TSTT gives Excellence Awards

Tribute was paid to over 400 TSTT staff members during the company’s inaugural Service Excellence Awards ceremony, recently.

The gala event at the Sepp Blatter Hall, Centre of Excellence, Macoya was a spectacular showcase for the high calibre of employees at TSTT. It provided a unique platform for many diligent employees who usually remain in the shadows to shine among their peers — like Gold Star winner Cellular System Engineer, Brando Bahador — who was also named Overall Champion/Employee of the Year 2005/2006.

Chief Operations Officer Bernard Mitchell, himself a recipient of an All Star Award for 25 years of service, said the awards ceremony was long in the making.

“In the past the company has held long service awards but for some reason the practice was never sustained. However, it is the company’s intention from this point onwards to take the opportunity on an annual basis to recognise staff — not only for service, but also for their sterling efforts that have helped to move the company forward.”

Carlos Espinal, Chief Executive Officer underscored the significance of the event.

“We tend to forget the people we love the most, because they are near to you, but this cannot happen again…we need to reward people for their outstanding performance, this night is about combining rewards for service, performance, and behaviour. We all have different talents and it is important to reward people accordingly.”

Espinal challenged staff members to raise the bar in order to attain the goal of becoming the most admired telecommunications service company by 2007.

“The only constant in life is change but we control the chess pieces, we know where we are going and have the team to do it!” he said

Feature Speaker, bgTT Chief of Staff and recently appointed Non-Executive Chairman of the Port Authority — Derek Hudson, commented on his own experiences and challenges in the field of business — which for the last 17 years has been in the oil and gas sector.

He summarised that life itself was a challenging experience and as such, TSTT as a company would always be faced with challenges. “The recent challenges to TSTT’s business right here in Trinidad and Tobago whether from direct competition or comparison with other telecommunication technologies abroad have meant that you had to change your response to achieve excellence and success and in a time frame that would leave other organisations breathless.”

He added, “The environment described will not disappear and I can assure that it is certainly only going to get more acute in the future but I measure excellence by the ability to operate successfully in unfamiliar circumstances.”

Despite casting, what may seemingly be a dark picture Hudson advised that the shortest road to success entailed getting the “people agenda” correct.