Please be informed that the SHRM Member TT Forum organises and arranges for the SHRM Certification examinations to be done in Trinidad and Tobago. The first examination (SPHR, PHR and GPHR) was done in May 2011 and another is scheduled for December 2, 2011.

Anyone interested in writing this examination can email me at higuy@powergen.co.tt for further information.

Many thanks

Hyacinth Gur

The purpose of a company must be aligned with the personal goals of an individual and out of that contract core values will evolve. Often we have a disconnect between these fundamental pillars and often we seek adjustment and not alignment.

I think we should focus on rewarding financial and economic growth and align these goals with the personal goals and core values would emerge.

My favourite slogan is “Just do it”.

There are too many Executives in Companies who do not follow Company rules or performance standards everday, and because the are so called “Executives” many infractions commited by them are over looked which leaves people to wonder “who guard the guards’ and “where are our checks and balances.

Very good story Miss Ali. I trust you live up to your Company’s core values.

I’m also thinking that here in Jamaica we have a particular attraction to feelings of pride. How can that be leveraged?

I delivered leadership training for a leading supplier of contrsuction materials here in Barbados. During discussion the CEO confided that he just didn’t know how to get employees to ‘raise the bar’ (a great cue for me to sell my services …) but what was interesting was that initially he had thought productivity levels were low but assumed they could do no better, until he took a small team to work with the Trinidad employees and the productivity shot up to match those of the Trinidadian employees as they did not want to be out-done!

Francis whilst I agree that your suggestions are part of the solution to the problem – I think the bigger part, which you allude to, is the need to change the culture that has led to us accepting mediocrity, is it because we still think we are not good enough? Is it because if we work too hard we have leaders that will demand more but fail to show they appreciate and value our efforts through appropriate reward systems (both monetary and non-monetary).

Address these issues and then we can start the debate about higher standards which are a necessary next step.

I did not get to listen live but I was able to listen in its entirety well after it ended, which was great.

I’m looking forward to even more and you can be assured of my full support.

Thank you so much for ‘telling it like it is’. I totally agree about the need to identify the Mission (purpose for why the company exists). This is something that, as you state others, not only HR, struggle with – all too often I have seen Executive and Senior Management misunderstand the importance of Mission, seeing it as one of those ‘management tools’ that’s a fad and has no real bearing on ‘the business’ clearly your Kodak case study shows otherwise.

As for HR understanding their role in the business – I agree HR needs to look beyond the defined roles in the various ‘business partner’ models, reality is Organizations are dynamic and needs change and HR must be skilled enough and, Visionary enough to deliver what is needed, whether it’s traditionally seen as their role or not. To do that as you point out we need as Hr practitioners to develop some key competencies, which apply not only to HR- but leaders generally; now there’s a thought…if we have the same skills sets as leaders shouldn’t it be a given that we ‘have a seat at the table’ to make use of those skills!!!!

Once again great article.