Human Resource practices in Barbados are becoming more refined, relevant and in line with global standards, say some experts.
However, it is generally agreed that there is still some room left for improvement.
In the October 4, 2010 issue of BARBADOS BUSINESS AUTHORITY, human resources expert Dr Hensley Sobers said many local companies had adopted and adapted human resource practices in concert with internationally-accepted standards.
Reporting on the practices of entrants in the Barbados’ Best Employers programme, the retired human resources director of the Central Bank of Barbados said a work-life balance was becoming very entrenched in management practices.
He said companies were also emphasising the function of management that involved influencing employee motivation to achieve desired results.
“More companies are linking HR strategies to business strategies, particularly where bottom lines are concerned,” he said.
Sobers reported greater use of HR metrics and performance management systems, including both traditional and modern practices.
“In some instances we recognised it was a hybrid of the well-known system and other ways,” he pointed out.
“We also observed efforts to re-culture organisations from the master-servant practices to social partnership,” Sobers said, noting that managers were now being seen as coaches and facilitators.
Also the language of organisations has become more inclusive, with emphasis on “we” instead of “they”, “us” instead of “them” and “associates” rather than “subordinates”, he said.
Sobers also lauded the way some companies encouraged employees to join with managers in community events.
“Generally, we were impressed with the fact that Barbadian companies are using progressive strategies,” he said.
In addition, director of human resources at the Central Bank of Barbados Janis Marville, said the role of the human resource practitioner was gradually reaching the forefront of companies.
“HR has moved from backstage to centre stage, now almost front stage,” she commented.
“The successful companies are those where HR captures the vision of the CEO, because the CEO is the visionary and HR needs to capture that vision and operationalize it within the organisation,” she said in the August 23, 2010 issue of BARBADOS BUSINESS AUTHORITY.
Marville noted that human resource professionals needed to equip themselves differently since they were no longer simply people who “hire and fire”.
“Now we’re moving to the role of coach.
“No longer can HR sit behind a desk in an office and be effective,” she said. “We need to be out there where the game is happening, where the play is happening, to see what is going on,” she added.
Marville noted that such a hands-on approach helped to build employee and industrial relations.
She said the professional was also becoming more accepting of the display of emotions in the workplace.
“Before people were told ‘leave your emotions at the door’,” she said, noting that literature is now showing that the most effective leaders will not be those with a high IQ but those who have a high EQ (emotional intelligence).
“Employees don’t really care what qualifications you come with. They care about how much you care, and it’s out of the caring . . . that you build relationships,” she said.
Still there is room for improvement.
According to Governor of the Central Bank of Barbados Dr DeLisle Worrell, the Caribbean will never attain world-beating levels of efficiency if current organisational practices continue.
“If after decades of effort we have made no progress in the direction of happy and productive organisations, it should dawn on us that we need a change in direction,” Worrell said in the August 23, 2010 issue of the DAILY NATION.
“It is becoming increasingly clear that if we continue with our present management and organisational, culture, behaviours, tools and practices, we will never ever achieve happiness in the workplace.”
He said that “the reasons for failure will have nothing to do with our unquestioned talent, but will be a result of sticking to practices that amount to shooting ourselves in the foot”.
The governor said organisations must abandon individualism in favour of systems which promote cooperation and collaborative behaviour.
“We must abandon attempts to pay for the production of services in the same way that we can pay for the production of goods,” he advised.
“We must recognise that businesses and institutions are societies made up of emotional beings, not mechanical artefacts.”
He added that it did not matter how sensational the performance of one or two individuals might be because if the team did not pull together, the organisation would fail.
Furthermore, chairman of the Productivity Council Anthony Johnson challenged businesses in Barbados to revamp traditional methods of compensating employees to improve productivity in the island.
In the September 29, 2008 issue of BARBADOS BUSINESS AUTHORITY he argued that: “The traditional approaches to compensation do not meet today’s business needs.”
He said these payment methods fell short of requirements for current business success since they did not address rewards, reinforce teamwork or support strategic business priorities.
Also they were too inflexible and not reflective of business outcomes, whether negative or positive.
“We have to raise the level of awareness and the focus that productivity brings to the workplace in today’s challenging environment, being that firms have to be more competitive, cost-conscious, quality-conscious and employees have to give of their best,” he added.
Therefore, he noted, employers needed to reward staff for their level of performance, which meant more than remunerating for a job done.
Johnson observed that such schemes served two important purposes, which were to align the pay system with the business and human resources strategy of organisations and make compensation, at least, partly contingent on the performance of entities.
