GRAND CAYMAN, Cayman Islands – The Department of Immigration closed its counters Wednesday so staff members could undergo customer service training following input from the public and a realisation that team building and workplace mediation was necessary to assist Counter Staff with improving their work environment and productivity.

“This Government is determined to make the customer service experience better throughout government. We saw a need in the Immigration Department and addressed it,” said Premier and Minister of Home Affairs Hon. Alden McLaughlin.
The day started with breakfast and an introduction to the day lead by Julie McLaughlin of Solutions Limited.

The mission of the day was to gain an understanding of team problem solving methods, to agree about the problems to be addressed, identify the crisis causing the problem, engage in meaningful dialogue regarding the issues and work as a group to identify the solutions to the problem.

Those in attendance were encouraged to actively participate in the team problem solving process.

They were told that conflict occurs when people perceive some kind of threat to their well-being and that while conflict is considered to be bad it does exist in every aspect of life.

Through team building exercises, front line and supervisory personnel learned ways to better manage conflict to help create positive change within the workplace setting.

Following lunch, the two teams – one made up of Counter Staff and the other Supervisory Staff – came together to discuss ways to solve the conflicts they had identifies that have been hampering their efforts at work.

“I was very excited and motivated to receive the results from the staff team building exercise,” said Deputy Chief Immigration Officer. “This was an excellent collaboration of not only addressing the issues at hand, but it was also a great opportunity for them to exchange ideas and provide suggestions for improvement of service not only to our external customers but also to our internal customers.”

IMAGE: Focus groups meet to discuss conflicts and resolutions.