Acclimating a steady influx of new faces to the company culture can be tricky for high-growth companies. Here's how several Inc. 500 companies are introducing new hires to their ways of business.
This year we canvassed the Inc. 500 for smart ideas on managing fin-de-siÈcle growth. Not surprisingly, all we heard about was employees--finding them and keeping them. So we're devoting this entire section to the subjects of recruiting and retaining the staff you need to grow. --The editors
Welcome to America
Milan Patel, CEO of ACS International Resources Inc. (#296), doesn't pull punches with the new employees he recruits from overseas. On their first day at the IT consulting company, based in Wilmington, Del., he presents them with their very own can of deodorant.
"It's blunt, it's rude, but it works," says Patel. Whether or not his new hires were accustomed to ameliorating their personal musk in their home countries, Patel wants them to know that they're now in America, land of the innocuous underarm. "That's the number one most offensive thing you can do to clients, send them a person who stinks up the joint," he says.
While some may argue that it's Patel's tactic that's offensive, some recruits actually appreciate the CEO's efforts. Sudheer Ghanathe, a recent ACS recruit from India, says Patel's lecture was valuable. "We're not that used to chemical things like those in the United States," he says. "It takes a bit of time to understand."
Patel's technique speaks to the lengths to which CEOs are willing to go these days to meet their staffing needs. A growing number of Inc. 500 companies--especially those with computer-programming slots to fill--are looking abroad to India, Russia, Israel, Canada, and other countries. U.S. employers can bring in foreign workers under H-1B visas, for which demand generally exceeds supply: 1999's quota of 115,000 visas was met in June. But even when they can import the warm bodies, employers are finding that the recruits need some extra help to master life in the United States, from basic needs such as housing to finer points like personal hygiene. After all, the company isn't just introducing a worker to a new job. It's acclimating him or her to a whole new culture.
A simple welcome is a good start, says Peter Stevenson, president of Innovative Technology Solutions Inc. (ITS) (#429), an IT consulting company in Piscataway, N.J., that recruits about 60% of its employees from overseas. When ITS brings in an employee from abroad, someone from the company invariably meets him at the plane. "They see the company really cares about them," says Stevenson. "I don't want them to get oriented by the limo driver."
Next come the basics: a U.S. driver's license, and a local bank account. ITS advises recruits to obtain an international driver's permit before leaving home. Once foreign recruits obtain a U.S. license and Social Security card, they are ready to open a bank account, says ITS account executive Altaf Huq. "We have a good relationship with our bank, and once we introduce an employee, the bank takes the account right away," Huq says. Employees can obtain a credit card from the bank as soon as they open an account, he adds.
The new hires need wheels, too. Kannan Srinivasan, CEO of Best Computer Consultants (#258), based in Overland Park, Kans., says that it wasn't easy to persuade banks to make car loans to Best's foreign recruits until the company agreed to cosign the loans. Now the company is typically coguarantor on a one-year loan at prime rate.
The new employees also need a place to drive to--besides the office, that is. Several companies, including Best and ACS, provide temporary housing in the form of furnished guest houses, wherein a small group of foreign hires can live for a few weeks, dorm-style, until they can find their own permanent housing. ITS puts up recruits at a local chichi hotel, banking that a taste of luxury will pay off in employee loyalty; then, after two weeks, Huq helps them find a permanent place.
For most recruits the biggest adjustment is a cultural one. (See the earlier deodorant example.) In ACS's comprehensive cultural indoctrination for the approximately 50 programmers that it recruits from abroad every year, grooming tips are only the beginning. During a two- to four-week orientation period, CEO Patel buys new employees American food for lunch--subs, pizza, Taco Bell--and asks them to watch one or two hours of television daily to pick up on idiomatic American speech. He discourages them from speaking their native language at work, so that they can pick up English faster. And since most of his overseas hires are men who leave their wives and children at home, at least temporarily, Patel and his human-resources manager roll up their sleeves to make sure the newcomers pick up some housekeeping skills. "I will show up there on Saturday and say, 'It's cleaning day,' " Patel says.
At Best, where almost 70% of the company's hires come straight from India, managers have the task of passing on cultural dos and don'ts. In India, says Srinivasan, who knows from personal experience, one might catch another person's attention by touching his or her cheek. Here, he says, "that could cause a serious problem." Best is currently developing its own cultural-training CD-ROM, so that employees can bone up on their own.
When Dallas software and consulting company Akili Systems Group (#241) began importing Russian programmers, last year, it gave its foreign recruits one-time bonuses of $10,000 to $15,000 for completing an English class at a local community college. The company also paid for instruction in American culture and manners. And human-resources director Michael McGaughey and several employee mentors introduced the recruits to daily life in America, from explaining the local school system to taking them to supermarkets and the Gap.
Getting the new workers settled took a lot of time and planning, says McGaughey--"I basically disappeared for three weeks," he says--but it was worth it. There's a noticeable difference, he says, between those workers and a couple of earlier Russian recruits who didn't go through an orientation program. "They acclimate differently--how they feel about the company, how much they feel like a part of the group," he says. "It's a very powerful thing. --Emily Barker
