HUMAN capital capacity building has been a core focus of the Plantation Island Resort management team over the past year and a half.
After assuming the role of general manager 20 months ago, Alex Wilson is on a mission to change mindsets on health, natural resources and skilled workers for the Malolo Lailai island-based resort.
He explained that the resort had been fortunate enough to have owners that related to the Fijian community and were willing to undergo changes that benefited both the resort and staff.
“For me to come back to Fiji one of the first things I asked was is this a profit driven business?” he asked.
“Fortunately, we have very committed owners who have been in Fiji all of their lives, they love this country. Fiji is their home, so it’s great to work in a company that has foreign owners who relate to Fijians. That is the sort of owners I want to work for instead of an Americanised organisation that is clinical and systematic.
“I have worked for companies at Hilton and IHD and other companies in Australia which were all profit driven so it has been good to come to a company that is not only profit driven but also committed to helping their employees and communities.”
Fijians as leaders
“When you go to big resorts some of the front office staff you will see are locals but when you go to the back of the office, you will find expats and foreigners.
“When we ask the front office staff who is running the show, they say it’s the guys in the back.
“We want to empower our workers and bring them up to a place where they can also be given the responsibilities of running the resort, managing various departments and allow them to make important decisions.
“Many Fijians in resorts today are only the front office guy because they are Fijian. They are just the face.
“So what we are doing is slowly changing the mindset of our local staff that they can also be involved in the important decision-making.
“I want my food and beverage manager to be able to give me a rundown of his figures for the past month and offer ideas how we can improve on certain things if there is a need for it.
“Don’t be the front office guy who is going to smile all day because that it what we have been doing for many generations.
“We need to start building up our people and giving them the skill and mindset to go beyond that.”
Domestic violence
“We understand that domestic violence has a huge impact on families in the Pacific.
“Our women workers are an important part of the workforce so we decided to partner with the Fiji Women’s Crisis Centre which comes and does awareness programs for our staff.
“Domestic violence affects every aspect of our community, our culture, our families, our church and businesses as well. “The last thing we want to work in an environment that endorses this type of behaviour. We don’t want to stand by and see it affect one of our staff.
“The woman is an extremely important part of any business. She has aspirations and dreams that she would like to pursue. She is a person that a family unit will depend on.
“We had about 40 women that have experienced some type of domestic violence. They received counseling and were educated about this issue.”
Health
He explained having a healthy workforce would contribute to the productivity of the business.
“We found that some of our staff were overweight so from the time that I started I decided to organise a walk every Monday morning with my management team.
“I wanted to start with our management team because we always need to start with our leaders. So for the last 20 months, every Monday we have been walking a couple of kilometres through the island every morning.
“We’ve also started yoga classes for our guests and staff. These are just some of the programs that we’ve introduced to look at
the issue of NCDs and especially diabetes.
“We are also looking at staff diet like the food that we cook for them. We’re incorporating more rourou, bele essentially
more greens into their food.”
He said these developments and programs had great benefit for each staff and their family.
“There is a sense of pride that comes with doing something positive. We want to nurture and encourage this new culture of
thinking about our communities, our employees and our environment.”
The resort is celebrating its 50th anniversary this year.
