Human resources issues take spotlight

There was standing room only at the launch of Disrupt HR Barbados Edition 2.0 event which was held at Ten Habitat, Wildey, St Michael last Tuesday.

Ten industry professionals gave riveting presentations, which ran for five minutes each using 20 slides that rotated at 15 seconds per slide.

The speakers were Sonia Layne-Gartside, who gave a presentation on HR in 2022: Stop Acting like the PR in the C-Suite where she explained that Human Resources had become an “ensure the company does not get sued” but it is much more than that as HR professionals should be the driving force in an organization and have a leading role.

The second speaker in the Disrupt HR Barbados edition 2.0 event was Celia Collymore. In her presentation on Work In Blank Spaces, Collymore spoke about how she was fired from her job in the United States of America in the form of an impassioned poem which she used to explain to the HR professionals in the room the reasons why they should seek to be more than their curriculum vitae and operate in the blank spaces.

She was followed by Kris Cadogan, who spoke on Workplace Bullying – The Silent Epidemic. He focused on workplace bullying and urged employees to enforce policies to ensure that the company stamps out workplace bullying. He recommended that companies create and implement these policies as it would lead to increased productivity fromtheir members of staff.

The fourth speaker was Davina Layne, who gave the presentation Nightmare on Wall Street. She explained how some HR professionals are like Freddy Krueger in how they go about their recruitment processes by asking bad questions and not disclosing the salary, and expecting the interviewee to solve the company’s problems. She advised future employees to apply for job opportunities even if they only met 70 per cent of the requirements.

She was followed by Siobhan Robinson, and in her presentation Human Back In HR she further elaborated on the sentiments made by Sonia Layne-Gartside where she said that HR professionals needed to ensure that their staff had a safe environment in which to work.

The sixth speaker was Jason Jack who came in from Trinidad and Tobago to speak at the event. Jack spoke on Employee Discipline. In his presentation he used an example of effective discipline and gave Caribbean examples.

He noted that in business unlike in Caribbean parenting, one should not seek to chastise an employee, but they should be swift, fair, unbiased and objective when handling employee relations.

He was followed by Gillian Foster who presented on No Shackles No Chains in which she encouraged the HR professionals in attendance at Disrupt HR Barbados Edition 2.0 to take a pledge to break the shackles and chains that they have in their business to allow for better employer-employee relations.

The eighth speaker was Caroline Bennett-Jarvis who presented on HRD Inspiration Through The Arts. In her presentation she encouraged HR Professionals to use the arts as a tool that can be applied to boost morale in the workplace. Her artistic spoken word presentation made members of the audience chuckle at some of the inflections she did with her voice.

She was followed by Paula Pitt who presented on Being Less Agreeable in which she told a story of how she caught her members of staff at a nearby establishment consuming alcohol and how she was labelled a good
girl by the proprietor.

However, Pitt knew that what was occurring at the establishment was not in good taste and explained that many times HR Professionals need not be so agreeable, but to be disagreeable at times without being dismissive or disrespectful. She explained that Human Resource Professionals must make the hard decisions to ensure that the company is able to navigate the tough times.

The final presenter and awardee of Best Speaker was Shane Howell who presented on The Real Reason. In his presentation he stated that 60 per cent of the staff in a workplace does not respect their leaders and he asked the HR professionals to think how many of them would appear on the staff’s top three list if they were to start their own business.

He received riveting response at the end of his presentation and received a hamper from the organizer of Disrupt HR Barbados Julie Turney.

Speaking to the media, Turney said that the event was more than she could have asked for as the ten speakers did an amazing job and the audience was very participative.

“I am very pleased with how things turned out. We were sold out by Monday evening and based on our last event I suspect that we would have had a great turn out.

“This is our second Disrupt HR on the island. The first one was in 2020 but we still did our best to host virtual events, but it is not the same. I am very excited by the response from last evening’s event. Disrupt HR will keep on producing excellent events for years to come,” she said.

Turney who is also the owner of HR@HeartConsulting Inc said that she could not be happier with Shane Howell who was awarded the best speaker as his presentation was very inspirational.

“Mr. Howell’s presentation was inspirational. For me it truly shows how much people value trust. But many of us do not trust our leaders and that is something that persons in leadership positions truly need to think about. For me, it was a great reminder of the leader I do not want to be,” she said.

Turney will be hosting events in Jamaica and Trinidad later in the year and persons can follow the Instagram page @disrupthrcaribbean for more information on the speakers. The host in Jamaica will be Dr. Terri Karelle-Reid and the host in Trinidad will be Lerielle Cole Pierre.

Turney wished to thank her sponsors Print on Demand, BIBA, South Beach Hotels, Massy Learning Institute, Paycee Digital, Body Essentials, Perspecktiv, 13thrive, Roc Solid Entertainment, She Market’s Women’s Empowerment Clique, Duty Free Holdings, Sagicor, Blue Print Creative and HR@Heart Consulting Inc. as well as the amazing team of professionals who volunteered their time to ensure that Disrupt HR Barbados was successful. (Write Right PR Services)