The Minister for Employment, Immigration and Civil Status, Myriam Telemaque, accompanied by relevant officers of her ministry and other authorities, conducted a series of workplace visits during the month of August 2018.
In total six private establishments were visited and they were from different industries ranging from farming, medical, business solutions, retail and tourism.
The visits are conducted with the aim of getting an insight into the activities performed by the various companies, their excellent practices. It is also an opportunity to discuss issues faced by both employer and workers.
As is the regular process for such ministerial visits, the minister is led on a tour of the premises of the establishments during which she interacts with the workers at their work station.
After the tour, the management meets the minister to discuss her observations and points raised by the workers. At this juncture, opinions are shared as well as best practice and suggestions so that an outcome to benefit both sides could be achieved in the shortest possible delay.
The establishments visited comprised SPAR Supermarket, Euro Medical, Rosebelle Farm, WestHill Farm, Apollo Business Solutions and

Havana Restaurant.

In general, these establishments shared certain aspects in common regarding their commendable practices such as the retention of long-serving staff, which is an encouraging factor with the companies and positive comments expressing satisfaction by staff with the management and working environment.
As is the case in every establishment, alongside creditable managerial practices will be challenges to be surmounted and improvements to be made albeit minor such as communication between management and staff as well as the installation of suitable work attendance monitoring methods.

Euro Medical

The minister’s visit to this medical establishment identified some positive practices such as the management’s encouragement towards staff when executing their daily duties thereby creating a feeling of comfort and reliability among them. Discussions that ensued following the tour focused on the need for the owners to introduce proper initiatives to promote retention and attract prospective candidates to recruit.

SPAR Supermarket

This establishment, being one affiliated with international outlets, presented the prospect of staff exposure to global standards and with the warm approach of the human resource personnel, the staff are always willing to participate with new ideas and take onboard additional responsibilities. The company possesses a good communication channel among staff and a strong opportunity for growth as seen with a former receptionist of the company who is now a HR officer. It was observed that recognition programmes and measures to encourage and retain employment would be beneficial for the establishment.

West Hill and Rosebelle farms

These farms with both vegetable and animal produce, share similar features as the minister’s visit identified a conducive working environment and worker satisfaction through its long-serving staff and positive comments, though the employers recount that as the nature of farming and agriculture advances with time and technology, the products of the school institutions in the country do not always meet the requirements of the industry. They also face challenges when it comes to recruiting from the labour market.

Apollo Business Solutions

The staff of this establishment expressed satisfaction with their work environment as is evident in their long years of service and welfare provisions for them by the company. There also exists a clear chain of communication among staff brought about by their regular staff meetings. Consideration was raised by the minister to management for international development of staff being that the company possesses global offices in different parts of the world and the exposure would be beneficial to both the company and the workers. 

Havana Restaurant

The restaurant displayed prospect for its staff development as seen with one of their waitresses who rose to supervisory position. The need for clear line of communication between management and staff through regular meetings was obvious in order to provide a forum for the staff to air their ideas and discuss challenges.

The debriefing with the minister yielded fruitful discussions. Processes that have been agreed upon for work establishments to put in place will be followed up by the officers of the ministry.
Generally the minister expressed satisfaction with the working environment and managerial practices of the establishments visited. Such practices will be shared with others facing difficulties as the visits continue for the remaining months of the year.
The accompanying photos show the minister and her delegation visiting the various workplaces mentioned.