The fulfillment of GHL’s vision to become the regional wealth management and protection champion demands that the Group’s Human Capital is high performing and equipped to compete in the global environment. The Group’s Human Resource unit (HR) role is that of a Strategic Business and Employee partner, with a bottom line focus, assisting in the operationalising of the Group’s strategy. GHL is currently working on a new organisational model which will allow HR to operate at a strategic level while simultaneously delivering HR support to the business units. Within this context, attaining Operational Excellence continues to be a key human capital initiative. Areas of focus:

• Aligning GHL people and their performance with strategy. This would entail the development of a Total Reward Strategy since, “Engagement of our people is key”. Among the five key elements of this strategy, the Balanced Scorecard methodology will continue to be used to manage individual and organisation performance.
• Leadership Development. Strong and competent leadership is one of the most important keys to organisational growth, change and renewal. The timely supply of a pool of high performance leaders is a critical component for sustained competitive advantage. The role of talent management is becoming increasingly more sophisticated and far reaching. Effective talent management must be an essential component in resourcing, employee engagement and line management. This can only be realised through a redefinition of the Group’s commitment to identifying, investing and building leaders.
• Succession Planning. This strategic initiative is now an urgent matter for the Group. A strong talent pool is a strategic asset and a source of sustainable competitive advantage. GHL must grow talent for the sake of continuity, embracing it as a “role” rather than a function. Succession planning is everyone’s business and Group HR will implement a succession planning policy by the end of the first quarter 2008.
• Core values are the behavioural bedrock of a society, organisation or community and HR will work with senior management to re-affirm and embed GHL’s core values across the group and into its genetic code.
• Aligning core policies across the Group.

Managing change and organisational transformation will continue to be key drivers to our success. In this era of intense global competition, executives must lead change driven by a strategy for achieving operational excellence. GHL’s leadership has undertaken a number of change initiatives specific to the business units. These projects are ongoing so as to leverage the synergies and associated gains. As with any change, there is potential impact in terms of how people think and work, job security and service delivery. Ongoing people issues will continue to receive HR’s focussed attention as the projects move into subsequent phases. The HR Shared Service function of the Guardian Management Services (GMS) continues to support operational excellence efforts in areas of Recruitment and Selection, Benefits Administration and Training and Development. This process of achieving synergies and driving out unnecessary costs across Business Units will continue in 2008. HR will continue to work with Business Units to create an environment where there is a paradoxical mixture of personal humility and professional will that permeates throughout all levels within the organisation. “When you have a disciplined people, you don’t need hierarchy. When you have disciplined thought, you don’t need bureaucracy. When you have disciplined action, you don’t need excessive controls. When you combine a culture of discipline with an ethic of entrepreneurship, you get the magical alchemy of great performance”.

...realize your dream of becoming a Financial Analyst in Guardian Asset Management Jamaica ...create your future as a Network Administrator in Guardian Holdings. Europe ...become an Account Executive in Grupo Mundial, Tenedora. Panama ...build your career as a Marketing Manager in Fatum, Curacao WHO ARE WE.. We're Caribbean at Heart...Global in Outlook Our Achievements • Trinidad & Tobago's Most Admired Company • Caribbean Company of the Year • Benchmark Company • Excellent by A.M. Best Ratings Analysis Company • Creative Excellence Awards • Gilt-Edge Golden Awards - Jamaica / Caribbean Our Recent Acquisitions • Fatum Holdings, Netherlands • Guardian Europe - Guardian Holdings, Europe • Grupo Mundial, Tendora, Pananma Our Bi-lingual Initiative We are committed to developing a bi-lingual workforce by the year 2010 as a key to bridging the communication gap in today's globally competitive environment.