As the 2012 Barbados Best Employers (BBE) programme gets under way, two former participants have reported the benefits of the initiative that was first staged in 2010.
BBE, the brainchild of consulting firm Caribbean Catalyst, is sponsored by the Nation Publishing Co. Limited and BARBADOS BUSINESS AUTHORITY.
It is designed to recognize and honour organizations with exemplary human resource practices, policies and programmes.
John Howard, chief executive officer of Summit International Bank, said participating in the biennial event was linked to the company’s growth strategy.
Speaking recently at the Courtyard by Marriott during the launch of this year’s programme, he said while the bank was initially sceptical about opening up for a human resources audit, they decided to “take the plunge”.
“One of the reasons for that is that we have an ambitious vision as a bank to be the number one high net-worth family investment manager by 2015,” he said.
“With such a stretched target we do need to attract the best and brightest to the bank in Barbados, so making sure that we have a world-class HR environment is a critical part of that,” Howard added.
He noted the programme helped Summit to identify the areas in which it could improve.
“It really provided a good forum for us to deal with some of these issues with our staff.
“I guess from a tangible perspective for us, our retention rate has gone up, so that’s a very positive measure by which we’ve valued this service,” he said.
Similarly, TeleBarbados Inc. executive vice-president Patrick Hinkson said the programme showed where the young company stood in comparison to other local companies.
“The one-on-one sessions were very helpful primarily for us at TeleBarbados to see where we fit in with our group, which was the medium group, to see what other companies in Barbados are doing.
“You’re not benchmarking yourself with a company in Jamaica or the United States but what local companies are doing to retain their staff, to train their staff, to have that employee satisfaction that we all want to achieve,” he said.