Hispanic Economics

Hispanic and Latino HR and Labor Relations

Hispanics, Latinos and Latins are fast transforming the character of the American workplace.  Consider a few tantalizing facts:

• Hispanics are almost a decade younger (9.5 years) than the general population
• More than a third of Hispanics are younger than 18 years old
• Fertility rates of Hispanics are higher than the natural replacement level
• Hispanic women who attain graduate degrees earn 15% more than their non-Hispanic counterparts

These changes have not unfolded without comment. “It is a turning point in the nation’s history, a symbolic benchmark of some significance,” Roberto Suro, then-director of the Pew Hispanic Center, said of the emergence of Hispanics as the largest minority, displacing the historic position held by African Americans. “If you consider how much of this nation’s history is wrapped up in the interplay between black and white, this serves as an official announcement that we as Americans cannot think of race in that way any [longer].”  Other voices have been raised in acknowledgement—and alarm. “The persistent inflow of Hispanic immigrants threatens to divide the United States into two peoples, two cultures, and two languages.  Unlike past immigrant groups, Mexicans and other Hispanics have not assimilated into mainstream U.S. culture, forming instead their own political and linguistic enclaves—from Los Angeles to Miami— and rejecting the Anglo-Protestant values that built the American dream,” Samuel Huntington, of Harvard University, wrote in the pages of Foreign Affairs.

These demographic changes are also of profound socioeconomic consequence, simply because, unlike other immigrant groups, Hispanics have reached a “tipping point,” economically mandating that Spanish be one of the languages of business, and through higher birth rates, fundamentally changing the character of American society in this century.

Hispanic Economics is uniquely qualified to provide strategic solutions to help managers, supervisors and other administrators understand, and be effective managers of, their Hispanic and Latino employees. 

Managing Hispanic and Latino Employees: A Guide to Hiring, Training, Motivating, Supervising, and Supporting the Fastest Growing Workforce Group

Hispanics are the largest minority group and the fastest growing demographic in the United States. But their supervisors are often non-Hispanics who do not understand how they see the business world and so are not able to work with their Hispanic employees effectively.  Drawing on his own ethnic background and years of experience as director of the organization, Hispanic Economics, Louis Nevaer identifies three overarching concepts that inform Hispanic culture and that often result in behaviors and beliefs very different than, and sometimes seemingly at odds with, those of non-Hispanics. Using a wealth of specific examples, Nevaer shows how an awareness of the importance of these concepts can help managers create a welcoming work environment, increase productivity and employee engagement, and develop a dynamic and committed Hispanic workforce. As Hispanics become an ever-larger segment of the workforce, organizations who fail to make them feel welcome and valued risk losing access to a significant source of talent and innovation.

HR and the New Hispanic Workforce: A Comprehensive Guide to Cultivating and Leveraging Employee Success

The growing influence of Hispanics in the workforce has taken on a new urgency: considered by many HR experts to be one of the most significant challenges facing corporate America today. With a wealth of research and best-practice examples from corporate America's elite, these expert authors deliver both the strategies and the hands-on tools-detailed checklists, sample questionnaires and forms, and a helpful summary at the end of each chapter-to address such key issues as the increasing use of Spanish in the workplace; the need for quantitative tools for performance reviews; the need for new recruitment strategies; and benefit program changes that take into account the differing experiences, values, and needs of Hispanic workers.