“Culture is Everything . . .                     Everything is Culture”

A local expert helps companies leverage a diverse workforce’s strengths and assets.

In addition to expanding their workforce and target markets to reflect changing demographics, many corporations today are growing their businesses internationally. As a result, they are attracting employees from all over the world.

It can be a dramatic shift in how a workforce looks—and difficult to change business models and structures to fit a diverse group of employees. Some companies have hired diversity officers, while others have brought in a consultant for inclusion and sensitivity training. But how does a company know what’s right for them? And how can they measure its effectiveness?

Enter Gladis Benavides, owner of Benavides Enterprises, a consulting firm specializing in cross-cultural communications. She brings more than thirty years of experience working in positions in both the private and public sectors. Her focus is cultural competency. “Historically, much attention has been given to awareness and sensitivity to cultural differences,” Benavides says. “But too many diversity plans are handled superficially. I work with companies to move from talking about ways to work effectively with different cultures to doing it.” Benavides believes that to help a company develop cultural competency, you have to teach them how to manage conflict. A company, she says, “has to feel comfortable with conflict, and has to know the consequences when they don’t.” read more . . .

Perhaps your boss is surly and withdrawn. Or one of your staffers regularly gets into petty arguments with another. What can you do to keep on track and not allow all those difficult people to interfere with your work?

Don’t come out swinging. Come out thinking. Decide if the difficult person is creating a minor annoyance, a medium-impact problem that must be dealt with on a day-to-day basis or a maximum-impact problem that threatens your productivity and career. Depending on the severity of the problem, you may also have to consider the rank of the offender and the reasons for the behavior.

A system of analyzing difficult behavior and planning your response is needed. But you first must adopt a resilient mental attitude that lets you approach the problem with a calm, cool head.

The cost of a mishandled case of discrimination can be very high. In one case, the cost of responding to a charge of discrimination in a unit of 15 employees was estimated as high as $134,000, without including settlement amounts. This reflects salaries of those involved, loss of productivity and other factors in a period of two years.

Wisconsin’s work force is becoming more diverse with respect to age, gender and disability status. State census figures show that between 1990 and 2000, the number of employed workers between the ages of 16 and 64 with disability status increased 329 percent.