Human resource managers from Central Banks across the Caribbean are meeting in Belize this week for their seventh annual conference.
The meeting has participation from 9 Central Banks and is being held under the theme: 'Human Resource Management - linking efficiency and effectiveness.' Participants are deliberating ways in which Human Resource Management can strengthen and enhance operational efficiency. The conference was opened by former Finance Minister Hon. Ralph Fonseca, a man in the middle of some major professional changes, who says we must "embrace change."
Hon. Ralph Fonseca, Minister of Home Affairs and Investment
“Change is a constant in our lives and our human capital must rise to face and overcome new challenges. The pace of technological innovations, while opening up new opportunities, has also made certain jobs redundant. A worker today must be much more versatile than the worker of yesterday. Retraining and retooling of people to develop new skills and new competencies are necessary to the worker’s survival today and more especially in the future.”
“While exerting staff to greater efforts and developing a plethora of metric measurements to gauge and push for more productivity, organizations should not lose sight of the parallel need for staff development, good support structures, and the synergies that are gained from high staff morale and motivation.”
“I hope that the participants of this conference will richly benefit from the discussion and exchange of ideas and that the insights gained here will assist you to strengthen and enhance the operational efficiency of your respective central banks and communities. We stand by ready to be further educated by your rich intercourse of ideas.”
And in a rare show of the kind of media muscle only associated with full out offensives, we'll note that Fonseca's team worked very quickly to disseminate the mid morning speech to all radio and TV outlets by noon. The conference runs through to Saturday. The participating Central Banks are Aruba, Barbados, Bahamas, Belize, Jamaica, Trinidad and Tobago, Netherlands Antilles, and the Eastern Caribbean Central Bank based in St. Kitts. Bahamas' Ministry of Finance is also represented at the conference.