Thanks for coming back to check things out. I hope you've used this information to take respectful win-win action. Make it a Great Day! Emeric
I was just on a workplace safety teleconference where the subject was “challenges facing employers with Latino workers. ”
The speaker lumped all Latino’s into one bucket. 97% of what I teach you can use for
Hater, You're Fired!
Central Americans too. The call was sponsored by a huge insurance company and the speaker was an OSHA certified trainer.
The solution for workplace safety success was to overcome Latino cultural and communication barriers in order to maintain a safer work place.
Cultural and communication barriers are the pieces to overcome in order to earn trust, loyalty, and build morale. All on a foundation of respect. (see article Tamale Triangle for insight).
At the end of the call there was time for a few questions. One of the callers was outwardly pissed off. First, he was not the owner of the company. He was a construction field supervisor.
He started by saying “It’s difficult to keep employees and so there’s really no time to build trust and relationships.”
Then the real story came out. These aren’t his exact words, but it came out like “Hey, why should I have to learn how the Latinos communicate best and have to learn to work with their cultural hang-ups. They should all learn English and assimilate like my Italian grandparents had to when they came to the U.S.”
The speaker calmly replied he is explaining how to make the workplace safer and successful by describing what works. Since he was sponsored by a big insurance company I suppose the speaker wouldn’t take the harsh butt-whippin’ route I might’ve taken. Don’t want to step on anyone’s toes.
And I must admit, the caller was not the owner and therefore doesn’t have the same goals-like maybe building a successful company so the owner can work when she pleases and retire comfortably with a fat bank account or at least no-worries.
This caller had his own hang-ups. With his attitude, he will forever have terrible turnover, bad communication, and workers’ comp nightmares-and probably blame everyone but himself. Unless, he changes to see the bigger picture – the one you see.
If you have supervisors like the caller I described, you may want to remind and train them as to why you are in business, and monitor them and their crews like a hawk for symptoms.
If the super just can’t get on the same page, it may be time to fire him in order to move your business in the right direction. Firing people is one of the biggest drags of being in business. We put it off as long as we can. But if the bad attitude supervisor is holding your business back, you must pull the trigger.
Unless you like the status quo.
If you’ve been or are in this situation, let me know what
you did and how it went.
To Your Success,
Emeric