-to-Spanish software to translate
all company
memos/policies/reviews, etc. Also, fly three flags in our little
courtyard—American/Mexican/Puerto Rican—to symbolize unity and
respect. We need help, however, to better understand cultural
differences.
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Cut my jobs significantly, so each day the crew works for me,
I buy them lunch.
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Provide transportation, H 2 B opportunities and special pizza
and beer parties throughout the seasons; also
provide the opportunity for English courses.
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Provide transportation; offer bonuses and Christmas party;
also, try to learn more Spanish and learn about
their cultures so that we understand each other
better.
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Make phone calls to different agencies, doctors, etc. for our
workers (only 1-2 per season) and try to guide them
through red tape.
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Learn to speak Spanish; make them foremen.
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Show respect—my employees are co-workers, not labor.
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Translate our policy manual to Spanish.
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Have advanced payroll due to illness of a family member in
Mexico.
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Offer training material, videos, and handouts in Spanish; help
with problems with U.S. agencies.
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Re-learn my high school and college Spanish.
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Study Spanish, starting one and half years ago when I began at
a nursery.
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Took three years of Spanish.
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Translated our Safety Policy into Spanish.
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Every year at our summer picnic, collect for a charity and
have the company match that donation. This year we
collected for orphanages in Guatemala and Mexico.
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Hold monthly safety meetings translated into Spanish.
I have much more to share with you! Many, many people responded
to our survey. Remember, each bullet above was a
different company, a different
employer, each sharing with me and you what they are doing
differently, given the changing workplace.
And you? Given your new workforce, what one thing are you doing
that is really making a difference?
Please share with us.
Send your questions to me at:
Mauricio@anla.org or via fax to
703/709-0591
My next column continues with ideas for
making a better work environment.
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