Bahamians look to practice to make things perfect
|
| Published on Saturday, October 25, 2008 |
Email To Friend Print Version |
NASSAU, Bahamas: It seems the Bahamas national workforce has a thirst for self betterment with half saying they want further training from their employers in order to develop their skills according to the latest research released by Sandals Royal Bahamian.
The survey, which asked local businesses about training and social activities within the workplace, revealed that all those questioned recognized the benefit of ongoing training but almost half (48%) admitted to only receiving it on an annual basis with 1 in 5 not receiving any at all. Over a fifth claimed to never having received training outside of the workplace.
Andre Newbold, Director of Sales at Sandals Royal Bahamian commented, “These results clearly highlight the ambitious character of the Bahamian people with half recognizing the need for ongoing training as a way of getting ahead in today’s climate.”
Although most employers (80%) currently offer official training, almost the same amount (73%) follow the ‘more training the better’ ethos saying they’d like to offer more training then they currently do but cite time and cost constraints as issues.
“Nowadays, growing internally or ‘organically’ is what most businesses strive to achieve. Being able to develop your existing workforce as one’s business develops negates the need for an expensive and time-consuming recruitment process as well as the reduced productivity as new employees settle in.
“While many cite time and cost as barriers to offering more training, the cost and time involved with recruiting someone new could make it less cost effective than developing someone they already have,” Newbold added.
It wasn’t all work and no play though, 70% of those questioned said they’d like to see more social events held amongst work colleagues and a massive 96% believing work social events helped to create a better working environment and a stronger team ethic.
Although just 5% claim not to have official work parties outside of the festive season, almost two-thirds of those that do only hold them every 6 months or less.
Newbold said, “Parties, music, dancing and socializing is a massive part of the Bahamian culture and so it makes sense for this to spread this to our work colleagues. People spend several hours a day in each other’s company without ever really knowing them. A function held regularly outside of the work environment helps to foster a fantastic team spirit and togetherness which can in turn improve productivity.”
Mixing and Mingling, Fun Days, Karaoke and Awards Ceremonies all feature highly amongst Bahamians when asked about their favorite activities. | | | | Reads : 829 | | | |
|
|
