The Ashevill Citizent-Times, August 16, 2004, Monday

Copyright 2004 Multimedia Publishing of North Carolina
All Rights Reserved
The Asheville Citizen-Times

August 16, 2004 Monday Final Edition

SECTION: WNC BUSINESS; Pg. 4W

HEADLINE: More employers hiring workers to reflect their diverse clientele

BYLINE: BY ANGIE NEWSOME, STAFF WRITER

BODY:
More employers hiring workers to reflect their diverse clientele
By Angie Newsome
STAFF WRITER
ASHEVILLE -- The smell of leather filled the air as hundreds of cowboy boots sat on shelves next to about 400 saddles waiting for both the budding and the weathered wrangler or cowpoke.
On a recent Tuesday, Maria Reves, for the first time, learned Jackson's Western Store's landscape. Her first day working at the store -- long a landmark of Asheville's Patton Avenue --was filled with memorizing just where to show customers the Stetson cowboy hats or the perfect pair of blue jeans.
Reves is the second bilingual salesperson hired to help the store's growing group of Spanish-speaking customers, said Charles Jackson, store president.
Started in 1938, the third and fourth generations of Jacksons operate the business. While much has changed in the business since then, population changes are near the top of the list.
Now, close to 10 percent of the store's customers, Jackson said, are members of the Hispanic community.
"I'm looking for it to be better," Jackson said, "since I've got her now."
Looking in the mirror
As the face of Western North Carolina changes, so does demand for work forces to reflect the community. Customers want to see people like themselves, Jackson said. Locally, businesses are trying to diversify their work forces. It's part of doing business, advocates and businesses leaders said.
The fastest-growing ethnic group in North Carolina, the Hispanic community grew by almost 400 percent between 1990 and 2000, giving North Carolina the fastest-growing Hispanic population in the country.
Knowing Spanish -- or having someone on staff who does -- is a must, Jackson said, for the retail business owner who wants to last.
"It (learning Spanish) is down the road," he said. "Not for me, but for my son for sure."
Leaders decide to work to diversify work forces for many reasons. While some are rooted in ethical beliefs, not all are altruistic.
As consumer power shifts to minorities, leaders know that making sure those customers feel comfortable -- enough to spend their dollars -- becomes more of a priority.
There are a lot of dollars at stake.
Between 1990 and 2002, Hispanic buying power in North Carolina grew 912 percent, faster than in any other state. From 1990 to 1999, African-American buying power grew by 83 percent to more than $24 billion, according to a study from the University of Georgia. In 1999, the Hispanic community contributed more than $2.3 billion in purchases in North Carolina.
Locally, businesses like Jackson's join others from health care to manufacturing that are striving to diversify their work forces.
Mission Hospitals formed a diversity committee in 1998 to help with efforts, including internships and scholarships for minority students. Mountain Area Health Education Center has strategic plans targeting diversity efforts and focused recruitment efforts. Wachovia Bank holds regular workplace training on diversity issues with employees. And local facilities of international companies such as Sonopress and Volvo Construction Equipment, North America, also have international staffs that add to their multicultural work forces.
Work left to do
But there are still strides to be made.
Nationally, decades of work have seen boardrooms -- once the traditional stomping ground of only power-suited older white men -- make small strides in bringing women and people of color through the "glass ceiling."
While women make up nearly 47 percent of the nation's labor force, the Business Women's Network said, women hold 13.6 percent of board seats at Fortune 500 companies. The number of seats held by women of color increased from 2.5 percent in 1999 to 3 percent in 2003.
Within the Asheville Metropolitan Statistical Area, minorities hold 4.4 percent of official and management positions and 5.4 percent of professional jobs, according to a 2002 survey of larger employers by the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission.
But building a diverse work force is just like any other element of running a good business, economists and local advocates said.
"Discrimination is actually considered an inefficiency," said Andrew Houtenville, senior research associate with the Program on Employment and Disability at Cornell University.
For example, he said, when employers don't hire people with disabilities because of preconceptions about productivity, "then you're not making very good decisions on behalf of your stockholders."
Making good decisions and working toward building a diverse work force, said Jackie Hallum, director of health careers and diversity management at MAHEC, takes a conscious effort, a good plan and an investment. Building diversity takes commitment from the top.
"A strategic plan drives the process," she said. "It gives you a map, a deliberate and conscious map instead of happenstance. It's a deliberate and conscious effort and not a sidebar."
Diversity as a part of business
And diversity doesn't automatically mean a quota system, as some critics allege, said William Mance, vice president for human resources at Mission Hospitals. Mance said that instead of focusing on numbers Mission wants to focus on creating a workplace that retains good employees once they are recruited.
Economics, education and recruitment all play a part, he said. So do stereotypes and demographics.
"The challenge is the perception of Western North Carolina," he said, one that the region is not ethnically or racially diverse, making the likelihood of discrimination higher.
"In Western North Carolina, we may have to look at diversity in a total mirror rather than focusing on racial or ethnic diversity," added Don Locke, director of the Asheville Graduate Center of UNC Asheville.
While diversity means more than ethnic and racial differences to include differences in everything from religion to sexual orientation, customers still may be looking to find people who look -- and speak -- like them.
"I think it's very important that someone can understand what you want," Jackson's newest employee, Maria Reves, said. And, she said, working in a place that accepts everyone is important to her, too.Contact Newsome at 232-5856 or ANewsome@CITIZEN-TIMES.com.