Good mix sign up for awards

Businesses from several sectors have expressed an interest in the search for Barbados’ Best Employers and the organisers are pleased with the quality of applications.Rosalind Jackson, managing director of Caribbean Catalyst Inc., (CCI) said 30 per cent of companies applying for the inaugural awards programme were in banking and finance.Twenty per cent are in manufacturing, with services, hospitality and retail making up the remainder. Speaking at the Barbados Chamber of Commerce and Industry’s (BCCI) luncheon on Wednesday, Jackson noted that just over half of the applicants were in the large category, hiring more than 100 employees, with the head count ranging from 140 to 980.  Jackson added that one-third of the applicants were in the small category with staff complements of four to 25 employees while the medium category attracted fewer applicants. “I was pleasantly surprised with the quality of the small businesses,” she told the SUNDAY SUN, noting that the focus was on quality rather than quantity.However, she said it would have been “nicer” to have more entries in the medium category.More than half of the applicants were members of BCCI. Jackson noted that the CCI team would spend the next six to eight weeks in the field assessing the human resource practices of applicants through interviews with management and feedback from staff via surveys. CCI will do the analysis and a panel of independent reviewers – Ann Hewitt, Dr Hensley Sobers and Harold Hoyte – will determine the finalists and winners in each category. Jackson said the programme would be conducted every other year, giving participants time to implement any improvements with respect to their people practices. (NB)