Create Loveable Work Environment
Fiji’s reality isn’t as shiny as it seems, top executives and business leaders were told at the weekend, in a “safe space” provided by the private sector organisation, Fiji Commerce and Employers Federation.
President Vinay Narsey’s comment, at the Top Executive Conference at the weekend, was among other power-packed messages delivered by other leaders, during the two-day annual gathering at the Top Executive Conference 2022 provided at Shangri-La Yanuca Island, Coral Coast.
Mr Narsey said Fiji’s business sector needed people who not only showed up, but did so “to play the game,” and played to win.
“Our job as leaders is to create an environment for the job you love,” he said, while speaking on the topic Future of Fiji Workplace – Reimagining The Work, Workplace, And Working Environment Of The Future.
He said the list of concerns that impacted the private sector were exhaustive, and ranged from lack of skills to lack of productivity, the Monday fever “which was big in Fiji”, and the need for bosses to be groomed from a young age.
The gains of training individuals at a young age with leadership skills, included workers entering the workforce with the right principles, he said.
Work From Home
Fiji was not ready to enable people to work from home because of the absence of balance, he said
“There is no way to monitor whether they are working or not,” he said.
Qualifications Isn’t Everything
Qualifications may matter to some extent, but not entirely, and not necessarily, Mr Narsey said.
Certain situations required more than mere credentials, he said. Experience and industry skills were much more sought after than qualifications in certain circumstances, he said.
Manufacturing
Fiji’s potential in the manufacturing sector needed to be tapped into at a more intense level, given the fact that tourism could not be relied upon to be a driving gross domestic product.
“Manufacturing in Fiji for the last 10 to 15 years has been struggling with skills shortage,” Mr Narsey said.
Neither was the tourism sector, he said, as he shared an experience at a high-end resort.
“My recent weekend at a resort in Denarau had me thinking that this industry (tourism) was not spared. “At breakfast, we had the cutlery on the table, but the fork wasn’t how it should have looked.
“How did the fork make it to the table, when you have systems and processes in place?
“The individual who put the fork on the table, did they see that the fork was not proper?
“Do they need training to see what they need to do?
“It’s classroom versus reality.” The same concerns applied to occupations that needed to be filled, he said.
“These are real issues,” Mr Narsey said.
The mismatched demand in skills needed for the job market was a challenge supported by the private sector for a while, he said.
“I’m not here to sugar-coat, but I think this is something that needs to be talked about and fixed; the sooner we get on to it, the sooner we can all function well,” Mr Narsey said.
“We have courses which we don’t have students for, or courses with too many students.
“We need to find a match; that’s where mentoring at a young age is missing; as it is, there’s no direction.”
Labour Mobility
The shallow work pool of skilled and specialised fit-for-work professionals and work-ready individuals in Fiji was not confined, Mr Narsey said.
“We are losing unskilled workers too – who we are training,” he said, adding that the void could not be filled overnight.
He called for the implementation of more sustainable measures to address the issue of labour mobility.
“Organisations don’t talk about it, but the training costs are huge, with the dollar value to it,” Mr Narsey said.
“If you want to see change, you need to continue training.
“Poaching is not the answer in
Fiji.”
The sugar industry - at one time the backbone of the economy - was not spared the challenges of labour mobility, Mr Narsey said.
Solutions
The private sector was moving at a pace faster than the changes it needed to bridge the gaps from high school to tertiary institutes, he said.
“We need more blue collar jobs,” Mr Narsey said, and warned that migrants could take up the space in time.
“In the critical infrastructure area, such as Energy Fiji Limited and Telecom Fiji Limited, if the workers are not skilled enough to work in these fields, then who will? “It will affect our national development plans in time to come.” Mr Narsey is also the managing director for Narseys Plastics Limited.
He placed a disclaimer on his views as those of his own, and not the organisations he represented.