“You’ve got two Caribbean islands and Switzerland in the top three.” He traces a significant part of that cost escalation to the rapid growth of short-term rental platforms such as Airbnb and VRBO, which removed hundreds of apartments from the long-term rental pool. “By allowing this to occur, they considered the boom in construction, but they never considered what would happen to the cost of living,” he says. “When rent goes up, you have to start paying employees more, across the board, because you have to pay them enough to live here.” That cost-of-living squeeze has a direct impact on talent attraction and retention. In years past, skilled professionals were willing to relocate with little hesitation. Today, compensation conversations start with a hard look at housing and everyday living costs. “Labor is a big challenge, whether it’s here or abroad,” Johnston says. “Skilled labor and affordable skilled labor is very, very challenging.The first thing people look at now is the cost of living, and that makes attracting very skilled, talented people even more difficult than before.” Against that backdrop, the company has leaned into technology, process improvements, and smarter organization-wide efficiencies to maintain profitability without sacrificing service. 30 BUSINESS VIEW CARIBBEAN VOLUME 12, ISSUE 12
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