A popular restaurant in Nassau seats 120 covers on a Friday night. The bill for each table averages $150. A 15% service charge is added automatically — generating roughly $2,700 in service charge revenue for the evening. On top of that, guests leave an additional 5-10% in voluntary tips, adding another $900 to $1,800. On […]
A guest at a Grace Bay resort spends $400 on a dinner for four. The restaurant adds a 15% service charge — $60. The guest also leaves a $40 voluntary tip on the card. That $100 in gratuity-related income now needs to be distributed to the server, the busser, the bartender who made the cocktails, […]
Barbados has the most expensive social security system in the Caribbean. That is not a criticism — it is a fact that every employer operating on the island needs to understand, because the margin for error in Barbados payroll compliance is thinner than anywhere else in the region. The combined National Insurance Scheme contribution rate […]
A hospitality group in Nassau called me last month with a question I have been hearing more frequently: they operate properties in the Bahamas and Jamaica, with plans to add Trinidad by year-end. Their HR director wanted to know whether it was possible to manage all three workforces from a single system — or whether […]
I have spent time over the past several months talking to HR professionals in Kingston, Montego Bay, and Ocho Rios. Companies ranging from 30 to 500 employees. Hotels, manufacturers, financial services firms, logistics companies, BPO operators, and NGOs. The technology stack was remarkably consistent across all of them: a payroll package (sometimes desktop, sometimes a […]
Jamaica’s business process outsourcing sector is a US$900-million industry employing north of 55,000 people across 70 companies. It is, by most measures, the country’s most dynamic employer — pulling in young Jamaicans, creating a path into the formal economy, and generating foreign exchange at a pace that few other industries can match. It is also […]
A general manager at a 300-room resort on Cable Beach told me something last month that I have not been able to shake. His operation budgets 15% of payroll for overtime. They consistently run between 22 and 25%. I asked him where the schedule lives. He pointed to a whiteboard in the back office. I […]
I sat in on a payroll meeting at a mid-sized company on Village Road last month. Three people around a table. A printed NIB rate card from January taped to the wall. Two spreadsheets open on a laptop that had not been reconciled since Christmas. The HR manager told me they were “pretty confident” their […]
Business in the digital age moves at a frantic pace, and it’s down to payroll managers to stay on the pulse of technology to maximise productivity and performance within their department. These days, finding and integrating the ideal payroll software is a core challenge facing companies across every industry.
As a manager, you want to respect your team’s time-off requests to promote a strong culture and employee happiness — this will help you retain top talent and keep your team motivated and engaged.
