Rhon­da Matthew-Gar­cia

(Sec­re­tary/Di­rec­tor) HRMATT

The Hu­man Re­source Man­age­ment As­so­ci­a­tion of Trinidad and To­ba­go (HRMATT) took cen­tre stage on Sat­ur­day at the Hy­att Re­gency for its an­nu­al Lega­cy Awards and Din­ner, a re­mark­able event com­mem­o­rat­ing the as­so­ci­a­tion’s 35th an­niver­sary.

This grand cel­e­bra­tion brought to­geth­er a di­verse ar­ray of at­ten­dees, in­clud­ing HR pro­fes­sion­als, non-HR pro­fes­sion­als, mem­bers of the busi­ness com­mu­ni­ty, gov­ern­ment min­is­ters, rep­re­sen­ta­tives from fi­nan­cial in­sti­tu­tions, and lead­ers from the oil and gas sec­tor, mak­ing it a tru­ly in­clu­sive gath­er­ing that high­light­ed the im­por­tance of hu­man re­sources across var­i­ous in­dus­tries.

As the evening un­fold­ed, at­ten­dees were en­veloped in an at­mos­phere of cel­e­bra­tion and nos­tal­gia. The event was a poignant re­minder of the tire­less ef­forts of HRMATT’s found­ing mem­bers, who de­vot­ed them­selves to cre­at­ing an as­so­ci­a­tion that has not on­ly with­stood the test of time but has al­so evolved along­side the dy­nam­ic land­scape of hu­man re­source man­age­ment over the past 35 years.

The vi­sion of the found­ing mem­bers, past board of di­rec­tors, and cur­rent HRMATT pres­i­dent, Cavelle Joseph-St Omer, and her hard-work­ing team of di­rec­tors—name­ly Kim­ber­ly Chan (Vice Pres­i­dent), Rhon­da Matthew-Gar­cia (Sec­re­tary), Joel Bas­an­ta (Trea­sur­er), Fana Nel­son (Asst Trea­sur­er/Asst Sec­re­tary), Desmond Lawrence (PR), Cindy Wil­son (Ad­vo­ca­cy), All­sha Long (Mem­ber­ship), and Dan­i­ca Williams (Ed­u­ca­tion and Re­search)—have worked tire­less­ly to cap­ture the essence of the evo­lu­tion of HRMATT and high­light/ed and recog­nise/dthe gi­ants who have gone be­fore, cre­at­ing op­por­tu­ni­ties for those who are here now and for those who will take the man­tle for dri­ving HR Ex­cel­lence in­to the fu­ture.

This year’s awards recog­nised and high­light­ed the achieve­ments of these pi­o­neers, which were pal­pa­ble through­out the night, re­flect­ed in the names of the awards pre­sent­ed and the com­mit­ment to cham­pi­oning the cause of HR in T&T.

The pro­gramme com­menced with a live­ly cock­tail re­cep­tion, where guests min­gled and net­worked to the soul­ful sounds of Vaugh­nette Big­ford, whose per­for­mance set a vi­brant tone for the evening. The en­er­gy in the room was in­fec­tious as at­ten­dees from var­i­ous sec­tors shared sto­ries, forged new con­nec­tions, and cel­e­brat­ed their shared com­mit­ment to ad­vanc­ing the field of hu­man re­sources.

Fol­low­ing the cock­tail hour, at­ten­dees vi­talised their palettes with a din­ner fit for kings and queens, fol­lowed by Kim­ber­ly De Souza and Christo­pher Ed­mond tak­ing to the stage as the Mas­ters of Cer­e­mo­ny, guid­ing the pro­ceed­ings with charis­ma and pro­fes­sion­al­ism.

Their en­gag­ing style kept the au­di­ence en­ter­tained and in­formed, en­sur­ing that the night flowed smooth­ly and that every mo­ment was filled with ex­cite­ment. The high­light of the evening was un­doubt­ed­ly Spo­ken Word artiste Za­kiya Gill, who ren­dered her po­em Cheers to HR there­after the pre­sen­ta­tion of the HRMATT Lega­cy Awards, which recog­nised out­stand­ing in­di­vid­u­als and or­gan­i­sa­tions for their con­tri­bu­tions to the HR pro­fes­sion.

This year’s awards fea­tured nine cat­e­gories, each named in ho­n­our of the found­ing mem­bers of HRMATT, show­cas­ing the com­pet­i­tive spir­it that char­ac­terised this year’s nom­i­na­tion process. The in­crease in nom­i­na­tions sig­ni­fied a grow­ing recog­ni­tion of ex­cel­lence with­in the HR com­mu­ni­ty, af­firm­ing the im­por­tance of the awards in the broad­er con­text of pro­fes­sion­al de­vel­op­ment.

The win­ners of the HRMATT Lega­cy Awards were cel­e­brat­ed with zeal: Gor­don Drap­er Award for Trans­for­ma­tion: Sen­a­tor the Ho­n­ourable Allyson West Max­ine Bar­nett Award for HR Ex­cel­lence: Gwen­do­line McLaren Glenn Wil­son Award for In­dus­tri­al Re­la­tions Ex­cel­lence: Dr An­dré Vin­cent Hen­ry Lisa James Award for Learn­ing and De­vel­op­ment: Re­pub­lic Bank Ltd.

(Learn­ing & Tal­ent De­vel­op­ment Cen­tre) Coreen Jones Award for Best Place to Work: Na­tion­al En­er­gy Cor­po­ra­tion of Trinidad and To­ba­go Lim­it­ed L An­tho­ny Watkins Award for Ad­vo­ca­cy: Gachelle Gilkes-Ed­wards HRMATT Re­gion­al HR Cham­pi­on Award (In­di­vid­ual): Michael McAnuff-Jones, Ja­maica HRMATT Re­gion­al HR Cham­pi­on Award (Or­gan­i­sa­tion): Na­tion­al Gas Com­pa­ny of Trinidad and To­ba­go (NGC) Each nom­i­nee was recog­nised, and win­ners were in­vit­ed to the stage amidst en­thu­si­as­tic ap­plause, where they shared their jour­neys and the val­ues that guid­ed their achieve­ments.

Their sto­ries not on­ly high­light­ed in­di­vid­ual ac­com­plish­ments but al­so served as a tes­ta­ment to the col­lec­tive ad­vance­ment of the HR pro­fes­sion in T&T.

The event al­so marked a mo­men­tous oc­ca­sion with the in­au­gur­al in­duc­tion in­to the HRMATT Hall of Fame. Five dis­tin­guished in­di­vid­u­als were recog­nised for their ex­cep­tion­al con­tri­bu­tions to the HR land­scape, joined by their friends and fam­i­ly in a heart-warm­ing cel­e­bra­tion of their lega­cies.

The in­ductees—lead­ers and man­age­ment con­sul­tants, com­pen­sa­tion and ben­e­fits ex­perts, and ad­vo­cates for tal­ent de­vel­op­ment—name­ly Hol­lick Ra­jku­mar of HRC As­so­ciates, Grace Tal­ma of Grace Tal­ma and As­so­ciates, Glo­ria East­man of East­man and As­so­ciates, Di­ana Ma­habir-Wy­att of PM­SL, and Ul­ric Warn­er, who was in­duct­ed in­to the HRMATT Hall of Fame, posthu­mous­ly em­body the virtues that have pro­pelled HR for­ward in T&T.

Their ex­per­tise and men­tor­ship have left an in­deli­ble mark on the pro­fes­sion, shap­ing HR prac­tices across var­i­ous sec­tors and con­tin­u­ing to this day. The Hall of Fame in­ductees in­clud­ed trail­blaz­ers whose di­verse ex­pe­ri­ences en­riched the HR com­mu­ni­ty, each bring­ing unique in­sights and lead­er­ship that have fos­tered growth and in­no­va­tion.

As they ac­cept­ed their awards, the pride and joy on their faces re­flect­ed not on­ly per­son­al achieve­ments but al­so the col­lec­tive tri­umph of the HRMATT com­mu­ni­ty.

Their sto­ries of re­silience and pas­sion for hu­man re­source man­age­ment con­tin­ue to in­spire fu­ture gen­er­a­tions of HR pro­fes­sion­als.

As the evening pro­gressed, guests were treat­ed to cap­ti­vat­ing en­ter­tain­ment by the Pris­ons Band, whose per­for­mances res­onat­ed with the spir­it of the event, merg­ing tra­di­tion with con­tem­po­rary flair. The vi­brant mu­sic echoed through­out the venue, fur­ther en­hanc­ing the fes­tive at­mos­phere and al­low­ing at­ten­dees to un­wind and en­joy the cel­e­bra­tion.

The event could not have been pos­si­ble with­out the gen­er­ous sup­port of Leisel Dou­glas and Les­ley-Marie of Pros and Comms and var­i­ous spon­sors, in­clud­ing the Na­tion­al Lot­ter­ies Con­trol Board (NL­CB), Pat and Max, Cin­e­maOne, Xtra-Foods, As­so­ci­at­ed Brands, Pa­tient­Con­nect, Hon­ey Boo’s Pure Hon­ey, The Mind­ful TT and HAD­CO.

Me­dia part­ners Guardian Me­dia, TTT, and Pow­er 102 FM con­tributed sig­nif­i­cant­ly to the event’s out­reach, while the HY­ATT Re­gency served as the per­fect venue for this mo­men­tous oc­ca­sion.

The am­biance and essence of the event were cap­tured through the tal­ent of Nivlek Dec­o­ra­tors, Kelvin Joseph and his team to­geth­er with Collen Cameron and her team of ush­ers, and the cul­mi­nat­ing ex­pe­ri­ence through his lens was pho­tog­ra­ph­er Dami­an Luk Pat.

In ad­di­tion to the awards and en­ter­tain­ment, HRMATT’s com­mem­o­ra­tive lo­go stood strong dur­ing the event, sym­bol­is­ing the as­so­ci­a­tion’s jour­ney and com­mit­ment to ex­cel­lence. This lo­go serves as a bea­con for the fu­ture, re­flect­ing HRMATT’s ded­i­ca­tion to ad­vanc­ing the HR pro­fes­sion in T&T and re­gion­al­ly.

The de­sign en­cap­su­lates the core val­ues and vi­sion of the as­so­ci­a­tion, re­mind­ing all present of the im­por­tance of col­lab­o­ra­tion, in­no­va­tion, and ad­vo­ca­cy in the field of hu­man re­sources. This year’s HRMATT Lega­cy Awards and Din­ner was more than just a cer­e­mo­ny; it was a cel­e­bra­tion of the past, present, and fu­ture of hu­man re­source man­age­ment in T&T.

It high­light­ed the es­sen­tial role that HR plays in fos­ter­ing or­gan­i­sa­tion­al suc­cess and na­tion­al de­vel­op­ment while al­so recog­nis­ing the in­di­vid­u­als and or­gan­i­sa­tions that have made sig­nif­i­cant con­tri­bu­tions to the field.

As the night end­ed, Kim­ber­ly Chan ex­pressed her heart­felt grat­i­tude to all at­ten­dees, spon­sors, and part­ners who have sup­port­ed HRMATT over the years. The evening con­clud­ed with a call to ac­tion for every­one in the HR com­mu­ni­ty to con­tin­ue cham­pi­oning the cause of hu­man re­source man­age­ment, en­sur­ing that HRMATT re­mains a pil­lar of strength and lead­er­ship in the evolv­ing land­scape of hu­man re­sources.

This year’s Lega­cy Awards will un­doubt­ed­ly be etched in the hearts and minds of all who at­tend­ed, a night filled with cel­e­bra­tion, re­flec­tion, and a shared com­mit­ment to the fu­ture of hu­man re­source man­age­ment in the coun­try.

With a re­newed com­mit­ment to ex­cel­lence and col­lab­o­ra­tion, HRMATT looks for­ward to build­ing on its lega­cy and mak­ing fur­ther strides in the HR pro­fes­sion in the years to come. As the lights dimmed and the last notes of the evening’s mu­sic fad­ed, it be­came clear that the HRMATT Lega­cy Awards and Din­ner had been a night to re­mem­ber—one filled with cel­e­bra­tion, nos­tal­gia, and a deep ap­pre­ci­a­tion for the jour­ney of hu­man re­source man­age­ment in T&T.

The event en­cap­su­lat­ed the spir­it of an as­so­ci­a­tion that has cham­pi­oned the cause of HR for 35 years and con­tin­ues to in­spire all those in­volved in the pro­fes­sion.

The Hu­man Re­source Man­age­ment As­so­ci­a­tion of Trinidad & To­ba­go is the lead­ing voice of the hu­man re­source pro­fes­sion lo­cal­ly. HRMATT Says is a col­umn meant to ad­dress is­sues and con­cerns of pro­fes­sion­als and the gen­er­al pub­lic fo­cused on hu­man cap­i­tal de­vel­op­ment.

Learn more about HRMATT by vis­it­ing our web­site:

www.hrmatt.com

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