The Tribune

By NEIL HARTNELL

Tribune Business Editor

nhartnell@tribunemedia.net

Baha Mar yesterday said it had already contacted 3,277 potential Bahamian recruits for its $2.6 billion resort, adding that it was confident it would “rise to the occasion” in developing a local workforce.

Robert Sands, the developer’s senior vice-president of external and government affairs, told Tribune Business its proactive recruitment strategy was “reaping rewards”, and would result in “the cream rising to the top”.

Expressing optimism that Baha Mar would largely be able to source its 5,000-6,000 new recruits locally, Mr Sands said: “We’ve had 3,277 confirmed contacts, of which 2,900 are high school students, and of which 305 are college students.

“Two hundred and twenty-three [college students] are from COB and 82 from colleges abroad.”

Baha Mar had also met with “close to 80” persons interested in either changing their job or career, Mr Sands added.

“We have visited to-date, and done presentations at, 29 institutions in the last six months,” he said. “During that time we have visited 12 high schools, a number of them multiple times, as well as COB and BTVI.”

Johnson & Wales University, the University of Tampa, the University of Central Florida and St Leo’s have all been on Baha Mar’s travel itinerary, as it targets ‘clusters’ of Bahamian students studying abroad.

For the 2013 second quarter, Mr Sands said the resort developer’s representatives plan to visit Bethune-Cookman, St Thomas and Florida Memorial universities in the US.

And, of the 29 presentations give by Baha Mar to-date, some 21 have been at high schools and eight at colleges.

“It is reaping rewards and, on top of that, we have a very aggressive social media campaign,” Mr Sands told Tribune Business.

“Our followers on Facebook are almost 8,000, our careers page are almost 500, and on Linkedin there is another 1,000.

“That just gives a flavour of the steps we have really been taking in a short period of time. It is reaping success, and is how those individuals have been selected for the Dream Team positions.”

This is an effective riposte to comments by Fred Mitchell, minister of immigration, who on Sunday warned that it would be a “tough sell” for Baha Mar to obtain work permits for posts such as labourers, housekeepers and bar tenders.

He called on Baha Mar and other businesses to “get the training programme going”, warning that the Government was not going to allow Bahamians to “sit on the side of the street” while expatriates took positions at Baha Mar.

The training programme remarks, at least in Baha Mar’s case, seem curious, given that the resort developer already has a dedicated Academy for just such a purpose.

“Setting the record straight”, Mr Sands said Baha Mar would only seek work permits for senior and middle management positions, posts requiring technical skills and specialist positions with “unique skills”, and job categories where there were not enough qualified Bahamian applicants.

Asked whether Baha Mar would need its full quota of 200 work permits, as allowed under its Heads of Agreement with the Government, Mr Sands replied: “We may, or we may not.”

The $2.6 billion project’s construction phase, he added, had shown “that where we have been able to identify the best and brightest Bahamians, we will give them first claim”.

“Baha Mar is, and will be, good for the Bahamas and the people of the Bahamas, and our hiring policy will reflect that going forward,” Mr Sands said.

“The bottom line is that we will have a robust training programme to match skill sets to individuals, but we are doing a tremendous amount of work screening persons to be ready. We think the recruitment of the right individual is the first step for our successful operations going forward.”

Mr Sands said Baha Mar was initially looking for people with the required sense of hospitality, work ethic and self-esteem, with skills coming later.

“We should not sell the Bahamian employee short,” he told Tribune Business. “The cream will rise to the top. Our task of identifying all these individuals one-time is not an easy one, but this is certainly an opportunity for Baha Mar and we are addressing it head on.”

Noting that the several thousand jobs the development promises to create will come on stream within 22 months, Mr Sands added: “We are going to continue to be methodical and focused in attracting the best and brightest minds to work at Baha Mar from all strata of the community, and the entire strata of the workforce - from entry level to senior management.

“We will remain totally focused on it, and are confident we are up to it..... We won’t be compromising standards, and will ensure that the cream rises to the top. There are many, many capable Bahamians out there looking for work.”