On Friday, the Ministry of Housing, Lands and Maintenance unveiled its first-ever ‘Housing Got Talent’ initiative, a landmark staff engagement event designed to strengthen interdepartmental connections, prioritize employee well-being, and build collaborative culture across the ministry’s fragmented teams. Hosted at the National Housing Corporation’s Country Road headquarters, the full-day event blended preventive health screenings, community performances, and an internal talent competition, marking the first major public initiative from the ministry’s newly formed Social Committee.
Deputy Permanent Secretary Suzette Edey-Babb, who spearheaded the event alongside the National Housing Corporation’s own Social Committee, explained that the new committee was established just months ago to address a longstanding gap in employee connection: the ministry’s dispersed operational structure. With multiple satellite departments spread across the region, many frontline and mid-level staff rarely have the chance to interact outside of formal senior management meetings, even for teams housed under the same organizational umbrella.
‘We operate as one single ministry, but our teams aren’t all based here at Country Road,’ Edey-Babb noted. ‘Most employees only cross paths if they’re called in for leadership meetings. If you don’t attend those sessions, you can go years without even meeting colleagues in other departments. Even here at the NHC headquarters, where our teams share a building, interaction is mostly limited to senior management, so junior staff rarely get to connect.’
To solve this disconnect, organizers built the day around two core pillars: holistic employee wellness and informal social connection. The morning kicked off with free preventive health screenings led by licensed healthcare professionals, offering employees from both the ministry and the NHC access to a full range of tests including blood pressure monitoring, cholesterol and blood sugar screenings, hypertension evaluations, and confidential testing for HIV and other sexually transmitted infections.
Edey-Babb emphasized that wellness was woven into the event’s core mission, not just added as an afterthought, noting that holistic staff health encompasses both physical and mental well-being. ‘We couldn’t host an event focused on bringing people together without centering their health,’ she said. ‘This is about more than just fun — it’s about supporting our team’s whole wellbeing.’
Following the screenings, the event shifted to entertainment, kicking off with performances from local community groups including the Ellerton Youth and Cultural Club’s iconic Tuk Band and Mother Sally performance, alongside student acts from two local secondary schools, St Michael School and St Leonard’s Boys’ School. The afternoon was dedicated to the main attraction: the internal Housing Got Talent competition, which gave ministry employees a platform to showcase hidden creative skills they rarely bring to the workplace. After the competition concluded, staff were invited to stay for additional informal social activities including karaoke, craft stations, light refreshments, and open networking time to encourage organic connection between colleagues from different departments.
For the ministry’s new Social Committee, this inaugural event is just the first step in a long-term strategy to improve staff engagement and wellness across the organization. Edey-Babb confirmed that the committee is already planning additional targeted events focused on employee wellbeing, including educational presentations from health experts on stress management and holistic health practices, with future engagement activities scheduled throughout the year. ‘This is our first initiative, but it won’t be our last,’ she said. ‘Our entire focus is on supporting our staff and bringing our whole ministry closer together, and that’s a commitment we’re going to keep building on.’