By Tim Sackett From The Tim Sackett Project

I just got back from the Cayman Islands where I was invited to speak to the Cayman Islands Society of Human Resource Professionals at their annual meeting. As you might imagine, it was awesome!

This is only the second time in my life I’ve been out of the United States to speak (the first being to Toronto – which is kind of in my own backyard, so it’s hard to count!). I definitely need to do this more, as I think I actually learn more than those I’m speaking to.

Here are some of the great things I took away from the Cayman Islands, HR and Hugging.

1. The HR and Talent Pros in Cayman are as passionate as any professionals that I’ve ever spoken to. They love HR and Talent Acquisition and they are hungry for knowledge and to get better.
2. HR in Cayman is as unique as you’ll find anywhere in the world. You have native Caymanians who are working to develop their talents and Expat-HR pros from all over the world thrown into the mix. You put all of this together and diversity of thought is incredible.
3. Caymanians love hugs! I got a bunch. Real hugs. Not those fake hugs we tend to give each other in the states.
4. Great HR conferences take a lot of work from a lot of people, but it also is a labor of love from one or two people, usually. Chris Bailey (@anythingoverice) is one of those people in Cayman. He’ll be at SHRM national, make sure you connect with him, he’s one of the good guys in the world! Also, check out CISHRP’s, Inga Masjule, at SHRM National as she’ll be speaking on the topic of International HR – she’s good people as well, and smart as hell!
5. The majority of Caymanians are very religious (Pornography, sex toys, etc. are illegal in Cayman). They also celebrated Batabano when I was there. I struggled to put these two things together in my mind! But, I will again go to Cayman for Batabano and dance in the parade!
6. Upon arriving to Cayman I would have thought they have absolutely no issue recruiting any kind of talent to the islands. I was shocked to find out this is a major problem at the professionals levels. Cayman is the fifth largest financial center in the world and they have a ton of highly paid jobs going unfilled. The largest recruiting dilemma to overcome? It’s too good to be true! People can’t believe what a great opportunity is, and believe there must be something you aren’t telling them!
7. I got to see a speaker named Dr. Graeme Close (@close_nutrition) out of the UK who talked about wellness and nutrition. He is a former pro Rugby player and current strength and conditioning coach for England’s Rugby, Ski and Snowboard Olympic teams, as well as other pro athletes. If you are responsible for wellness at your company, you must have this guy come and talk to your employees. He’s brilliant, motivating and funny. He would be perfect to kick-off any wellness program.
8. In 4 days I swam with Stingrays, Dolphins, Sea Turtles and countless fish, witnessed Batabano, ate some of the best food I’ve ever tasted (most memorable was local fare from downtown Georgetown directly after Batabano – on one plate I had Lobster, shrimp, breadfruit, rum cake, potato salad, plantain, beans and rice – it was glorious!) and had the single best Gin and Tonic of my life at Catch.
9. Every group of HR/Talent Pros have things that no one wants to, or is willing to, talk about. Those taboo topics. Caymanian’s have theirs as well, and it was empowering watching them address these head on, it’s truly the only way we move the profession forward.
10. HR and Talent Acquisition conference planners! Pay Attention! CISHRP does conference food better than anyone else in the world, and second place isn’t even close! CISHRP had the best food I’ve ever had at a conference. I’m sure having it at the Ritz Carlton has something to do with it, but the leaders at CISHRP still had to pick the menu!

Thanks again, Chris and the CISHRP crew, for having me come down!

IMAGES:

Cayman Islands

Tim Headshot

ABOUT Tim Sackett

Who am I? I’m a 20 year HR/Recruiting Talent Pro with a Master’s in HR and SPHR certification, currently residing in Lansing, MI. Currently the President at HRU Technical Resources – a $40M IT and Engineering contract staffing firm and RPO. Prior to joining HRU, I was the Director of Employment at Sparrow Health System, Regional HR and Staffing Director with Applebee’s Intl., Retail Health Recruiting Manager and Regional HR Mgr. with ShopKo Stores and Pamida respectively. I’ve split my career half between recruiting and half between HR generalist roles – also split half between the HR vendor community and Corporate America – So, I think I get it from both sides of the desk.

As a HR/Talent Pro I really believe the most important thing an organization can do is increase it’s core talent base. It’s the one delieverable that HR truly controls that can have an extreme bottom-line impact to your organization. That’s not to say that other functional HR competencies aren’t important, but organizations expect us to deliver those things – they don’t always expect us to deliver superior talent – competitive landscape changing talent – holy crap I better pick up my game type talent. This gets noticed – this adds value – this gets your voice heard.

I started ‘The Project’ so I could get some of this worthless stuff rattling around in my head, out. It’s my therapy. I’m probably going to write some stuff you won’t agree with. 15 minutes after I write it, I might not agree with it — but it’s staying. I love working in HR and Recruiting, and I love making fun of all the crazy stuff we do. I’m terrible at grammar. I’m probably not really that bad at grammar, it’s just that I write so fast and I’m too cheap to pay an editor. That makes for a bad combination.

At the end of the day, I’m a husband first, a father second and a business leader third — although depending on the day they don’t always seem to be in that order — so, I try harder the next day to make that so.

Tim

For more on this story go to: http://www.timsackett.com/2015/05/06/cayman-islands-and-hr/