PETA-GAYE Grinion didn’t plan on a career in tourism but she’s happy she ended up in the field. She’s an accounting supervisor at Travellers Beach Resort in Negril. It took her four years to move up the ranks after joining the company as an accounting clerk. The route to her steady progress has been paved by training opportunities, provided free of cost by her employer.
When she got the news that she was being promoted to supervisor level, she says, it was a thrilling moment.
“I was excited to say that I have grown over the years in order to gain such responsibility to monitor and lead others,” shares a charismatic Grinion.
It all began when she decided to study accounting in high school — though at the time the tourism industry was not even on her radar. But in 2014, she got her first job in the sector and, after stints in account payables and receivables at a handful of properties, she landed an accounting clerk opportunity at Travellers Beach Resort.
She’s had no regrets working in the field.
“It has been a wonderful experience so far,” shares the 30-year-old.
She was promoted to accounting supervisor in January 2018. She credits the bulk of her success, since then, to the customer service and skills training she received on property in 2019. The training sessions, she says, showed her the role she can play in ensuring the property provides “excellent guest services”. It has also, she says, broadened her scope of knowledge, which helped her become a better leader. She’s also been passing on some of her knowledge to team members.
“Over the years I have done in-depth training with about seven staff members who entered the accounting department. They are trained to undertake tasks in the specific areas they are hired for,” she says. She has provided training on how to do receivables and payables and other accounting tasks.
Her own learning journey has also continued. This August she participated in a supervisory training course which helped her hone her skills in time management, leadership, effective communication, performance review and motivation. Again, her company provided the training opportunity.
She’s looking forward to helping her staff grow even more as they all work together — as an accounting team — to improve guests’ experiences.
Interestingly, though Grinion has loved crunching numbers with her team, the most memorable moment of her career so far had very little to do with accounting. It was when she was tasked with the responsibility of hosting the property’s monthly general meetings.
“I found it very exciting. It improved my communication and public speaking skills,” she says.
Those are skills she knows will help her in the years ahead.
Her long-term goal is to study law.
She believes the lessons she’s learnt in the tourism industry over the years will help make it a smooth transition.
“I have learnt a lot about analysis and how to investigate and ask the right questions to get clarity to reach the desired goal,” she adds confidently.
TEXT: KIMBERLEY PEDDIE
