The End Result: Labor Solutions

Plan #1:
BACK TO SCHOOL. Four years ago, while walking around local job sites, Frank Torre, chairman and CEO of Torre and Bruglio, Pontiac, Mich., noticed a lack of communication between his American and Hispanic workers.

“I would listen to them communicate and react to each other,” Torre explained. “I realized that the communication level there just wasn’t right. So, I decided to hire a teacher to educate them on how to communicate with each other.”

Since Torre already had a 110-seat classroom within his complex for worker training, education and industry-related seminars, all he had to do was find the perfect language professor for the job.

“I knew her from my recruiting efforts,” Torre said. “She speaks four languages and has an understanding of the different cultures and ethnic backgrounds and how American and Latino facial expressions and attitudes differ and how other cultures tend to perceive them.”

Out of Torre’s 600 employees, 60 percent of them are now participating in the weekly, 45-minute-long voluntary language classes. The course is just as hard as a regular college or high school language course, with written and oral tests once each month. When the intensity of the landscaping workload increases, classes are cut short, but in the winter they are extended to two times a week.

“All of my Latino workers are learning English and some of my American workers are speaking fluent Spanish,” Torre enthused. “They love it. For them it’s like learning a new language for free.”

Although the cost of hiring a teacher wasn’t cheap, Torre looks at battling the language barrier at his company as an investment.

“Everything is a risk,” Torre explained. “You’ve got to try it to find out if it works and then you continue to improve upon it. Part of managing a corporation is investing in the people. In the long run, having the professor around will pay off. And, hopefully, I’ll see less turnover because we’re giving people an opportunity, especially Latino workers. We not only provide them with the type of work they enjoy, but we are also helping them expand their horizons.”

Plan #2:
RECRUITING RIGHT. Looking for an exciting career in the Green Industry? Then Dan Foley, president of D. Foley Landscape, Walpole, Mass. wants you … and he’s telling everybody about it, including car rental agencies, bus drivers, his vendors and subcontractors, all his current employees and anyone he hands a business card to.

Every time Foley hands out one of his business cards, he also hands out something he calls a recruiting card. The card, which is the size of a standard business card, reads, “Looking for an exciting career in the Green Industry?” on the front. It opens up to reveal some of the benefits D. Foley Landscape offers employees, including safe working conditions, overtime and vacation availability, insurance options, 401(k) retirement plan, education/training reimbursement and day care savings program. It also lists the address, phone number and e-mail to contact the company. Foley put a positive message on the back cover of the card: “Join a nationally recognized, award-winning, full-service landscape firm since 1987.”

The best part about the recruiting cards, besides the fact that they get the company name out there, Foley said, is the fact that they are so inexpensive.

“We typed the text into our computer and had it printed black and white,” Foley noted. “A five-year supply cost us $50 or the same as one Help Wanted ad.”

Foley started this program in August and it has already resulted in one interview. Everyone at D. Foley Landscape carries these cards around with them, Foley said.

During the company’s peak hiring season, Foley also provides an incentive, a referral bonus of $100, to his vendors, subcontractors and employees if they make a reference resulting in a hire. Foley tried this program out from August through October when he was in need of five employees because the college help that he hired for the summer returned to school.

“We ran the program until all of the core positions were filled,” Foley said. “Out of the five employees we hired, one was a relocation, three were hired using the standard recruiting methods and one resulted from this program as a reference from another employee.”

The reason Foley initiated a monetary reward for referrals from his vendors, subcontractors and employees is because he was also giving away a $250 signing bonus to new hires.

The $250 reward is given to the new employee in two parts: $150 60 days after his or her first day of work and $100 after four months. The $100 referral bonus is paid to the person who referred the new hire soon after that person joins the staff, Foley said.

“I wanted my employees, vendors and subcontractors to know that they impact the success of this company,” Foley stressed. “If I was offering a new hire a monetary reward, I thought the person who made that referral deserved one as well for bringing the new employee into the company.”

Plan #3:
UNIVERSAL LANGUAGE. For employers trying to come up with a better way to justify any benefit or bonus they give to their employees, Mike Rorie, president of Groundmasters, Cincinnati, Ohio, has a suggestion: Do some math.

“Sometimes an employee benefit, even though it’s costing you a good chunk of money up front or per month, is only costing you 50 cents or $1 per employee per hour,” Rorie explained. “When you look at it that way, it doesn’t seem nearly so bad, and it justifies paying employees $7.50 instead of $8 an hour.”

An example, Rorie said, is housing. Rorie bought two four-bedroom, three-bathroom homes for his Hispanic and American employees. Eight people can stay in one house, two sharing a bedroom.

The way Rorie justifies the expense is by doing the math. As long as mortgage is below $1,200 each month for one house, then it’s costing him $1 per each of his eight employees per hour.

“If an employee works 40 hours each week times four weeks in one month that equals 160 man hours,” Rorie explained. “Multiply that by eight workers and you have 1,280 man hours. Say I’m subsidizing $640 per month on a house. Then that divided by the 1,280 man hours equals 50 cents per hour per man. By doing the math I can decide where I want to be on a level of participation. And I’m only factoring in the man hours these employees are putting in for me. They are also bringing in revenue for the company.”

When an employee approaches Rorie with questions about his or her salary and they are participating in programs such as the housing program, Rorie will explain the math to the employee and give that person a feeling of how they fit in at the company.

“Everything is, essentially, just a cost,” Rorie said. “I don’t give employees things because they pressure me. I try and know beforehand what I can afford to give them.

“I let my workers pick the benefits that best suit them,” Rorie continued. “I’ll pay them the $1,000 per year in benefits or I’ll let them keep the $1,000. But I don’t want them to lose track of the contribution they are making to this company. So I make sure they understand it mathematically.”

Plan #4:
KEEP YOUR EYES OPEN. In 1996, Mariani Landscape, Lake Bluff, Ill. lost 68 of its 140 employees in just one day, two of which were foremen.

“We were raided by Immigration and Naturalization Services,” explained Joe Aurilio, human resource manager for the company. “We didn’t sustain any fines or penalties because we had our I-9 forms filled out, but we suffered greatly from the loss of employees.”

As human resource manager for the company, Aurilio started doing a lot of research and attending informational seminars conducted by the Chicago district of INS, one of the three largest INS offices in the United States. The people at Mariani Landscape did not want to have to face a problem like the one in 1996 again, Aurilio said.

“The more I got involved, the more I realized that there are no guarantees,” Aurilio remarked. “I was on a first name basis with the people at the Chicago INS. We were saving any newspaper articles or other types of information on immigration we could find to stay on top of the issue while copying all of it to the Illinois Landscape Contractor Association. They say employers should exercise good faith in judgment when looking at an immigrant’s green card. We thought we did.”

While doing research and staying in close contact with the Chicago district of INS, Aurilio learned about J.E.V.P., the Joint Employment Verification Pilot Program, a cooperative venture between Social Security and INS as mandated by a 1996 Reaffirmation Act.

The program, which is only operating in Los Angeles and Chicago currently, puts employers online directly with INS via computer, Aurilio said.

The program is completely voluntary, Aurilio explained, but the owner of the company interested in participating must sign a memorandum of understanding authorizing the federal government to come onto their premises to verify eligibility for employment, even though it’s in the form of computer software.

What the program authorizes Aurilio and two other company employees to do is check the legality of an immigrant worker over the phone with Social Security and/or through the computer with INS.

Mariani Landscape has been using the program for two years, Aurilio said, and the only tough part is getting through Social Security.

“The primary goal of the Social Security part of the program was to give instant verification over the phone as to whether the social security number matches the name and birth date of the immigrant worker, giving that immigrant worker eligibility,” Aurilio said, comparing Social Security’s phone authorization system to a college registration phone system, only slower. “Only one in 10 times does it happen like that, but you have to go through that step first. They’ve been promising to move the Social Security system from the phone to the computer, but I don’t know how soon that change is coming.”

If Social Security says that the immigrant’s name and social security number don’t match properly, then there’s a form Aurilio has to give to the employee telling him or her that there is a problem with Social Security and that employee has 30 days to fix it. Otherwise, on day 31, Aurilio can terminate the immigrant’s employment from the company.

If the employee doesn’t get instant authorization from Social Security, but passes, then Aurilio enters the employee’s name, Social Security number, alien number and birth date into the INS system. The employee is either instantly authorized, his or her information sent for review or denied. If denied, the employee receives a form similar to the Social Security form, informing him or her of the problem with the INS’ information.

“If that employee is illegal, you won’t see him after the letter,” Aurilio said.

Out of Mariani Landscape’s 210 employees, 150 of them are Hispanic, Aurilio said. The J.E.V.P. Program benefits Aurilio because he can say confidently today that there isn’t one illegal immigrant employee at the company.

“I ran at least 200 people through the system last year,” Aurilio said. “After three years, the pilot data from the program will be reviewed and the best method will be put into place permanently.”