Bosses and job seekers at odds over flexi-work
(CNS): A salary survey of private sector employers in the legal and financial sector has revealed that they are not prioritising the type of workplace benefits that administrative and support staff really want. The survey conducted last year by a local recruitment company among its registered candidates and employers found that administrators are being paid as little as US$2,500 per month in some firms.
Many of the potential employees who took the survey said that flexible working options are no longer just a perk for white-collar workers but a necessity, and it was their preferred benefit. But it is only the fifth most frequently offered perk here in Cayman, behind holidays above the ten-day statuary requirement, more health cover, pension contributions over the basic legal requirement, and wellness programmes, which is not even in the top five benefits that employees want.
In the survey by NOVA Recruitment, the authors said remote work practices and nontraditional schedules that grew out of necessity as businesses got through the pandemic became the benefits that professionals wanted, even as employers were calling people back into the office in 2022.
The recruitment company, which charges employers a fee to find staff for them, said it was essential for employers to keep abreast of what staff want, and flexibility is the most important benefit, according to the candidates polled.
Ambrose Guilfoyle, the co-owner of Nova Recruitment, said in his introduction to the survey that this was currently a candidate-driven market for those with the right skills, though there is still uncertainty among job seekers due to fears about a potential recession.
He said that potential employees are increasingly weighing up the whole package, not just the salary, and valuing other benefits very highly, especially flexible working options and a clear understanding of their career progression.
“With skills gaps only further widening, organisations should consider looking to developing their existing staff and the youth of our islands to build a sustainable candidate pipeline for the future,” Guilfoyle said, suggesting that employers introduce career progression communications, skills development and apprenticeship programmes if these are not already in place.
However, salaries in many support jobs, such as banking operatives and customer service staff, remain very low, given the current cost of living, at around US$35,000 per annum.
See the survey below:
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Category: Jobs, Local News
For flexible-work or remote work to be very effective, the mindsets of both employers and employees need to change.
Some employees could never be trusted to work from home because they are dishonest and do not have a good work ethic and these are the same employees who waste time when they are in an office as well but instead of employers dealing with these individual cases, they implement a blanket policy and paint all employees as potentially dishonest or unethical.
They are a few employers who monitor output by results and not by ensuring someone is in the office for 8 hours.
Sitting in an office does not mean you are being efficient or productive.
I am the employer. I pay you, you listen to me. What you wants doesn’t really matter to me. I pay you to come to the office you come to the office. If you don’t like it, Don’t let the door hit on the way out.
this is one reason why employees are flocking to the civil service. Which has slowly become the employer of choice for Caymanians. Having an employer who cares is golden.
Anyone who goes to civil service in entry and mid tier roles from private sector is in the right place. You can’t handle corporate world and need to be babied and coddled at the tax payers expense.
Are you suggesting that civil servants are all coddled and babied and the only reason they are civil servants is because they couldn’t make it in the corporate world?
From exit interviews a lot of private sector employees want:
1. Job security and it seems that the Civil Service gives them that. I hear it is not that easy to get fired from the Civil Service.
2. Respect and they don’t appear to get that much in the private sector.
3. Affordable healthcare and they pay zero in the Civil Service
So I highly doubt their decision to join the Civil Service has much, if anything, to do with coddling or being babied but you are entitled to your opinion.
This is definitely an issue. So many accounting and law firms are so old school in their mindset and need to wake up. My last firm wouldn’t like us working from home as they couldn’t “monitor” us – no joke. Employers need to wake up and stop treating professionals like children.
We do need to be very careful re. WFH. If an employee can work from home in Cayman what is there to stop the employer outsourcing still further ie work from India/ Africa at substantial lower cost. We all like to think we’re irreplaceable but………
Be careful what you wish for. Are you the best available person for your job… in the world?
Onshore cities are in a commercial real estate contraction as COVID-era flex work has proven to have been just as productive as in person. Office towers are emptying and reconfiguring to leases of far smaller physical urban center space. This is the trend. I would not want to be long commercial space in Cayman or anywhere else for that matter. The shakeout phase is still to come, and employers ignore at their peril.
This report clearly signals ‘A Change Must Come’. Furthermore, it shows also that the time has come to now seriously look at increasing the Minimum Wage to really match the cost of living in the Cayman Islands. For all jobs – white and blue collar jobs.
No individual can honestly survive on $6.00 KYD p.m. When I tell people what the CI’s minimum wage is I have to help close their mouths because it drops so low.
Bermuda among other countries just recently upped their minimum wage to reflect the C.O.L. there.
Why is the Government Minister not spare-heading this initiative. Get this needed change done and I can guarantee respect for you will fly off the ground as that is where it currently lies to be brutely honest.
Why is the minister not spearheading the initiative? Because our ministers value the dollar more than the public good. You must be one of those naive people who think these people got elected to serve the public. They serve their funders and those that will financially reward them. You honestly expect a government minister to do something that will help the poor when the majority of blue collar jobs are held by non voters, and the construction, retail and hospitality industries are dominated by very wealthy people who are in a perfect position to ensure that ministers personal economic circumstances are rewarded by following the corporate line. Why do you think that despite all the public statements about controlling work permits we have a record number on WPs, many temporary, we are granting planning permission to concrete over the islands despite an official position that we are being environmentally sensitive, we are talking about spending tens of millions of dollars resanding SMB instead of teling existing land owners to retret from the water line, why we are spending tens of millions to build a private jet terminal for the ultra rich that the ordinary tourist and resident will pay for…..The ordinary Caymanian clings to the idea that by limiting the franchise to Caymananians and limiting office to multi generational Caymanians politicians will act in their interest and that of the islands. reality is that the the franchise is worthless because the incumbents are bought and paid for.
Cayman’s employers mostly fail on the mission of staff retention. It’s because on the professional side, it’s mostly indentured permit holders whose lives stand to be yanked on the whim of Caymanian elites, who like it that way.
Applies in spades to the blue collar side. Professionals are replaceable – but unskilled, semi skilled and trades even more so. At least with the professionals the minimum wage isnt really an issue, although there is an obvious tendency to source our more junior professional staff from low cost economies. But with the working class wage rate is determinative – why increase the minimum wage to a point where it might attract Cayman labour when you know perfectly well you can ship in cheap labour from overseas, and at the slightest sign of any complaints or issues with working conditions, replace them? You want to interfere with that dynamic going to seriously PO the Caymanian merchant class, the property developers and the service industries – no one in our political class has the cohones for that. Wayne, who looked so promising, cant even control his own cabinet. And the irony is that the demagogues who make a big show of being for ordinary Caymanians, are the most complicit.
An interesting data point and a timely reminder to local employers about what your employees really want. the best recompensing employers will continue to get and retain the best employees and produce the best product (whatever business they are in). So, is your employer one of the best? Maybe time to look for one that is? (Puts pressure on them all to get better.)
Just show up to work fit and on time, becrespectful to co-workers and clients alike, do your tasks in excellent fashion and don’t use up all your sick leave in the first few months of employment. You’ll get promoted.
WFH means work from home for some people and wine from home for others
looking at you academia, public sector and human resources just about anywhere
It’s no surprise that employers don’t genuinely care about the things that are of the most importance to their employees.
It has been my observation that most senior executives have been left behind by the pace of technological change and are incapable of functioning in a competent manner without being surrounded by lesser paid but more competent individuals. Too many senior executives operate on the basis of bullying and maintaining close personal control over the movements and communications of their staff.
Sounds like you need a new job.
Sounds like a pre-requisite to be a funds manager in Cricket Square.
I don’t wanna work. I just wanna bang on my drums all day.
Take this job and shove it. I’m not working no more.
These two songs pretty much sum up some of today’s modern workforce.
Bet you’re a peach to work for
Bet you’re on welfare.
Moral of the story – don’t hire millennials.
Just because we negotiate for what we want? lol
Negotiate all you want, you ain’t getting it from my businesses.
Cool story bro. Wats your plan then? I guess you are just going to fill your work force with 60+ YO retirees. Good Luck.
As is very evident, that divisive ideology pops up again, that “us vs them” mindset. Just in case you didn’t bother to google it (as is common with boomers) millennials include anyone born from 1981 – 1996. Are you saying that you wont hire anyone between the ages of 27 – 42?
I wish you and your businesses luck LOL
Of course it’s not just the graduate workforce that have adapted to use contemporaneous technology effectively to advance projects on schedule. Inflexible dinosaur management leads to distrust, employee repulsion, and finally enterprise extinction. Rigid boomers are wallowing in the tar pits and don’t even know it. Probably still have fax machines and CD collections like it’s 1995. Don’t be proud of that. It’s sad.
Honestly, the old guard can stay stuck in the mud all they want. The times they are a changing and unless they plan to fill their workforce with 60+ year old’s (for however long they are still alive) hey can adapt with the times or watch their business’ wither and die.
That’s how free market capitalism works, you adapt to fit the changing markets or you fail. Simple as.
But still don’t need work from home slackers..
Local companies, especially small law firms, not giving contracts, not paying pension or insurance, expect more work, not just disrespectful but bullying and low pay. They away with it because they know they can, who is going to inspect them and listen to tbe employee? They can have cameras, employee have phone on? What you going to do about that?
Government need to enforce the minimum wages and vacation pay, Medical and pension, because lots of employers do not follow the law.