region where unemployment remains a persistent concern.“People complain that there are no jobs and young people out there are qualified. But when we advertise, sometimes you get zero applicants or you get applicants that are not suitable for the position,” Raynold observes. When the Authority advertised for the critical civil engineer position, only three candidates applied. The recruitment challenges may signify the specialized nature of waste management, a field that lacks formal educational pathways in the Caribbean.“Solid waste management is a specialized area of study, and I cannot think of anyone that I’m aware of either working with the authority or in my professional setting that has actually gone into that line of study,” Raynold explains.“All of our staff, except for the new engineer, have absolutely no training in solid waste management. They grew on the job and learned what they do on the job.” Current recruitment efforts for a project officer to lead the plastic collection initiative have yielded eight applicants, though Raynold notes that “when you preview them, the pickings are pretty slim.” The organization plans to conduct a comprehensive review of existing capacity and organizational needs to address these systemic staffing challenges. Despite recruitment obstacles, Raynold finds the 56 BUSINESS VIEW CARIBBEAN VOLUME 12, ISSUE 08
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