Managing a Multicultural Workforce

America’s workforce is becoming increasingly multicultural. At this year’s MHEDA convention, keynote speaker Steven Little predicted that changing demographics will redefine material handling workers and change the way we do business. As Baby Boomers retire and the U.S. workforce shrinks, industry will need to turn increasingly to foreign and immigrant workers. Within a decade, Little said, Spanish will be the primary language spoken in 20% of U.S. homes. Overcoming the language and cultural barriers presented by a multicultural workforce is expected to present a significant challenge for many industries, including material handling, warehousing and logistics operations.

As they have since the founding of America, immigrants bring with them a wealth of diverse languages, cultural traditions and customs. However, communication, productivity, and worker morale can suffer when differences are not addressed. This problem is already being experienced by businesses in the West and Southwest who employ Hispanic workers. Hispanics are one of the fastest-growing groups in the U.S. workforce. Unusually high injury rates and on-the-job deaths among foreign-born Hispanic workers prompted business owners to ask OSHA for help. In response OSHA is starting to offer classes on the social hierarchy of Latino and Asian cultures, both of which are more highly structured and rigid than American culture.

Accommodating the language, customs and social structure of foreign workers is necessary if immigrant workers are to be effectively integrated into the U.S. workforce. Material handling, logistics and warehousing firms that are proactive in accommodating language and cultural differences into their workplace routine will be able to profit from the increasing diversity of America’s workforce.

Using Ergonomic Equipment to Reduce Injury Rates

In our last post we talked about the challenges of managing a multicultural workforce in material handling, logistics, warehousing, fulfillment and other businesses. OSHA has reported higher than normal injury and on-the-job death rates for foreign-born Hispanic workers who comprise a growing segment of America’s hourly workforce. While language and cultural differences appear to be at the root of the problem, injury and death rates can be cut by using intuitive, ergonomically-designed, powered equipment to meet your material handling needs.

When communication is an issue, equipment that is easy to operate can improve training speed and reduce potential worker operation errors that can lead to injury. When controls are intuitively designed, communication gaps are narrowed further. What might not be grasped or fully remembered in verbal communication can be intuited by gesture or familiarity with similar equipment. This is not to say that a thorough training and safety program is not necessary, only that easy-to-operate equipment shortens the time between initial training and competent operation. Ergonomically-designed equipment is built around the worker, not the task, making it extremely user-friendly and an excellent choice in multicultural work environments.

Ergonomic material handling equipment that is electric or battery powered can further reduce injury and workplace death rates. In material handling situations, most injuries come from pulling, pushing or lifting loads and are the result of over-stretching or over-straining muscles. Powered equipment removes most of the need for heavy physical exertion from pulling, pushing and lifting tasks. By allowing the equipment to do the heavy lifting, so to speak, fewer situations are presented during the workday that might place workers at risk of injury.

To find out more about ergonomically-designed material handling equipment, visit the DJ Products website.