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VIEWPOINT: Diversity must be routine in workplaces |
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By Yvonne D. Hawkins
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Tuesday, 24 July 2007 |
It was a Thursday – payday for workers at the John Morrell & Co. plant in north Sioux Falls.
Two people and a teller at the nearby Wells Fargo Bank branch were talking fluently in Spanish, each laughing and interacting as if it were Old Home Week.
 Yvonne D. Hawkins, Sioux Falls Business Journal editor
Bank customers, many of whom are Morrell workers, and bank employees are pretty familiar with each other. That’s especially true on Thursdays, which bring a steady stream of the meatpacking plant’s workers – one of the most diverse work forces in town – to the bank at the end of their shifts.
As a result, the word is out within the Hispanic community that the Stockyards Store has tellers and bankers who can conduct business in Spanish.
Until recently, the store also employed a staff person who spoke Russian and Ukrainian. Within weeks of that person’s arrival, people who spoke those languages knew which days the employee worked, store manager Hilary Volz says.
Certainly, Wells Fargo is among many local businesses that are finding ways to meet the needs of Sioux Falls’ increasingly diverse population.
Banks, grocery stores and restaurants particularly often are among the companies that routinely incorporate multiculturalism as an operational standard. And these companies have much to offer to other businesses needing to learn how it’s done.
One thing’s certain: Making diversity a routine part of a business’ practices is hard work. No company gets there without planning and commitment. And it’s not an activity for wimps.
However, the commitment to diversity still is perceived by some as touchy-feely stuff that only distracted people dream about.
The irony is that those who resist paying close attention to diversity efforts actually benefit from those efforts themselves. Otherwise, we’d just kick all the fear-controlled, ignorant people out of our organizations.
Instead, those companies that already are working hard at incorporating diversity should stay the course – now more than ever. The day eventually will come when more businesses will need to be prepared to participate in scenes like this:
A woman at the end of the tellers’ row in the Stockyards Store greeted a customer who was approaching the counter.
“Have a lot of deposits for me today?” the woman asked in English as she smiled while the man got organized.
“Four,” the middle-age man replied.
“Same as always,” the woman said, grinning, and then began the routines involved in financial transactions.
Meanwhile, a few feet to her left, another teller spoke in Spanish while holding a document that he explained to two other Hispanic customers. One of the customers, a woman, waved at the end of the conversation, turned to leave and called out: “Adios.”
And in the background, another teller working the drive-up window spoke in Spanish to someone sitting in a car. Then, seconds later, a different teller, speaking in English presumably to a different drive-through customer, wrapped up a transaction.
“All right, you have yourself a great day. Thank you very much,” he said. |