October, 2004

Melting Pot

As Hispanic workers play an increasingly critical role in the industry, dealers are getting a crash course in managing across cultural boundaries.

By Scott Larson

Matt Petersen makes his living as a lumber and building materials executive, but the changing face of American demographics has made him something of an expert in cultural sensitivity as well. Over the past few years Petersen has seen the number of Hispanic workers on his company’s payroll explode, forcing him and other managers at single-unit Mead Clark Lumber to take a fresh look at how they relate to employees with distinctly different attitudes and skills.

"Each year we lose a few more non-Hispanics and we end up replacing them with Hispanics,” says Petersen, a vice president at Santa Rosa, Calif.-based Mead Clark. "In the past, some of our managers have operated as tough, ‘my-way’ guys. But we’ve learned that Hispanics don’t respond to that very well.”

A softer approach—direction and instruction rather than orders—is much more effective, he says, coupled with patience to account for the potential language barrier. "We spend more time working with them so they understand the results we’re trying to achieve.”

It’s not a question of initiative, effort, or efficiency, says Petersen. Rather, it’s a fundamental difference in the way people in different cultures communicate and relate to each other. It’s also an issue managers everywhere need to get up to speed on, considering that Hispanics make up an increasingly vital part of the American labor pool.

According to the 2000 United States Census, there are 17.9 million Hispanics in the U.S. workforce, while the United States Government’s Bureau of Labor Statistics projects that high net immigration rates and higher-than-average fertility rates mean Hispanics will constitute a larger percentage of the U.S. labor force than African Americans by 2008.

In that year, Hispanics will make up 12.7% of the total working population, up from 10.4% in 1998. And while many assume such growth will be centered in the Sun Belt and states along the U.S.-Mexico border, the expansion is a nationwide phenomenon. New Jersey, for instance, projects that Hispanics, which made up 13.3% of its total population in 2000, will constitute 17.5% of the population in 2010 and 22% by 2020.

Labor Pool

Such numbers are particularly relevant to lumber and building material dealers because educational and language constraints mean that many among the Latino population— especially recent immigrants—will gravitate toward labor- oriented jobs even as non-Hispanic Americans seek opportunities in other fields. For dealers like Mead Clark, where Petersen says nearly 60% of the yard crew is now Hispanic, that means not only more Hispanic employees, but more Latino customers as well.

According to a study by the Pew Hispanic Center, the construction industry was responsible for 380,492 new jobs for Hispanics, or 54% of the total increase in employment for Latino workers, in 2003. All told, 2.2 million Hispanics worked in the construction industry in the first quarter of 2004, while another 1.2 million were employed manufacturing durable goods and 821,000 in warehousing and transportation. Still, a surprising number of dealers have done little to address the obvious and important cultural differences that come with such trends. At one company, a top 25 pro dealer whose operations extend across much of the Sun Belt, the need has become urgent.

"We haven’t done nearly enough,” says the company’s vice president of human relations, who asked that he and his company not be identified. "But we’re facing a labor shortage and Hispanics will play a key role in staffing our facilities as we move forward.” According to this executive, Hispanics make up 18% to 20% of the company’s current workforce, but that number is expected to increase over the coming years.

As a result, in January the dealer hopes to unveil a series of programs designed to address a range of key cultural issues, including the hiring of a training and communications manager, the launching of English as a Second Language training programs, and the publication of important company information—from health benefits to safety materials and product knowledge information—in Spanish as well as English. Already the company magazine, which is mailed to employees’ homes, is printed in both languages. "We see these as a real key to recruitment and retention,” the executive says. "(Our Hispanic workers) have got to feel connected.”

Managers Without Borders

At Mead Clark, executives have taken the same attitude and have already launched a range of their own programs—including subscriptions to bilingual construction journals and product knowledge brochures in English and Spanish. One additional step, according to Petersen, was to bring in a human resources consultant who offered classes explaining cultural differences to Mead Clark’s managers.

The consultant emphasized that, while language barriers mean they may require additional instruction, Hispanics come from a culture with a strong tradition of devoted and extremely hard-working employees. Moreover, because immigrants have always tended to cluster in tightly-knit communities when they first settle in the U.S., tapping that resource can go a long way toward solving labor shortages.

"We found that you tend to end up with families,” Petersen explains. "If you offend one, you offend them all,” but if you treat them fairly, they’ll not only find workers for you, they’ll make sure everyone’s work is up to your standards.

Over time, Mead Clark has also begun to identify what Petersen calls "career-oriented” Hispanic employees, who are then trained and promoted to higher-level positions. One former yard worker was moved inside and now works at the contractor counter; another is now an assistant to the company’s yard foreman, serving as a liaison to both Hispanic co-workers and customers.

"As we look ahead, we see that one thing that is really necessary is leadership that is Hispanic,” Petersen notes. His hope is that a positive, Hispanic-friendly work environment will become powerful recruitment and retention tools.