Safe harbor

Some companies try to avoid trouble by outsourcing the jobs themselves, but this doesn't always work out. Urban Outfitters, parent company of the Urban Outfitters, Anthropologie, and Free People brands, had order processing for its Reno, NV, distribution center done by a third-party logistics firm. But it decided to bring the function inhouse last month. Why?

“A lot of the folks who are processing our products now in Reno are from a temporary agency, and I'm not sure they have the same discipline and guidelines we do in terms of hiring,” says Ken McKinney, Urban Outfitters' director of distribution.

McKinney adds that there may be “quite a few undocumented workers” in the Reno area. To protect itself, the company is sending out an HR manager from headquarters to supervise the hiring process.

	A welcoming culture

Let's assume that you hire immigrants and you've dotted all the i's. How do you accommodate your new employees, some of whom may speak English poorly or not at all?

Companies have instituted training programs, new systems and even dress codes to accommodate an increasingly diverse work force. But the rewards, in terms of productivity, can be tremendous.

One poster child for this approach is LifeWay Christian Resources, of Nashville, TN. The company sells books, videos and other products through catalogs, the Internet, and more than 130 stores.

LifeWay decided several years ago to provide for its changing staff. It began by creating a “welcoming culture,” says Randall Brough, the firm's supply chain manager. “We invest heavily in our employees, and we realize that they are the most valuable assets that the company has.”

For starters, LifeWay offers free on-site English courses. And it's deployed technologies that use Arabic numbers instead of English — for example, in bar codes and scanners. It also encourages managers to take multilingual training, and helps new immigrants network with older ones.

Why go to all that trouble?

“It's a matter of survival,” Brough says. “If you plan on being around and being effective, you have to understand that the employee base is changing. If you don't grow and change with the employee base, you're not going to be able to stay competitive.”

But it's not easy. “Different cultures have different dress codes,” explains Brough. “In some parts of the world people wear more free-flowing types of clothes, but you can't have them work around a conveyor or moving equipment, because it could present a health hazard to the employee. So you need to have a dress code.”

Then there's food. “Let's say you're going to offer an employer-provided meal. You almost have to offer a smorgasbord, because of various diet restrictions,” Brough says. “I'm probably an eighth-generation American and my diet is much different than the diets of these first-wave immigrants coming in from other countries. And that's a challenge.”

He adds: “The worst thing you can do if you're trying to boost employees' morale is to have an event in their honor and then serve food they can't consume. The manager must always ask, ‘Who are my employees and what are their needs?’”

	Benefits of immigration

Given all this, many companies favor immigration reform, and some have lobbied Congress to demand it.

“The issue of immigration is radioactive,” says Patrick. “On the one hand you have business owners saying, ‘We need more guest workers and we need them now.’ On the other hand, you have people saying we shouldn't have any guest workers or we don't need more people from abroad — that we have plenty of U.S.-born workers.”

Patrick has little patience for the latter point of view. “If we think of the history of America, immigration shouldn't terrify us,” he says. “It should excite us that ours is a country that attracts terrific workers at every level, who want to work to better their own lives and to better America.”

LifeWay's Brough agrees. “Some immigrant workers are exceptional,” he says. “They take their jobs very seriously, especially when they get into a company where they feel they've been accepted and that somebody has a vested interest in them. They flourish and grow and the company flourishes and grows too.”

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Jennifer Lonoff Schiff is a freelance business writer based in Wilton, CT.

	SPOTTING THE FAKES

When hiring immigrants, it's up to the employer to review all prospective candidates' documentation and determine that it's the real deal. While fake documents can be tricky to spot, New York-based immigration lawyer Michael D. Patrick says your best bet in making sure papers and identification are authentic is common sense. “So if it looks like it was just bought at the five-and-dime store or from someone down the street who sells these things, because the photo's kind of moving around and the typeface looks like your seven-year-old did it last night at home, you shouldn't accept that document.” Ditto if the photograph or the physical description of the person presenting it doesn't match the person. To minimize or reduce the risk of fraud, employers must be consistent in how they review the quality of documents and evaluate match of documents to the person, Patrick says. “This is something that the government says should simply be a straightforward, common sense — not FBI, forensic-expert-level of review.”
— JLS