Landscape Management, March 2010

HISPANIC EMPLOYEES continued from page 60 decided the work wasnt as daring as climbing trees One day while scaling a 50 ft palm tree a weave of dead fronds came loose pinning him to the safety belt that held him to the tree His friends who watched him being asphyxiated told the media the reason he liked climbing trees was to show everyone how brave he was Pleasing the boss Many Hispanic workers have a strong desire to please the boss which can be good and bad They will go above and beyond what they need to do They are always afraid of not having a job If theres a massive branch that needs to be cut theyll cut it down no matter what it takes even if its not safe Anaya says Lack of direct eye contact Direct eye contact with a person in authority is considered disrespectful in many Hispanic cultures One problem this can cause is if a supervisor is leading a training session without direct eye contact he might not be able to tell whether the trainees understood what he said Fear of institutions This might include a fear of doctors police emergency LANDSCAPEMANAGEMENT NET MARCH 2010 62 rescue personnel and the government in general In the case of workers from Mexico Anaya says because government is threatening to them there they come here having that same fear They assume that our government will be exactly the same Family fi rst One major issue within Hispanic cultures that you can use to your advantage in communicating with your workers is a strong emphasis on family Whenever possible frame messages to your Hispanic workers in terms of family For example if you are trying to get them to wear their safety glasses instead of saying Wear your safety glasses so you dont lose an eye instead say Wear your safety glasses so you will be able to see your children grow up Or instead of saying If you dont use fall protection equipment you could fall out of that tree and die say If you fall out of that tree and break your back who will provide for your family in the future Also instead of telling them We dont want you to get injured say We want you go home uninjured to your family every night Finally take a few minutes to ask your Hispanic workers how their spouses or children are doing when you greet them at the start of the workday Even if you only know a little Spanish make the effort to use a few Spanish words when you ask this and be sure to greet them by name 5 management tips Understand your role Your Hispanic workers are likely to nod their heads yes indicating they understand even when they dont This is part of the strong desire to please the boss One way to work around this is to carefully watch their facial expressions Then have them either repeat back to you or demonstrate to you what they just learned Work hard to build trust Regularly praise your workers for jobs well done Recognize them in front of their peers We try to build trust with them fi rst Communication gets better with trust Anaya says We welcome them continued on page 64 Maria Anaya assists Tom Jurasinksi a manager at Kujawa Enterprises Inc KEI with some documents needing to be explained to employee Abel Chairez Anaya understands the cultural issues that could inhibit effective communication between KEI management and the companys native Spanish speaking workers