Dr Liz R. Scott and her team have no regrets about choosing Barbados to expand the operations of their company Organizational Solutions Inc. (OSI).
It is a win-win decision for this international investor whose journey here was facilitated by one of Government’s main economic development agencies, Invest Barbados – a relationship that is poised to greatly benefit OSI and Barbados.
OSI is a leading disability management and workers’ compensation claims management specialist. It has a 180-strong team offering their expertise in Canada, the United States, Europe, and now Barbados.
Scott, who is chief executive officer/principal of the company, explained that they “really help people get back to work following disability, be it work-related, short-term, or personal”.
“Our team in Barbados will be assisting those individuals throughout their disability to orient them to care and also facilitate their return to work with their employer,” she shared.
The Barbados team started with six members and that number will be increased to 15 soon, with the intention to expand further by the end of the year. Ultimately the aim is to have a cadre of some 150 persons on island by 2022.
But why Barbados? For Scott, there is so much that is attractive about the country, not least the expert support provided by Invest Barbados.
“I would say number one is the support that Invest Barbados provided, it was wonderful. When I had the experience with other countries that I was looking at it was really an exercise of having to do all of the digging and all of the coordinating, and all of the interviews,” she said.
“Everything I had to do it myself or our team had to do it, which really was exhausting, whereas with Invest Barbados it was wonderful because we were able to connect, we were able to get our questions answered really all in one spot.”
As for the country itself, Scott said the factors that made OSI choose Barbados over other places like the Philippines and Dubai, included a compatible time zone, the fact that English is the first language here, the country’s highly educated population, safety, and reliable infrastructure including Internet availability, and the people.
Scott, who is no stranger to the island, said, “The educational standards in Barbados have always impressed me. So from the perspective of your educational system, ensuring that a large portion of your population is highly educated, really helped in that decision-making as well.
“You don’t necessarily find that in all countries so that was a huge benefit to us. I think the other element too is from a safety perspective, and from a government policy perspective.”
The good news for Barbados is that job creation is a major part of OSI’s business philosophy wherever it operates. Scott is passionate about the positive impact job creation has on the lives of people.
“One of the things that makes me feel great is providing employment and as an organisation we really do believe that work matters and work is so important in people’s lives, and it’s such a strong value of mine and the corporation that it’s just exciting for me to be able to provide jobs,” she said.
“And definitely in Barbados we are hiring locally and we’ve partnered with Crucible and they are doing a wonderful job with the recruiting and making sure that we have the right candidates.”
OSI is interested in hiring people with a health care or insurance background, including nurses, medics, physiotherapists, occupational therapists – anyone with an understanding of anatomy or mental health. That means that social workers, psychologists, and counsellors are not excluded from consideration.
Scott said OSI was also big on training. In addition to its own in-house programmes, the company has already held initial discussions with the aim of implementing a training programme in conjunction with an education provider in Barbados.
Training is important because OSI requires Barbadian team members who have a base knowledge to the level of nursing and health care workers. There is also a requirement that employees be trained in claims adjudication.
“It is a really intense training programme that we have had great feedback on, we have a whole learning and development team. It would be wonderful to have the ability to do some additional training and train people locally to join our team,” she noted.
Right now OSI does not have an office in Barbados, but that is one of its long-term goals.
“Right now we are with a partner in Barbados and the nice thing about that is from the perspective of knowing all of the legislative provisions, knowing the payroll system, knowing the taxes, the employment law,” Scott explained.
“It has been great to work with them from that perspective and we do want to see how successful it is and then we would look to open our own office. Most definitely as we grow we would love to have our own office space.”
Overall, Scott is excited about the future here.
“Every day the return to work, or the return to life really, is such an important purpose in the company’s missions, so we really look forward to continuing our growth in Barbados,” she said. (SC)
This is brought to you by Invest Barbados.
