A series of workshops were organized by Ms. Jacintha James, the Training Manager for Centre for Enterprise Development under the Gateway Project – an initiative of the Government of St.Vincent and the Grenadines and the European Union- which aims to develop the private sector in order to aid in its economic recovery. The Business Gateway, under the leadership of Mrs. Simone Murray, seeks to provide entrepreneurial training as one such solution in developing capacity.

Joachim and Associates Ltd, an HR and Business Consulting firm was selected to conduct the “Effective HR Management” workshop.

The three day workshop commenced on March 16th at the Centre for Enterprise Development Training Room and concluded on March 18th, 2009. Sessions started mostly at 9:00 – 9:15 a.m. and ended at 4:30 .p.m. each day for the duration of the workshop. Participants included mainly supervisors from the Public and Private Sectors’. Twenty four persons were in attendance on day one, twenty six persons on day two and twenty five persons on day three, underscoring the consistency of attendance.

The aim of the programme was to “help participants acquire the specific knowledge, skills, and abilities associated with human resource management, enabling them to effectively perform the essential functions of human resource professionals in relation to the overall strategic goals of the business” 
Further, it was meant to enable participants to ensure that Hr is “At the Table” and not “ON the Table”. The approach was not to “cover the waterfront” by throwing in everything possible about the subject matter (HR Management); rather, the approach was selective- choosing the “need to know” before the “nice to know” of the stated subject area. The programme was a practical one.

It was designed on the principle that there is a new reality. Today Hr has to become a strategic business partner, and is now an integral part of the business, not a separate undertaking. Thus strategic activity becomes a major focus for specialist in HRM; they are required to operate at a level where strategic business alternatives are being discussed.

Now, more than ever, in order to have effective input into the corporate strategy, the HRM specialist will require a high level of business acumen in addition to knowledge of personnel strategies and programmes.

The results in terms of the transfer of knowledge and learning, interaction and group discussions and relevant group exercises in order to refine skills; were significant. It is important to note that the environment was highly interactive - questions were asked and experiences shared which added value to the content of the session.