Whether it’s about weather or business, climate change is
getting
all the big play in the news, served up to us by “experts” who, beyond
railing about their pet concerns, are as helpless to cure things than
you and I
are...less, in my humble opinion, when you consider that many
of the most vocal
among them earned their expertise stripes in the
creation of the problems they
now deplore. So unless you have a
solution for curbing the surge in global
population rise, or have a
trillion-or-so dollars sitting around with nothing to
do, then I
suggest we both leave the earthshaking stuff to folks with nothing
better to do and focus on a change much closer to home…workforce
change, and how
best to take advantage of it.
Right now it is estimated that more than 50% of the
construction
workforce in the US is Hispanic, with the percentage continuing to
grow, and that’s a change is right here, right now, and one that you
have to
deal with each and every day.
So
for starters, how about clicking here and then indicating on the poll the percentage of Hispanics
that comes closest to your company’s situation.
Then I’d like you to think about how many of them have
sufficient command of the language to guarantee they can be counted on to
understand instructions given them in English.
Since communication is not merely a matter of words, but the
transmission of values and underlying assumptions as well, in these days of
tighter and tighter budgets, think about how many supervisors you have who are
genuinely bilingual and able to give and receive instructions unambiguously.
Now turn your attention to those in supervisory positions who
aren’t bilingual and consider what potential health, safety, legal, regulatory,
and productivity issues this lack opens you up to.
If what you come up with leaves room for concern, have you
implemented a plan for doing something about it? If so, how about posting a
comment in the section below, letting the rest of us know what it is, how it’s
working, and what problems you’ve faced in implementing it?