The employer who understands how common such feelings are is more likely not only to help newcomers get over them but also to avoid the pitfalls often associated with new-employee orientation:

A good employer will take things slowly, providing you with information about the company and your job on a need-to-know basis while making you feel as comfortable as possible. You’ll get to know the company’s history, traditions, policies, and culture over time. You’ll learn more about salary and benefits and how your performance will be evaluated. Most importantly, you’ll find out how your job fits into overall operations and what’s expected of you.

How costly? For every $1 in payroll that it spends, the consulting firm Booz Allen Hamilton invests almost $0.08 in employee training and development. At Pfizer, the world’s largest pharmaceutical company, the total is $0.14 out of every payroll dollar.^[189] What’s the payoff? Why are such companies willing to spend so much money on their employees? Pfizer, whose motto is “Succeed through People,” regards employee growth and development as its top priority. At Booz Allen Hamilton, consultants specialize in finding innovative solutions to client problems, and their employer makes sure that they’re up-to-date on all the new technologies by maintaining a “technology petting zoo” at its training headquarters. It’s called a “petting zoo” because employees get to see, touch, and interact with new technologies such as the Segway Human Transporter (a battery-operated vehicle that responds to the rider’s movements) even before they hit the market.^[190]

At Booz Allen Hamilton’s technology “petting zoo,” employees are receiving off-the-job trainingoff-the-job trainingFormal employee training that occurs in a location away from the office.. This approach allows them to focus on learning without the distractions that would occur in the office. More common, however, is informal on-the-job trainingon-the-job trainingEmployee training (often informal) that occurs while the employee is on the job., which may be supplemented with formal training programs. This is the method, for example, by which you’d move up from mere coffee maker to a full-fledged “barista” if you worked at Starbucks.^[191] You’d begin by reading a large spiral book (titled Starbucks University) on the responsibilities of the barista. After you’ve passed a series of tests on the reading material, you’ll move behind the coffee bar, where a manager or assistant manager will give you hands-on experience in making drinks. According to the rules, you can’t advance to a new drink until you’ve mastered the one you’re working on; the process, therefore, may take a few days (or even weeks). Next, you have to learn enough about different types of coffee to be able to describe them to customers. (Because this course involves drinking a lot of coffee, you don’t have to worry about staying awake.) Eventually, you’ll be declared a coffee connoisseur, but there’s still one more set of skills to master: you must complete a customer-service course, which trains you in making eye contact with customers, anticipating their needs, and making them feel welcome.^[192]

The makeup of the U.S. workforce has changed dramatically over the past 50 years. In the 1950s, more than 60 percent was composed of white males.^[193] Today’s workforce, however, reflects the broad range of differences in the population—differences in gender, race, ethnicity, age, physical ability, religion, education, and lifestyle. As you can see in Table 7.1, “Employment by Gender and Ethnic Group”, more women and minorities have entered the workforce, and white males now make up only 37 percent of the workforce.^[194] Their percentage representation diminished as more women and minorities entered the workforce.

Most companies today strive for diverse workforces. HR managers work hard to recruit, hire, develop, and retain a workforce that’s representative of the general population. In part, these efforts are motivated by legal concerns: discrimination in recruiting, hiring, advancement, and firing is illegal under federal law and is prosecuted by the EEOC.^[195] Companies that violate antidiscrimination laws not only are subject to severe financial penalties but also risk damage to their reputations. In November 2004, for example, the EEOC charged that recruiting policies at Abercrombie & Fitch, a national chain of retail clothing stores, had discriminated against minority and female job applicants between 1999 and 2004. The employer, charged the EEOC, had hired a disproportionate number of white salespeople, placed minorities and women in less visible positions, and promoted a virtually all-white image in its marketing efforts. Six days after the EEOC filed a lawsuit, the company settled the case at a cost of $50 million, but the negative publicity will hamper both recruitment and sales for some time to come.^[196]

There’s good reason for building a diverse workforce that goes well beyond mere compliance with legal standards. It even goes beyond commitment to ethical standards. It’s good business. People with diverse backgrounds bring fresh points of view that can be invaluable in generating ideas and solving problems. In addition, they can be the key to connecting with an ethnically diverse customer base. If a large percentage of your customers are Hispanic, it might make sense to have a Hispanic marketing manager. In short, capitalizing on the benefits of a diverse workforce means that employers should view differences as assets rather than liabilities.