Private Sector Organisation of Jamaica Job Creation Award recipients David Hall, CEO of Digicel Jamaica and Donald Nam, general manager, Kool Runnings Water Park, pose with their plaques, Tuesday,at the Terra Nova hotel, Kingston. - Ricardo Makyn/Staff Photographer
Digicel Jamaica added more than 300 jobs in the past year and now has just over 900 people on its payroll.
Those numbers represent more than a fifth of the 4,000 jobs that the group has created across its 23 markets in the Caribbean and neighbouring Latin America.
Digicel Pacific brings the full complement to about 5,000, also accounts for close to another 1,000, but this operation spread across four markets is considered a "sister" operation to Digicel Group.
Ten Caribbean managers have taken positions in the South Pacific management teams, said group head of communications Maureen Rabbitt, including Jamaica's Tanya Menzies who is CEO of Digicel Tonga.
On Tuesday, Digicel Jamaica, run by CEO David Hall, was one of two firms receiving the monthly Job Creation Award, initiated by the Private Sector Organisation of Jamaica under the presidency of Oliver Clarke.
[Clarke is managing director and chairman of the Gleaner Company, publisher of this newspaper.]
Kool Runnings Water Park, a one-year-old family entertainment centre, also received the award for creating 53 permanent jobs in Negril.
The company, run by general manager Donald Nam, is also available as training ground for HEART Trust/NTA and the National Youth Service.
The PSOJ Job Creation Award, which is now sponsored by Cable and Wireless Jamaica and National Commercial Bank, recognises companies that grow jobs within a 12-month period.
But it also gives special awards to longstanding companies that have remained strong for decades.
Digicel Jamaica is the most lucrative operation in the group.
Hall's stepped up recruitment of staff - which is happening at the same time that America Movil has been reshaping and repositioning new acquisition MiPhone and C&WJ is expanding its cellular network - has added 312 jobs since April 2007, placing the corps at 902 as at January 31.
richard.deane@gleanerjm.com
