Call to share best practices

By Marlon Madden | Mon, July 30, 2012 - 12:00 AM

A positive outlook, teamwork and humility are three important ingredients for the success of any business, said Tomas Dalinda, chief executive officer of RBC Royal Bank of Canada Insurance Company Ltd.

Recalling moments leading up to their victory in the medium category of the recently concluded Barbados Best Employers (BBE) award programme, Dalinda said those were three of the attributes which propelled them to win.

And he told BARBADOS BUSINESS AUTHORITY that they would “definitely” be going for a second title when the next competition comes around.

“What I find is that it is fairly rigorous. We had an interview and had to answer detailed questions as to how we operate and what we do from a human resource perspective, what we do as employees and what we do in terms of wellness [and] the environment,” he said.

“So the interesting thing was that we found out [we were] a finalist and there were some excellent companies in our category that were also finalists. These are very fine organizations and we knew it was going to be a very, very close race. People were saying ‘you think we won, you think we won?’ And I am a generally positive guy and I go ‘of course we did, of course we did’. Then I go ‘I don’t know, I don’t know’.

“So there was a lot of tension. It reminds me almost of the Academy Awards where in the newspapers they talk about such a thing,” he said.

The other finalists in the medium category were Little Switzerland and Courtyard by Marriott Bridgetown.

There are about 34 staff members at RBC Insurance Company Ltd. Dalinda, who is also managing director and head of reinsurance, said there was close to 90 per cent participation from staff in the survey.

“You have to be humble and you have to be brave. You cannot go forward in the business world without a positive expectation of things,” he said, noting the entire process was “outstanding” and helped them make critical changes in various areas of operation.

“You always have to be improving and doing better. And through this process we learnt that maybe there were a few things that we could go through and improve. We ended up winning so that is the positive side that came through,” he added.

Dalinda said they did not have any challenges going into the BBE competition which measured employees’ engagement.

“We have more of a family type atmosphere here where we communicate very well. We kept people up to date with where we were in the selection process.

“We kept the excitement going, a little bit of a buzz going throughout the company. There was always a little bit of energy around. So I think people were sitting a little on pins and needles,” he recalled.

He praised Caribbean Catalyst, saying there were tremendous benefits for businesses in the BBE programme. “We actually learn from it – and one of the things you can do is share best practices and this is all about helping.

“So if there are things that we can share to help other organizations, we are going to be more successful in this sector and the jurisdiction we are operating in – which makes the jurisdiction more powerful and in turn helps everybody in Barbados, and we are all for that,” he said.

RBC Royal Bank of Canada Insurance Company Limited is a subsidiary of Canadian-based RBC Royal Bank.

It is an insurance company conducting reinsurance business in the international financial sector of Barbados with clients from around the world.