HR Conference

Skills Revolution To Feature Prominently At Next Tourism Human Resources Conference

BRIDGETOWN, Barbados (25 Feb. 2020) – The skills revolution needed to keep Caribbean tourism competitive will be a key subject of discussion when human resources professionals from across the region gather for the Caribbean Tourism Organization (CTO)’s 10th Tourism Human Resources Conference.

The conference, which will be held from 20-22 May, 2020 in Nevis under the theme: “Navigating the Next Phase of Caribbean Tourism”, is being organised in collaboration with the Nevis Tourism Authority.

“As the future of work emerges within the global tourism industry, the challenge for employers to recruit, retain and upskill workers to add value to their organisations becomes an ever-more essential component of operating successful tourism businesses,” said Sharon Banfield, the CTO’s director of resource mobilisation and development. “But there is a substantial disruption moving between present day and desired future. That disruption is the tourism industry entering the world of skills and competencies. In many sectors around the world, it is being referred to as the skills revolution.”

Canadian Joe Baker, dean of the School of Hospitality, Tourism and Culinary Arts at Centennial College in Toronto, and member of the board of directors of Tourism HR Canada, will present on the subject.

Joe Baker

Baker, an expert at leading multi-generational workforces, will conduct an interactive presentation on how Canada is addressing an acute tourism industry labour shortage by creating a national framework of skills and competencies for employers and educators to access and leverage to foster prosperity.

“The new era of skills and competencies is upon us as employers are driven to find and build a resilient and agile workforce that may not come through the doors with relevant education and experience,” Banfield said. “The opportunity is there for employers to identify, recruit and harness the skills required for new workers to thrive and contribute to the sustainability and growth of tourism in an increasingly competitive market.”

Baker, who holds a master’s degree in education from the University of Toronto, specialising in higher education leadership, is a regular contributor to hospitality and tourism industry trade publications and media outlets. He has developed a unique advocacy space for the collaboration between education and industry to build a resilient and agile tourism workforce. In January of 2020 he delivered a dynamic presentation at Impact Sustainable Travel and Tourism Conference in Victoria, British Columbia, Canada outlining challenges and strategies required for education to contribute to the future of the tourism industry itself.

His presentation at the conference will be one of many to help employers and HR professionals understand how to evolve their mindset from one of education and experience to one of skills and competencies. It will challenge conventional thinking and provide employers insight into key practices within the workplace that will contribute to organisational and industry success.

For more information on the 10^th Tourism Human Resources Conference, including how to register, please visit www.onecaribbean.org.

This Blind Spot is Limiting Caribbean Tourism Potential

BRIDGETOWN, Barbados (2 Nov. 2018) – A secret to unlock the full potential of Caribbean tourism may be hidden in plain sight. That is according to Tara Tvedt-Pearson, a certified strengths coach at Gallup, who will present a solution at the Caribbean Tourism Organization (CTO)’s 9th Tourism Human Resources Conference in the Cayman Islands from 28-30 November, 2018.

“Our innate talents and strengths represent our most direct path to our success. The problem, however, is that most people can’t accurately identify their own strengths and therefore can’t intentionally use them,” said Tvedt-Pearson.

The message will come as an integral component of the conference theme, ‘Building a Resilient, High-performing & Sustainable Caribbean Tourism Workforce for Global Competitiveness’. Tvedt-Pearson will present a masterclass on ‘Discover Your Strengths, Unlock Your Potential’ on Thursday 29 November.

“Unfortunately, when it comes to people development, most organisations across most cultures are operating from a mindset of weakness fixing. We identify areas of improvement and create annual development improvement plans for our employees even though we hired them for their strengths!” said Tvedt-Pearson.

Tvedt-Pearson has a background in human resources, psychology, and certification in project management which brings an ideal blend and balance to her coaching. Her work focuses on performance and by agreeing on measurements of success upfront, a clear scope and strategy is created for arriving at success.

“To help individuals and organisations worldwide harness the power of strengths, global management consulting company Gallup created the Clifton StrengthsFinder, an assessment that helps people discover and describe their talents. By revealing the ways in which each individual most naturally thinks, feels, and behaves, the assessment can help people identify and build on the areas in which they have the most potential to grow and succeed,” said Tvedt-Pearson.

Participants in the session will have the opportunity to discover their individual innate talents and the contributions they bring to their organisations, as well as understand what impact a strengths-based development approach -a “people solution” – can have to their business and bottom line. As a Gallup certified strengths coach, Tvedt-Pearson regularly helps individuals, leaders, teams, and organisations link their innate talents to specific goals and objectives, facilitate growth and development areas, and boost engagement.

The end goal is building a sustained competitive advantage. “Companies within the tourism sector that focus on measuring and managing employee engagement can withstand tough economic times and gain the competitive advantage that will keep them moving forward,” she said.

The CTO 9th Tourism Human Resources Conference seeks to provide an exciting and educational forum for human resource professionals to gain new knowledge and acquire the necessary skills to help them achieve excellent performance in their organizations. It also discusses pertinent issues impacting on, and relating to the human resource element of tourism in the region; exposes human resource practitioners to good tourism practices in a tourism environment, and provides an opportunity for professional networking.

The conference is sponsored by the Cayman Islands Department of Tourism and Dart, the Cayman Islands-headquartered global organisation whose portfolio of companies include real estate, hospitality, retail, entertainment, finance and biotech

For further details on the conference, including how to register, visit https://www.onecaribbean.org/events-calendar/tourism-hr-conference-2018/. And for a welcome message from minister of tourism Moses Kirkconnell, click here.

Tourism Human Resource Professionals To Plan Strategies To Build High Performance Workforce

BRIDGETOWN, Barbados (26 July 2018) – When human resource professionals from across the region meet in the Cayman Islands in November for the 9^th Tourism Human Resources Conference, they will be challenged to develop effective strategies and plans to build a high performance and motivated workforce.

The 28-30 November conference, organised by the Caribbean Tourism Organisation (CTO), in collaboration with the Cayman Islands Department of Tourism (CIDOT), comes at a time when the Caribbean faces increased competition in the global, high-tech, innovation driven industry, and amidst increasing calls for a total rethink of the way tourism leaders engage with the workforce.

“There is an urgent need for a high performance, resilient workforce which is critical for sustainability of the tourism sector in this ever-changing environment,” Sharon Banfield-Bovell, the CTO’s regional human resource development consultant said as planning for the conference intensifies.

Building high performance teams come with challenges, she said, including employees’ unwillingness or lack of motivation to change; low employee productivity and morale; and the scarcity of relevant skills, as well as weak or outdated leadership thinking and styles.

However, Banfield-Bovell said, while technology can help drive efficiency, “the real value in tourism is our human resources – the power of people – and the ability of a well-trained, highly valued, and fairly compensated workforce to transcend beyond process and profit”.

The conference, which has as its theme Building a Resilient, High-Performing and Sustainable Caribbean Tourism Workforce For Global Competitiveness, will feature experts in human resources, tourism and labour, including Claudia Coenjaerts, director of the International Labour Organization’s decent work team  and office for the Caribbean, who will deliver the keynote address on, The Future of Work – What will become the New Normal.

The CTO team has been working with the CIDOT to produce a dynamic programme of plenaries, masterclasses, a students’ forum and a tour.

“As Caribbean nations, it is imperative that we make the necessary investments which drive visitation in this globally competitive industry. While these investments often come in the form of property development or increased marketing, it is my belief that the greatest asset any tourism product has is its people,” commented Rosa Harris, director of tourism for the Cayman Islands. “The Cayman Islands has continued to develop our local tourism workforce through nationwide customer service training, tertiary education scholarships and the establishment of a vocational certification programme through our School of Hospitality Studies. We are proud to host the 2018 Caribbean Tourism Organization’s Human Resources Conference and look forward to inviting professionals from across the region, to share best practices on ways we can strengthen our tourism workforces for collective success.”

Registration and other information available at www.onecaribbean.org.