The Human Resource Management Association of Jamaica held its first ever Poster Competition Awards at its annual Conference on Thursday, November 16, 2006 at the Sunset Jamaica Grande in Ocho Rios. All Conference26 Participants were invited to enter the Poster Competition, which aimed to re-enforce the theme of “Creating the Environment for Personal & Organisational Success” as the Entrants were asked to do a poster interpretation. In addition the competition generated pre-conference discussions and allowed participants to showcase the creativity of their HR Group.

Image: The Posters

There were four entrants: HEART Trust/NTA, Bank of Nova Scotia, National Water Commission and the Registrar General’s Department. They were judged on the following criteria

• ​ Exposition of the conference theme
• ​Use of colour/graphics
• ​Organisation/layout
• ​Reflection of HR theories and practices
• ​Originality/creativity

Each entry was accompanied by a one hundred word abstract about the poster. Below are excerpts from each abstract:

​The National Water Commission

Our Poster inscribes the words “From the right environment flows Sweet Success", is developed around the imagery of a beehive overflowing with honey into a jar. Each cell of the beehive has picture of persons involved in a different type of Human Resource-related activity representing the busy, inter-related and inter-dependent organisation’s activities and success and vice-versa. On the honey jar are a number of Achievement images that are equally applicable to the person and to the organisation.

• The Bank of Nova Scotia

At Scotiabank a number of elements are combined to create the environment for personal and organisational success. The elements, synergized by strong leadership support, create the chemistry that ignites our success. It is this chemistry that inspires the title of our poster- THE CHEMISTRY OF SYNERGY. Our poster categorizes the elements into three broad areas. They are:-

​Emotional-The emotional well being of our employees makes them more productive workers and successful persons.

​Financial-Along with increased Return on Investment (RoI) year over year, our organisation has fully developed compensation and benefits programme.

​Educational-We emphasize educational assistance through scholarships and financial support for our employees. Mentoring, coaching and training are critical parts of our staff ​ ​development.

Image: Attendees Viewing the Posters

• HEART Trust/ NTA

The imperative of any nation’s socio-economic success lies with the deliberate development of its people. As we look around we see many developed countries with little or no indigenous natural resources (Japan, Singapore etc), who have manages to sustain economic growth and development through education, training and the sheer will talent and hard work of their human resource. This poster demonstrates the Jamaican proverb “one one cocoa full basket”:

​(a) Personal Empowerment through education and training, leads to

​(b) Workforce Development- trained and certified individuals forming an enviable workforce that will attract higher level investment opportunities resulting in

​(c) Jamaica becoming Globally Competitive as we meet or exceed global standards in the product and service that we offer… and it all begins with HRD!

• The Registrar General’s Department

Since becoming an Executive Agency in 1999, the Registrar General’s Department (RGD) has implemented creative strategies aimed at improving its human capital. Today, we stand proudly to say that this has paid off. 

The RGD align it strategies for attracting, training and retention of its key assets -employees- in positioning its Motto “ Aim to Satisfy.”

The hallmarks of these efforts are sustained growth and development of human capital, resulting in key business success, continuous improvement in Customer Service and a harmonious industrial climate.

The poster displays our success as an organisation. Through training initiatives, employee reward scheme and conduciveness of the work environment, we have aroused the motivation of employees to excel personally and corporately. 

After an intense judging session and viewing by all the Conference26 Attendees, the winner of HRMAJ’s inaugural Poster Competition is The Bank of Nova Scotia Jamaica Limited's CHEMISTRY OF SYNERGY!!!