How to Save Cash by Improving Productivity

Many makers and distributors of fabricated plastic products are hunkered down, trying to conserve cash because of shaky business conditions. A good number have overlooked the simplest way to do so: improve the productivity of their employees, a growing percentage of whom are Hispanic. The Bureau of Labor Statistics employment figures show that nationwide, about 15 percent of the workers in America’s plastics industry are Latino. In many areas of the country, virtually all plastics companies have workforces that are already almost 100 percent Hispanic.

Increasing their productivity is best accomplished when managers apply knowledge of Latino culture when managing their Hispanic employees. Despite today’s urgent need to cut labor costs, many plastic product producers undervalue their Hispanic workers. Productivity suffers because foreign- born Latino employees are unaccustomed to how U.S. managers communicate, and U.S. managers are unaware of the cultural dimensions of managing an ethnically diverse workforce.

Some forward-looking executives ask specialists for intensive programs to educate their managers on how to overcome the cultural and linguistic barriers that hinder productivity. Others rely on day-long workshops to expose their managers to an awareness of how respect for cultural differences can improve workforce efforts and results.

There are five critical areas where Hispanic employees’ behavior and attitudes tend to differ from those of Anglo Americans. Understanding and honoring these distinctions greatly improves the workforce efficiency.

Respect

Social relations in traditional Latino culture depend on courtesy and respect. On U.S. plant floors, however, it is considered normal for managers and supervisors to lose their tempers on occasion, with the attendant shouting and even some cursing. Although employees of all cultures want respect, Mexicans are particularly offended by disrespect. Managers who raise their voices at Hispanic workers only reap resentment, and inevitably fall far short of motivating them to do their best.

Styles of Supervision

Hispanic culture is traditionally authoritarian. So while Hispanics tend to accept authority without question, they are also more sensitive to its abuse. Hispanics willingly take orders, but see shouting, retaliation and favoritism as abuse, rather than the unfortunate norm. Companies facing a union threat frequently find that supervisory favoritism and unfairness are behind it. The most successful foremen, those with highly productive departments, are “benign autocrats,” who take a “paternal” approach by correcting and guiding, rather than barking orders and threatening.

Language

Unless management makes an effort to bridge the language gap, Hispanic workers cannot fully contribute ideas and work in sync with the rest of the team. In a West Coast maker of consumer cleaning products with an 80% Hispanic workforce, there were telltale signs of misunderstanding and mismanagement. The plant manager complained: My supervisors don’t even try to communicate with the Spanish-speaking workforce. They do things and say things differently, and they need to adjust to us – they’re here now. The personnel clerk hasn’t got time to come out on the floor to translate all the time.

This outlook contributes to high reject rates and decreased efficiency. If no one has time to translate, regrind zooms as production questions become a best-guess scenario. When workers guess wrong, the company loses money. Four simple strategies can help bridge this language gap:

• Allow workers to translate for each other—try to identify those with bilingual ability and rely on them;
• If there is an HR department, hire a bilingual clerk to translate for insurance and pay questions, and at workforce meetings;
• Identify a few key employees to be responsible for reports and records; teach them the basic English necessary to do these jobs;
• Educate and train a few bilingual foremen: time-consuming, but well worth the effort.

Personal Relations and Employee Recognition

Latinos are often surprised by what they call the “tough” ways of Americans. Hispanics respond to their own traditional workplace model, which pays more attention to human relations, holidays, celebrations and ceremonies than in the U.S.

Employee recognition is the heart of successful Hispanic employee relations. In Mexico, ceremonies and recognition are part of the working culture. In one Middle Atlantic state distributor, for example, the plant manager recognized Hispanic employees by awarding certificates at the end of training programs and displayed bulletin board photos of training-class graduates. The employees were proud and felt a greater vested interest in the success of the company.

To better establish the acceptance and recognition of the Hispanic workforce, management should attend employee functions. In a Chicago producer of blow-mold containers for local dairies, the plant manager regularly attended plant soccer games. The resulting goodwill he earned contributed to the employees’ rebuffing a union drive.

Manners, Problem Solving and Uncovering Employee Problems

Hispanic employees are often reluctant to complain about work conditions and production needs. In Mexico, it is not the custom for workers to bring problems or complaints to a supervisor. They have a traditional reluctance to be the bearer of bad news In addition; any notion of appealing a foreman’s ruling to the plant manager strikes a foreign-born Hispanic as greatly disrespectful of authority. Often, they see their only recourse as “going outside” to a union - the main reason behind much Hispanic unionization. Other ways must be devised to uncover production problems, such as a diagnostic audit.

A diagnostic audit conducted by an outside consultant is a good first step at uncovering impediments to productivity. At an Ohio distributor, an expert conducted face-toface interviews with the employees. The audit turned up many production glitches of which neither the plant manager nor even Spanish-speaking foremen were aware. For example, a hole in the concrete floor caused boxes of semi-finished product to fall off the forklifts and get damaged; the scheduling of parts caused pile-ups in finishing; and two pallet-wrappers needed better maintenance to achieve on-time shipping schedules.

Supervisors cannot solve problems like these if they are unaware of their existence. No one told the foremen about them because Hispanics did not want to “disturb the peace.” Respeto al drecho ajeno es la paz: “Peace is respect for the rights of others” is a well-known saying. As a result, identifying problems amounts to “bad manners.” To Anglo-Americans, this attitude is interpreted as “lacking initiative.”

How to adjust for this mentality? By being direct -- by asking workers what they are lacking on the job and where bottlenecks are in production. This is essential to getting workers to take ownership of problems and motivating them to address such difficulties.

Diagnostic audits strengthen communication with Hispanic employees in three ways. First, it establishes that management is interested in employee opinions. Second, an audit by an outside consultant aimed at uncovering employee concerns and production problems always turns up good suggestions for improving operations. Hispanic employees would seldom disclose these concerns to managers or interviewers for fear of reprisals. Third, after employees observe that there is nothing to fear and they overcome their reticence, a company manager can be trained to take over the audit function.

For plant managers who make efforts to understand Hispanic culture and outlook, the payoff is great: higher productivity, lower labor costs, better quality and less regrind, lower absenteeism and higher employee morale. In the end, listening to employees and making them feel valued boosts the bottom line. How big is yours?

For more information, contact the author, Ms. Mariah de Forest, Vice President, Imberman and DeForest, Inc., imbanddef@aol.com, 847-733-0071.