New DirectorTakes up Challenge
Employment RelationsDirector Walling Whittaker.
Employment Relations Director Walling Whittaker'sleadership style is best exemplified by a strong sense of direction.
In the two months since he has assumed thepost, Mr Whittaker shared with staff his clear and simple visionfor transforming the recently restructured department into a modelof civil service efficiency, productivity and transparency.
He already has a strategy for realisingthis ambitious goal.
"Employment Relations must work todevelop well-researched, customer-driven services for its targetclientele. This includes providing comprehensive information onemployment opportunities to the unemployed and students, as wellas educating small businesses about good employment relationspractice," he says.
To help meet these new objectives, the departmentnow includes a small-business advisor, as well as officers responsiblefor research, public information and career development.
It is also developing a computerised database on the local employmentsituation that will allow it to more easily generate and disseminateinformation.
Explaining how the system will function,Mr Whittaker says: "We believe the free flow of informationrelating to job-seekers and employers will allow these personsto find each other with greater ease and efficiency in a marketthat is characterised by a rapidly changing labour environment."
In addition the department will use thestatistics to help manpower planners foresee and meet the market'sneeds in relation to industry, occupations as well as educationand training.
Employment Relations now has in-house desktoppublishing capability to make the relevant information availableto its clients. In addition to a website, it plans to shortlyproduce a series of booklets and brochures for employers and employeeson the specific areas in which they regularly seek advice. Thisseries may prove to be extended subject-wise as staff presentlyfield some 250 calls each day.
Mr Whittaker believes these new media willenhance the department's information and public education initiativesand help to circumvent the culture clashes and communication breakdownsthat can be a common source of workplace tension.
"With a workforce of some 16,000, mostof whom are non-Caymanians from different countries, it is notsurprising that many people expect different standards of behaviourwithin the workplace. Employment relations is an important toolthat can change cultural work attitudes, values and productivity,"he says.
Accordingly the department will take partin discussions on the coming White Paper on Culture in an attemptto establish a meaningful link between culture and work ethic.
It also plans to further develop a preventative approach to conflictresolution that the director hopes will reduce the number of casesarbitrated by the labour tribunals. Over the past three years,he notes, the tribunals dealt with some 400 cases, including complaintsof unfair dismissal and withheld pay.
"This statistic and other evidencepoints to the need for improved relations in the workplace. Duringthe recent Vision 2008 exercise, two thirds of respondents saidthey were unhappy with their workplace relationships. Yet halfof these believed something could be done to improve the situation.I believe that to effect meaningful change, our citizens' workethic must play a tremendous role in any initiative to alter employmentrelations and productivity in the Caymanian workplace," MrWhittaker remarks.
While the Employment Relations Departmentis already working hard to develop modern and competitive labourenvironment in the Cayman Islands, the director feels there isstill one more step to be taken.
"Cayman is presently one of only twoCaribbean countries that have yet to sign the International LabourOrganisation's basic conventions, including the prevention ofworkplace discrimination, the control of child labour, healthprotection and the right to workplace negotiations. While manyof the practices are already in place, I feel it is importantthat we sign the agreement to establish to all that our standardsare consistent with those of the international marketplace,"he explains.
Yet with challenges like these ahead ofhim, Mr Whittaker says he is still enjoying his return to thecivil service.
Previously the Chief Environmental HealthOfficer for the Department of Environmental Health, he had workedin the private sector since the early 1990s. He says he was luredback to the public sector by the chance to use his people managementand strategic planning skills for the good of the country.