The inaugural Housing Got Talent initiative was launched by the Ministry of Housing, Lands and Maintenance on Friday as part of a broader effort to strengthen staff relationships, improve workplace wellness and foster greater collaboration across its departments.
Held at the National Housing Corporation on Country Road, the event combined health screenings, entertainment and a talent competition, with organisers saying it marked the first major activity of the ministry’s newly established Social Committee.
Deputy Permanent Secretary Suzette Edey-Babb said the committee was created only a few months ago to encourage “workplace health and wellness and bringing the staff closer together. This is our very first initiative coming out of the Social Committee”.
She explained that while the ministry operates as a single organisation, many employees work in separate locations, limiting opportunities to interact outside official meetings.
“The ministry has satellite departments, which means that they’re not all located at this location in Country Road,” she said. “We know that we don’t interact a lot unless persons come to management meetings. If you don’t come to meetings, you don’t know the persons that work within the ministry.”
Organisers decided to collaborate with the National Housing Corporation’s Social Committee to create an event that would bring employees “together so that we could mingle and get to know one another… even though we’re in the same building as National Housing Corporation, unless you’re at the management level, there’s not a lot of interaction,” Edey-Babb said.
The day began with wellness screenings, allowing employees from both the ministry and the National Housing Corporation to access different tests before the entertainment programme.
“We could not leave out the wellness aspect because the whole focus is to ensure the health and wellness of the staff, and that not only includes physical wellness but also mental wellness,” Edey-Babb said.
Healthcare professionals conducted blood sugar, cholesterol, blood pressure, and hypertension checks, along with HIV and other STI testing.
Entertainment throughout the day featured performances by the Ellerton Youth and Cultural Club’s Tuk Band and Mother Sally, students from St Michael School and St Leonard’s Boys’ School, while the afternoon programme was set to highlight the hidden talents of ministry employees.
“Today we’re having what we call Housing Got Talent… to showcase the talent of the staff within the ministry,” Edey-Babb said.
Staff were also invited to remain after the competition for a karaoke session, refreshments, crafts and social activities to encourage further interaction among colleagues.
Edey-Babb said Housing Got Talent is intended to become part of a wider programme of staff engagement:
“This will be the first, but we are also planning other events, mostly targeted at ensuring health and wellness for the staff,” she said. “We’re hoping to bring in some persons to talk about the whole health and wellness issue, handling stress, those kinds of presentations going forward as well.”
(LE)
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