Round Hill rebuilds staff ahead of reopening

Jamaica Gleaner | 2025-12-03 | Original Article

WESTERN BUREAU:

 

Five weeks after Hurricane Melissa tore through western Jamaica, Round Hill Hotel and Villas is preparing to reopen its doors, but not before first rebuilding something far more fragile than walls, roofs or landscaping.

 

The luxury resort has taken the uncommon step of focusing on the mental health of its staff, commissioning organisational psychologist Dr Leahcim Semaj to lead a series of trauma-recovery workshops aimed at helping employees process what they lived through.

 

For Round Hill’s Managing Director Josef Forstmayr, the decision came from a growing awareness that even as the resort’s physical restoration progressed, the emotional storm had not yet passed.

 

“I felt there was a real need to get perspective on what we’ve come through,” Forstmayr said.

 

“Everyone was internalising their experiences in different ways, and I wanted them to have a space to express themselves, with someone who understands how to bring out the best in people.”

 

Standing before groups of employees no larger than 30, small enough to encourage intimacy and honesty, Semaj told them bluntly that Melissa left behind two distinct landscapes: “the outer ruin and the inner wreckage.”

 

“Categorified hurricanes do not simply pass through a country,” he said. “They pass through the mind, the nervous system, the memory and the future. You survived twice, outside and inside.”

 

Semaj, who has spent 25 years working with disaster-stricken teams across the region, warned that the invisible impact of storms is often the most dangerous.

 

“Even when a property reopens, the trauma continues,” he explained.

 

“People show up for work, but mentally they are somewhere else. That’s presenteeism. Others cannot come at all, that’s absenteeism. If we don’t treat the emotional fallout, productivity drops, conflicts rise, and people become overwhelmed by their own survival.

 

The workshops began with Round Hill’s leadership team, managers and supervisors who, Semaj stressed, must be emotionally anchored before they can support others.

 

Staff were encouraged to speak openly about their fears, losses, and the exhaustion that comes from weeks of disruption.

 

Forstmayr said witnessing his team open up was both enlightening and grounding.

 

“We all respond differently to a disaster,” he said. “What struck me was how, once given the space, people really reflected on themselves. And it helped me understand what they were carrying.”

 

The psychologist’s methods draw on years of experience, including work with Digicel staff evacuated from Haiti after the 2010 earthquake, many of whom slept on hotel floors because any small sound triggered memories of collapsing buildings.

 

Even before Semaj arrived, the staff had been engaged in their own grassroots restoration. With operations halted, employees were reassigned to unfamiliar tasks: clearing debris, restoring gardens, supporting maintenance crews, and helping prepare the property for reopening.

 

“People were doing jobs they had never done before,” Forstmayr said.

 

“We kept everyone employed. We brought back every single person, no matter their role. The rebuilding became a collective effort.”

 

Round Hill’s board, he added, gave immediate authorisation to retain all staff on payroll and issued a one-time financial contribution to ease the pressure on families grappling with damage.

 

For some employees whose homes were severely affected, the resort opened its rooms.

 

“We became a safe place,” Forstmayr said. “Staff stayed here until they could piece back their lives. Now we’re helping them assess their damage and figure out how best we can support their recovery.”

 

In recent weeks, Semaj has been forceful in reminding Jamaica that mental health must now be treated as core infrastructure.

 

“Trauma affects GDP. Trauma affects crime. Trauma affects public health. Trauma affects national development,” he said. “You cannot rebuild roofs while ignoring minds.”

 

Ignoring the psychological cost of disasters, he argues, leads to slower national recovery, weaker workforce resilience, and emotional patterns that quietly spill into homes, schools and communities.

 

His work at Round Hill explores what he describes as the four groups affected by a major disaster: Those who lived through it; first responders; those reporting the impact and those consuming constant news of destruction.

 

Each group carries its own emotional residue, and each needs support.

 

Round Hill will reopen this week with fully restored rooms, refreshed landscaping, and repaired infrastructure after sustaining damage by the Category 5 storm on October 28.

 

Forstmayr believes the experience will ripple through the property in the months ahead. Semaj agrees.

 

“This whole process reminded me how important it is to check back with each other over time,” he said. “People will come to you and say ‘Guess what?’, you will see the rise-ups as they process what they’ve been through.”

 

“Healing people is the foundation of healing the tourism product,” he said. “Round Hill is showing Jamaica what rebuilding looks like, outside, and inside.”

 

janet.silvera@gleanerjm.com

 

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