In the second part of our conversation with the new Chamber of Commerce President explains how she’ll brings her own unique perspective to the role.
As a working parent, new president Elaine Gray is keen to explore how the organisation can support working parents, as she explains to Rosie Allsopp
Guernsey’s Chamber of Commerce has been around for more than 200 years and it’s perhaps surprising and a little disappointing that it’s taken until now for a woman to be at the organisation’s helm.
However, we’re not here to discuss the whys and wherefores of that. While it’s certainly worth noting that she’s the first female president, it’s highly likely that her tenure will be remembered for far more than that.
Governance is key
One of Elaine’s aspirations is to re-examine the governance of Chamber, to make sure it’s match-fit and able to operate in the new Covid business environment. She also wants the organisation to reflect the reality of its members and the fact that everyone has lives and responsibilities outside of work that are every bit as important as their day job.
She took over from outgoing president Barrie Baxter in the summer, at a time when Guernsey’s business environment was mostly returning to business as usual following the Covid-19 lockdown, with notable exceptions in sectors such as aviation and hospitality. 2020 has seen Chamber work closely with government to ensure the whole business community was supported throughout the lockdown and its future working relationship is likely to be closer than it’s ever been as the Revive and Thrive recovery strategy swings into action.
“Chamber’s been operating in Guernsey for 212 years and over the past two years Barrie Baxter has wanted to change the shape of Chamber, to make it more democratic and accountable to members. And he wanted it to be central to the business community. That’s why it moved from right into the centre of Market Buildings. That’s been a huge success. It’s completely rejuvenated the organsiation and allowed us to have a really strong meeting space. That has enabled us to support people really easily.”
Inevitably every president has their own style and goes in with different aspirations and Elaine is no different in that respect.
“One has to aim high but one also has to be realistic. If you overstretch sometimes you can fail completely to deliver. Which isn’t to say I’m not ambitious,” she smiles.
Open and transparent
“What I’d like to do first, as somebody with a legal background, is look at the governance which is such a key thing for any not-for-profit or charitable type of organisation. I’ve reviewed most of our governance and yesterday (bear in mind that when I interviewed her Elaine had been in post for one week) with the board and industry groups we have agreed various changes to how the organisation will operate going forward.
“It might not sound like a big thing in itself, but we need to make sure that we are really strong on values of transparency and integrity. We will be representative, and we will be open about what we are doing. I can’t believe we’re getting towards the end of the first week and we’ve got almost all of that in place already – it is phenomenal and testament to the superb people who work on the Chamber groups.”
The structure of Chamber is another area that’s been up for examination.
“Often what you find is with these organisations is that it evolves and sometimes you need to take a step back and ask ‘are we structured in the best way?’.
“We had lots of different groups, which is brilliant, but we’re trying to focus things more so we have now got six key industry groups; retail, hospitality, digital/IT and skills, Blue Economy and construction. Across that we’ve also got a small number of policy groups, to respond to specific policy challenges. The policy groups recognise that employers and business are very much part of the community and we need to work within and to support it in many different ways. The idea with these changes was to ensure that Chamber was really focused and to try to map back to some of the policy initiatives that the States are looking at. The changes will enable us to be more flexible and agile in our support to members.
“We support members in terms of the business support we provide to them, we advocate for them to the States, and we represent them to the public. We also want to try and set the agenda for business and hold the States accountable for what they say or do.”
Elaine is also keen to ensure that Chamber helps explain the role of business to the wider Guernsey community. “Sometimes there can be a sense of ‘them’ and ‘us’, but especially in a small place like Guernsey most businesses are owned and operated locally. Most of our business members are small operators with less than 5 employees, who are run by ordinary people. For Guernsey to thrive at any time, but especially in these unprecedented times, it’s vitally important that Guernsey provides a supportive environment for employers and businesses. At a very basic level, we need people in work to pay the taxes we need to keep our island functioning. We should not be putting unnecessary burdens on employers now, at this extremely difficult time. Supporting Guernsey’s employer community through Covid is critical to Guernsey’s long-term survival.”
Supporting the workforce
She’s also keen that Chamber plays its part in creating a modern workforce that acknowledges and supports working parents.
“I’ve been a working parent for 18 years and much of that was as a single parent. It’s really hard being a parent who works, and particularly hard as a single parent when you’ve got nobody there to help and support you. There are so many little tweaks to island life that would help support working parents better.”
As such, one of Elaine’s key priorities is for Chamber to work together as an organisation and think about all the small changes that could be made that would help the working parents of Guernsey.
“From a fiscal perspective, the more parents we can have active in the workplace generating their own income and contributing to the public purse the better, but it is also important from a wellbeing perspective.
That’s one of the worries of Covid: the unemployment stats. Those people who are used to being in an office or a shop or wherever it is that they worked have now lost their roles as employees. Even if a job isn’t perfect, for most of us work gives us a sense of purpose, even if that purpose is just as basic as putting bread on the table.
“When that’s taken away it can have a significant impact on general health and wellbeing. It can make the whole family situation much less positive. So one focus will be on trying to help bring as many people into the workplace as possible, but particularly supporting those who’ve got kids and for whom it can be particularly difficult.”
This isn’t just about asking employers to be more flexible, she says. Wider change is possible too.
“Can we have bus services to pick up kids so mum and dad aren’t spending 30 minutes in a queue of traffic? Can we have breakfast clubs? More flexible hours? Should we be relaxing some of the population management controls in terms of childcare or domestic support? I would like to see how can we ease some of those pressures and help get people back into the workforce.”
