Photo by Naomi Brookner/The Gazette
Sang Van Lam, another Vietnamese production worker at the Gaithersburg company, inspects copper-coated plates.
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A white American woman who runs the front desk at a circuit board manufacturer in Gaithersburg is a minority on the staff. So is her Ukrainian boss — as are her Haitian co-worker and the company's owner, an Indian.
In fact, the 15 employees at Capital Electro-Circuits truly constitute a majority-minority work force, as virtually all are from different corners of the globe. And that can pose some daily workplace challenges, as employees come with various language, cultural and social differences that can sometimes conflict and require tactful attention to resolve.
"Our work requires so much attention to detail. My experience is that having a diverse employee base helps," Sitapara said. "They are team workers. They listen even though they have a language issue."
Capital Electro-Circuits is hardly alone. Racial and ethnic diversity in the U.S. work force will continue to increase through 2016 through more immigration, higher fertility rates and higher labor force participation rates, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics' biannual report. In response, executives are hiring diversity managers or establishing diversity departments to keep their workroom productive.
Now with workers from Cambodia, Pakistan, Nigeria and Russia, Capital Electro-Circuits has two shifts for lunch and two separate microwaves — one for meatless entrées for vegetarians and one for meat dishes. To overcome language difficulties, managers often use dry erase boards to draw pictures to convey the assembly and inspection process.
"We communicate by gesturing or grabbing something to illustrate, rather than just talking. It happens all the time," Boimov said. "There are challenges, but we can overcome them."
The result is a "dedicated, hardworking" team with so many cultural perspectives that the detail-oriented task of creating the colorful circuit boards — which can cost the company a significant sum if constructed incorrectly — becomes easier, Sitapara said. The company draws $2 million in revenues for thousands of circuit boards it produces each year.
"Immigrants have a harder work ethic," Boimov said. "Bharat and I know coming [to the U.S.] that when you can barely speak the language, you try harder."
Sukanya Bora founded Resource Consulting & Management in Frederick and has served as the manager of training and diversity for SAIC-Frederick for four years. SAIC-Frederick's staff of more than 1,700 includes Asians, Europeans and Hispanics, with different native languages that have presented major challenges for communication.
"If you really want to champion a team of diverse folks, the first thing you need to do is self-assess," Bora said. "For a lot of managers, diversity is still a new concept. We tell them to go to all their employees for perspective, not just a few. … As humans we have a natural tendency to gravitate to people who are similar to us, but it's important not to exclude anybody. Try to get to know employees as people, not just employees."
"I'm Indian and I love it when people ask me questions about the Indian culture, like ‘Do you celebrate Christmas?'" Bora said. "I get the impression they care about me. You have to strive to gather information about these people who are different from you."
SAIC-Frederick, a division of scientific, engineering and systems giant Science Applications International Corp. of San Diego, holds foreign language classes for managers and supervisors to ease the frustration of the "biggest cultural barrier."
In the health care industry, diversity is increasingly in the foreground in manager training. At Johns Hopkins Healthcare System, roughly 52 percent of the company's 10,700 employees are minorities, said John Fuller, director of the Office of Workforce Diversity. The company does not specifically track immigrants in its work force.
In recent years, the number of complaints from employees regarding workplace treatment has decreased as the company's diversity and "inclusion" training has been fine-tuned. New managers are now required to take diversity training before they start, instead of one year into the job.
"Cultural differences at times create a communication barrier," Fuller said. "That can be corrected by learning each other's differences. You don't have to be best friends, but you have to act in a concerted, collaborative way."
On Wednesday, Fuller held a workshop, "From Road Rage to Desk Rage," at Johns Hopkins' fifth annual Diversity Conference, called Civility, Equality and Respect. He has trained more than 4,000 workers on the topic at Johns Hopkins.
"People need to know what is not civil behavior," Fuller said. "There are a lot of things that can raise your blood pressure. You have to know how to treat people. Inclusion is the key."
Taking advantage of work force diversity
Do:
-Help employees get in the mind-set of treating everyone with respect.
-Improve employee morale by recognizing unique values an employee brings to the company. Appreciated employees will work harder.
-Underscore themes of "inclusion" with employees.
-Try to learn as much as possible about other cultures, and teach employees the same.
-Identify employees who may not feel like they fit in and address their concerns.
Don't:
-Be afraid to talk about diversity and differences because everyone "seems to be getting along."
-Avoid diversity and cultural training for managers and executives.
-Let workplace gossip and bullying create divisiveness and tension.
-Ignore employee complaints about feeling left out or bullied.
Sources: SAIC-Frederick's diversity manager; Johns Hopkins' Office of Work force Diversity
