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Bridging the Cultural Divide: Speaking on the Same Wavelength at Plummer Inc.

Cathy Ivancic

January 2002

Some employees think that the company should "give them the ESOP money now," others think that it will somehow "come out of their paycheck," and another group cannot even imagine how something that is good for the selling owner could also be good for them. These kinds of communication challenges are compounded for organizations like the Maitland, Florida, division of Plummer Inc., in which a significant portion of the workforce speaks Spanish and most company leaders speak English. Even if everyone spoke the same language, the cultural divide is too great to cross with words alone.

It's a familiar story, the leadership has a compelling vision, the ESOP is great opportunity for employees to build significant retirement, employees are getting a new benefit -- but many employees are either uninterested, misinformed or just plain suspicious of the plan. This is the story of how Plummer Inc. has used the "personal touch" to deal with this challenge.

Plummer Inc. is an employee-owned construction group that provides commercial and industrial painting and coating, sale and installation of floor coverings, and construction services specializing in hotel renovation and tenant build out. Initially, the 70% ESOP-owned company used traditional means of communicating in another language. They translated the Summary Plan Description into Spanish and asked a bilingual employee to do simultaneous interpretation during a meeting of all employees. Employees did not gain much understanding from these efforts. In fact, the bilingual presentation seemed long for everyone and was difficult to follow at times. In addition, the communication with Spanish-speaking employees was not markedly improved by these efforts.

Given those results, it was clear that a new strategy was needed. Instead of worrying about language, this company chose to concentrate on the messenger. A decision was made to help a group of employees to become the communicators inside the company. Now an employee group is helping with design of communication and delivering educational segments to their co-workers.

Company leaders started by asking a group of employees to volunteer to be communicators. Half the employees asked speak only English and the other half were bilingual but Spanish is their first language. They found people who wanted to learn and also those who have the respect of their co-workers. Spanish speakers were invited more for their ability to teach others rather than their own English skills.

The first step was to educate this "ESOP Communication Committee." One Saturday at a local hotel, the small group participated in an intensive one-day session in which they got a crash course in the ESOP. In that session, the group learned about the mechanics of the ESOP, roles and responsibilities of ESOP ownership and basic business concepts. This day set the stage for mutual understanding so that the group could begin to learn the new information and teach their co-workers.

The next step was to build agreement about the role of the committee in teaching their co-workers. We helped the group to establish a shared mission and dream about what they could do for their company. After that, the Committee started working on a developing an in-house program that will teach the most important points about the business, the ESOP and the culture of the company.

The materials that come out of this process are not fancy but the message is genuine. Although we could have created a professional bilingual presentation with a customized message for the largely Hispanic workforce, it would have been a mistake for this company. A slick presentation was not going to span the misunderstandings. In fact, the CEO Gary Grund feared that a "special Hispanic message about the ESOP" was even more problematic "We need to be learning about the ESOP together," Grund explains, "Because this is our company together." The idea of separate Spanish and English educational sessions does not fit the goals of the ESOP or the company's future. The group has developed more understanding about each other and the business. They can better "translate" the idea of teamwork to other employees no matter what language they speak.

The volunteer group has started running small after-hours orientation session with two committee members, interested employees, and the company CEO. The small group approach (4-6 employees speaking both languages in the session) has been successful for this company. Eventually the committee members will be running these sessions without the CEO. They plan on using the same communication model for a three-part educational series. "Employees can get comfortable and ask questions in the small group," says Jorge Sanchez one of the volunteers on the Committee. In the small group, there is interpretation and translation but it is more conversational and personal.

Effective communication is not only about language; it is about being on the same wavelength. Employees couldn't get excited about the ESOP until they understood it in their own terms. No amount of inspiring words from experts and executives was going to close the gap. At Plummer Incorporated, it took one-on-one communication to build the shared understanding and trust needed to really understand the ESOP.

Cathy Ivancic is a consultant and co-owner at Workplace Development Inc. Since 1985, she has helped more than 100 ESOP companies enhance ESOP communications and develop an ownership culture. She is active in national organizations that promote shared ownership and has served on the NCEO's board of directors and as an officer of the Ohio chapter of the ESOP Association.She can be reached at civancic@workplacedevelopment.com.

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