EDITORIAL

Positive Attitudes Are Needed By Employees

Friday, July 9, 2004

The comments made by Employment Relations Director Walling Whittaker (see story) at the recent Career Fair held by The Ritz-Carlton, Grand Cayman, might very well surprise many people.

Mr Whittaker noted that nearly two-thirds of 277 employers who were surveyed in 2003 said that a positive work attitude was more important than skills and experience when they look at job applicants.

Saying that the finding of the survey represented a “fundamental paradigm shift,” Mr Whittaker said that the specific traits employers are looking for include a solid work ethic, dependability, and a willingness and ability to work as a team player.

This shift in the characteristics sought in job applicants by employers in the Cayman Islands seems illogical from the sense that one’s abilities to do a particular job are considered less important than the attitudinal manner in which one carries out his or her duties.

Many jobs require specific, indispensable skills. For example, a school would not hire an English teacher who did not know how to read or write no matter how positive the teacher was.

However, employers are not saying they are willing to sacrifice ability for attitude. Underlying the paradigm shift is the notion that it is easier to teach employees with the right mental approach the skills necessary to do their job than it is to teach the right work attitude to those who lack it, but have the ability to perform their duties.

Though few of employers that said that a positive work attitude is paramount in hiring would admit it, this shift is mainly aimed at one group of employees in the country: Caymanians themselves.

When work permit holders have undesirable attitudes, employers dismiss them without second thought because expatriate workers are easily replaced. However, when Caymanian workers display similar traits, employers often feel they must put up with them since finding suitable replacements can be quite difficult.

There is no doubt that the work ethics and work attitudes of Caymanians, on the whole, have improved tremendously over the past two decades, especially in segments of the private sector.

Still, in certain industries and in certain classifications of jobs, positive attitudinal qualities remain lacking. That is why when it comes to non-management level Caymanian workers, local employers know that those with the right attitudes and work ethics are as good as gold.

Whether the Government or the Department of Employment Relations wants to say it publicly or not, they recognise that Caymanian attitudes toward work must change if the country is to progress in this now very competitive world.

Although he confirmed that Caymanians would be given priority for positions at The Ritz-Carlton, Mr Whittaker also stressed the importance of a positive attitude for the Caymanians that obtain jobs there. The Ritz-Carlton and other employers in the tourism industry know that good service starts with a positive working attitude.

The Ritz-Carlton demands high standards of service everywhere it is located in the world, and that is not about to change in the Cayman Islands. What Mr Whittaker was indicating in the nicest of ways with his comments is that while Caymanians might have the inside track to obtain jobs at the Ritz-Carlton, they must have the right working attitudes to do so.

To maintain and increase its market share in both the financial and tourism industries, the Cayman Islands must not only improve the products it offers, but it also must improve the way it delivers those products.

It is up to individual Caymanians to prove that they have the right attitudes that employers are looking for, and that they can provide world-class service the same way imported workers can.

Let us all hope that Mr Whittaker’s confidence in the ability of Caymanians to rise to the challenge is well founded.

Back...