CSHRP Celebrates First Year Milestone

November 10, 2020 – Bridgetown, Barbados: A conversation over a few glasses of coconut water fueled the beginning of a movement that would shape the world of work in the Caribbean. One year after its inception, the Caribbean Society of Human Resource Professionals (CSHRP) is celebrating a network of over 800 practitioners spanning 16 countries across the English, French and Dutch Caribbean.  The CSHRP is the first regional society for HR professionals and has a mandate of being a repository for knowledge, facilitating knowledge development, knowledge sharing and continuous learning.

Founder and CEO Rochelle James describes starting the initiative as the first big milestone for CSHRP. “Our greatest achievement to date really has been just getting started. The conversation about having a regional society for Human Resource professionals is one that has been talked about for a bit in different circles. And the fact that from day one we had this overwhelming level of support from HR professionals makes us proud of this entire journey. We are able to connect, to talk, to have meaningful conversations to move the world of work forward and we are also able to build a community.”

CSHRP has been working to address the cultural particularities of Caribbean life. One of the organization’s flagship activities, is a monthly meeting of the practitioners dubbed a War Room Session where members offload challenges and collectively generate solutions applicable to the Caribbean work environment.

“How we practice HR in the Caribbean cannot be taught, schooled or even relayed to us by anybody outside of the region. You have to understand the Caribbean in order to understand how to practice HR in the region. And that I think, is another of our major accomplishments”, explained James.

The consensus shared among members is that the bespoke organization has filled a critical gap in fostering regional connectivity among HR professionals. Dr. Dionne Chamberlain, CSHRP member from Belize emphasizes the importance of having a community within the HR space to ventilate privately. “We all need to fill our bucket to renew, revitalize and recommit with new ideas and new ways of doing things and having this regional exposure is an excellent benefit that CSHRP provides.

Dr. Chamberlain, the HR Subject Matter Expert went on to delineate the current and future challenges experienced by the region in which HR will be required to support an ever-evolving landscape of varying socio-economic threats.

“2021 will have even more challenges as we see the economy continue to dwindle quite rapidly. We will to have make some serious decisions and especially that we are not only going to be facing a pandemic like covid-19 but we are going to be dealing with food security, financial security and health security. The reality is as human resource professionals we have to be our everything to our HR pool and we have to help drive and grow the economy and CSHRP has provided quite a bit of assistance there.”

In just one year the society has successfully established a community where leaders in professional development are provided with their own professional replenishment.  Navigating the new normal in a human resource context has been a prime topic of exploration. The collaborative space facilitates the development of best practices to assist practitioners to manage HR-related adjustments in the workplace and optimize performance within their respective organisations.

CSHRP, Country Coordinator for Antigua & Barbuda and President of the HR Professionals Association of Antigua and Barbuda Mr. Laurie Louard commended the organization’s approach in providing consistent learning opportunities in tackling relevant issues.

“Some of the gaps that CSHRP would have filled over the last year is in training and development and also the networking. Some of those connections I would have been able to use for the advancement of the Human Resource Professionals of Antigua and Barbuda. CSHRP’s support during Covid has been tremendous. The war room and webinars have been very topical, even the last one looking at how deal with our end of year get togethers which is a big part of us culturally. We now have to do this with the challenge of the Covid-era we now live in”, shared Louard.

Going forward CSHRP seeks to expand on its ambition of bringing together thought leaders in the field. The anchor event for 2021 will be the first ever colloquium for leaders of HR associations and coordinators for HR groups targeting 20 Caribbean nations.

-Written by Dainalyn Swaby