By Lydia Dishman, Contributing Writer

South Carolina is the 10th fastest growing state in the nation, with a projected growth rate of 42.9% through 2030, according to U.S. Census Bureau estimates. Considering that in 1940, the state’s native-born population was nearly 92%, but by 2000 had dropped to 64%, our “smiling faces” definitely look a bit different than they have in the past.

Though most of this growth has been from people moving in from other states, the Hispanic population is swelling and is currently around 140,000. This number may actually be as high as 500,000 due to underreporting.

There is bound to be another wave of new faces when Dubai-based Jafza International opens its new distribution center in Orangeburg, creating thousands of jobs as well as bringing management from the Middle East to oversee operations. Not to mention countless German, French, Chinese, Japanese and Canadian nationals who also call South Carolina home, thanks to companies who have opened satellite operations here.

“As customer demographics change, we’ve got to do business with folks who look like our customers,” noted S. T. Peden, president and CEO of the Minority Economic Development Institute.
“Let’s remember we are in South Carolina where we have a legacy of race and gender issues,” countered Calder Ehrmann, senior associate with The Richard W. Riley Institute at Furman University. “It is important to remember that just having people come together doesn’t make you diverse.”

To that end, Ehrmann, Peden and other leaders across the state are working on strategic initiatives to ensure the state’s work force and the customers it serves won’t get left behind.

Serving a diverse customer base
The Capital Corp., which offers a variety of investment banking services to mid-sized companies, is pushing into the international arena as they find clients seeking acquisitions in foreign countries to strengthen their global position.

According to Cristina Schleifer, marketing and communications director, The Capital Corp. has a diverse staff of principals that is unusual for a financial institution in the Southeast. Several of the principals are fluent in other languages such as French, German and Portugese, and Schleifer is a native of Cuba. “We made a point of recruiting expertise of language and culture, and also for knowledge of market,” she said.

Ava Smith, owner of HR Specialties, a human resources consulting company, has found through conducting diversity training programs that businesses such as The Capital Corp. are using the right approach.

“An expert can have a certain level of expertise in diversity, but there needs to be individuals from various cultures to enhance the training,” Smith said.

“Diversity is an inside job,” according to Susan Lill, an executive with Align HR, a division of Find Great People. Also a veteran of conducting diversity training programs for corporate clients, Lill noted how a company treats its employees is often how they will treat customers. “If everyone is engaged and involved it will show, and if people are feeling misunderstood there will be more turnover and that too will affect client relationships.”

This is never truer than at the health care level, where a misunderstanding could cost a life. Kinneil Coltman, director of diversity for the Greenville Hospital System, has research that indicates as many as 98,000 people in the United States die every year due to linguistic and cultural barriers.

When they created a formal Diversity Office to meet the demands of an increasingly diverse set of patients, GHS became the first in the state to have one. “We’re trying to standardize intake processes, especially for undocumented immigrants, and engage the community by reaching out to the minorities.” Coltman said the GHS health summit for minorities was a huge success because they brought in members of the community to plan and conceptualize it.

Talking about diversity
According to the Washington Post, U.S. businesses spend from $200 million to $300 million a year on diversity training, but a recent study led by Alexandra Kalev, a sociologist at University of Arizona, found that programs work best when they are voluntary and focus on specific organizational skills, such as establishing mentoring relationships and giving women and minorities a chance to prove their worth in high-profile roles.

Mentoring is part of the mission of the yWca where executive director Phyllis Martin said, “We sent out a survey to our employees asking them what training they felt they needed and what would help them achieve their goals and objectives. We do know that training must be ongoing — this is not something that we can just cross off our list of things to do.”

“If you can’t manage employee diversity well, you can’t manage patient diversity,” noted Coltman who explained how GHS added orientation sessions to overcome prejudices about race, gender, faith and other differences. “Next year, we will train all leadership on how to recruit for diversity,” said Coltman who referred to studies that showed a diverse staff helps rectify disparities and provides more quality care.

Speaking your language
Ken Zwerdling, CEO of Foreign Translations, notes that his business is growing as more companies attempt to globalize and serve a diverse customer base.

“Translation is a $14 billion industry, but most companies are slow to get on the bandwagon.” He said people are starting to understand that translated materials are now “a need to have, not a nice to have.” However, “less than 10 percent of Web sites in the U.S. have language options,” he said.

Lill concurs that using a certified translator with interpreters promotes dialogue, but cautions people from other countries are not always fully literate and using appropriate pictographs can be just as powerful.

“We have a staff of 50 interpreters,” said Coltman of the GHS staff, making them one of the biggest language service providers in the nation. “An interpreter encounter is never as easy as having a native practitioner, but we are doing a better job of leveraging technology, especially in the ER with teleconferencing.”

She does believe that the tide is starting to turn. “We are about 10 years away from critical mass,” Coltman said, “but we need to continue to have these conversations to make the cross-cultural adaptations if we are going to make this work for everyone.”