The longer you are in business the more you value your human resource personnel. With their expertise in recruitment, evaluation, mediation, and counselling they can take a great deal of credit for the smooth running of organisations. Therefore, I was honoured to have been asked to make a presentation to the 37th Conference of the Human Resource Management Association of Jamaica last week. Their theme was ‘Align people and processes for growth’, while my topic focused on the stereotypes surrounding mature-age workers, also known as baby boomers.

As our agency PROComm celebrates its 39th anniversary this year, we can look back and say that the mix of boomers, Gen X, Y and Z in our personnel has been to our benefit. We should bear in mind that the foundations of this digital age were created by Boomers and we are still seeing these pioneers guiding the younger generation in the best use of this education, information and marketing windfall.

We should note that, with the 60+ age cohort showing significant increase between 2013 and 2016, there are now over 350,000 Jamaicans over the age of 60. It is noteworthy that of the 1,216,200 employed persons, 66,100 are over the age of 65, described as the most significant increase per capita since 2016. With organisations taking a closer look at their budgets, outsourcing has become a great alternative to hiring full-time staff. This provides new opportunities for retirees.

We have found that our more mature team members bring to the table:

• a deeper understanding of business processes;

• solid ethics based on a more traditional, spiritual upbringing

• discipline and social ethics

• networking having been involved in various organisations, eg educational, church and civic

Our younger team members bring:

• energy and enthusiasm

• a very strong grasp of the programmes and are quick studies because they have grown up in the digital age

• independent thinking

• willing volunteerism in our outreach programmes because schools and universities require community service as part of the students’ development

Having served two of Jamaica’s oldest companies, The Gleaner and J Wray & Nephew Limited, we have seen first-hand the magic that can happen when diverse team members have strong and visionary leadership.

In 1984 we were co-creators and producers of Flair magazine for the first three years of its existence. We worked closely with Senator Hector Wynter, then the editor-in-chief, and the young members of the editorial and production teams. We observed that under the leadership of Chairman Oliver Clarke the newspaper embraced the digital revolution. We created the content for Flair on floppy discs in our office, then took them down to The Gleaner to have them uploaded.

The Gleaner Company then merged with the RJR Group, another company for which we worked, and so we saw two brilliant executives, Oliver Clarke and Lester Spaulding, whose passing we mourn, joining forces to create this powerful media group. Their inspired succession planning saw the emergence of two outstanding senior executives, Christopher Barnes and Gary Allen.

Wray & Nephew, led by William McConnell for several decades, was already revolutionising its processes in the 80s, and we remember senior executive Rooney Chambers as a tech whiz. With their shining Appleton brand and cutting edge systems, they attracted the Italian multinational Campari, and their respected senior executive Clement “Jimmy” Lawrence now chairs the company. We see the posts from their young managers commuting regularly between Jamaica and Italy.

Clearly the collaboration of more mature and younger employees is the recipe for boom, not gloom. In these times, mentorship is a two-way street, and the only people who will face gloom are those “know-it-alls” who feel they have arrived and that there is nothing more that they can learn. To manage this combination of team members requires strong and informed leadership.

The seeds of seniors

It was an honour to address Ebony Vale Baptist and their Women’s Federation Chapter Prayer Breakfast on Saturday. A great benefit of representing the Caribbean Community of Retired Persons (CCRP) is that I get to meet with our nation-building, hard-working, prayerful citizens who continue to serve family, community and country. I had a similar meeting in September with the Retired Librarians Association, whose members are also avid volunteers.

When I consider the sacrifices that these seniors have made, it is a shame that they cannot enjoy our beautiful country free from the fear of crime. We believe that if these various civic and church organisations could come together, we would be able to chart a path of mediation, reconciliation and forgiveness to help Jamaica to make a fresh, new, peaceful transition.

Because of the lives that these good Jamaicans have lived, and the contribution they have made, they have the authority to speak out about the nation’s ills and to become agents for national healing. It is up to us to rise above political division because nobody wants to have a Jamaica in which children cannot grow and thrive.

Lester Spaulding, man of excellence

It was with deep sadness that we learned of the passing of the beloved founding board director of CCRP, J A Lester Spaulding, CD, who contributed greatly to the establishment of the organisation.

It showed the measure of the man, holder of prestigious chairmanships and directorships, that he accepted our invitation to serve a fledgling entity and made himself available to check our accounts before every board meeting for the first five years of our existence, answering every e-mail, returning every call. Whenever we asked for help he would take out a little notebook from his pocket and write it down; such was his respect for others.

Our company served RJR during the 80s and 90s, so I have been able to see close-up the transformation of RJR under the brilliant leadership of Lester Spaulding. We will never understand how he did so much for so many, how he could see so far into the future of media to make the RJR Group and subsequently the RJRGleaner Group the Caribbean giant it is today.

It is difficult to face a world with no Lester Spaulding to call, meet, and greet, but we are grateful that God blessed us with such a generous leader whose guidance will help us stay the course.

Thank you, Lester Spaulding. Rest in peace, friend and brother. Our deepest sympathy to his dear wife Lindamarie, children, other relatives, and close friends.

lowriechin@aim.com

www.lowriechin.blogspot.com