Lok Jack GSB hosts
Premiere HR Conference

The Arthur Lok Jack Graduate School of Business hosted its Premiere HR Conference on April 16, 2008 at the school’s auditorium. Presenters were drawn from faculty as well as external consultants in the field of HR. They included: Dr. Kwame Charles, Director and Principal Consultant, Quality Consultants Ltd.; Mr. Curt Wellington, Consultant, Lok Jack GSB; Mr. Lee E. Miller, Managing Director, NegotiationPlus.com; Mr. Ram Ramesh, CEO, CMMB; and Ms. Carol-Ann Senah, National Project Coordinator, International Labour Organisation. Attendees, mostly HR professionals, hailed from both private and public sectors.

Dr. Charles initiated his presentation with an exercise which determined how engaged the audience was with their organisations. Many scored high. He explained “…people in HR tend to be more engaged than other people.” He listed the four main drivers of engaged employees as: Leadership – must set clear objectives for the organisation; Development –opportunities must exist for professional development; Communication – must be effective; Cooperation – build a culture of teamwork and partnering.

The next topic of discussion “Competing in the Knowledge Economy” was presented by Curt Wellington, Consultant, Lok Jack GSB. Using 3M as a reference, he said it was important for staff to continuously innovate and be creative, but equally important for them to learn from their mistakes. He went on to discuss how HR professionals can leverage knowledge in their organisations.

Mr. Lee E Miller then shared some strategies on “The U Perspective as the Key to Becoming the Employer of Choice.” “Why do people leave companies?” he asked. Several reasons were offered by the audience. He then stated “It’s almost always because of their managers!” He said that recruiting was most important because retention would be easy if the right people were hired. He added “if you have the wrong players, no amount of coaching in the world will get you anywhere.” Mr. Miller explained that the “U Perspective” meant “seeing the world through the eyes of someone else”. He drew reference to the movie, “Automobiles”, where aliens saw the world being run by automobiles and humans were their slaves. The slaves take the automobiles to socialise each day while they work all day to feed the automobiles. The audience laughed.

Other areas coved by Mr. Miller included: Strategies for Recruiting the Best Talent; Selecting the Best Talent; Closing the Deal; and Gaining Influence and Resources Necessary to Execute Strategies; Compensation as a Tool to Motivate and Retain Employees; and, Retention Tools other than Money.

Following the evening break, Mr. Ram Ramesh, CEO, CMMB, presented his own case study on CMMB – “How to unlock the full potential of talent through Carnival Culture”. According to Mr. Ramesh only 55 out of 100 persons are doing what they are supposed to be doing. He said at CMMB, there are no sick leaves, no vacation, and no casual leave, but they have time off. An employee at CMMB can have all the time off he/she wants. He said “if it is ok to check email on Sunday, why is it not ok to go to the movies on Monday morning?” He then explained that for the past seven years, no one has abused this system at CMMB. “The catch” he said, “is peer pressure and having a well structured performance management programme.” He also encouraged HR practitioners to create a culture of celebration in the workplace.

Closing the evening session was Ms. Carol-Ann Senah who received much engagement from the audience. Her topic, “HIV/AIDS and The World of Work” called for the promotion of decent work opportunities for HIV infected persons and for their rights to be respected. She said that HIV is a workplace issue and, in T&T, unprotected heterosexual contact is the major mode of transmission. She also discussed some myths about the disease and went on to state that there are productive workers with HIV. “An HIV positive person is not a sick person”, she said. In closing, Ms. Senah urged the HR professionals to refer to the “ILO Code of Practice on HIV/AIDS and the World of Work” as guide for use in the workplace.

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