Audrey Stewart Hinchcliffe, founder and chair of Manpower Maintenance Services, was honoured for her exceptional leadership in healthcare and workforce education.

Having dedicated her life to improving Jamaica’s health sector and ensuring patients have access to clean, quality care, Hinchcliffe expressed her delight at being recognised for her efforts.

“This is one of the awards that I appreciate more than some of the others in the past… at this age in retirement to be recognised for the work that I do—excellence in health. I mean, when I read the biography, I said they are really talking about me? But I’ve put in the work, and I have relied on people for my support, and so that’s where I am today now retired happily… This award is like icing on the cake to know… that the Bureau of Woman’s Affairs honoured me with an award like this, it’s a good feeling. I’m happy,” she said

Hinchcliffe’s business venture

Additionally, Hinchcliffe outlined that she ventured into business at age 50 but expressed that just an idea is not necessarily a business. She further noted that there is a high rate of business failure among women in business because good ideas do not always turn out to be successful businesses. “Some have turned [the idea] around successfully and made the business; some not so good,” she said.

Things to consider when starting a business

Hinchcliffe also expressed that when starting a business, individuals should conduct research and ensure that customers are willing to purchase their products.

“So, you must know your audience that you are going to be appealing to, regardless of the type of business [and] you find that the failure rate stems from the fact that once you establish a business, it doesn’t get off the ground or it fails within three to five years because you don’t have people to purchase whatever you’re selling,” she said.

What influenced the establishment of Manpower and Maintenance Services?

Hinchcliffe outlined that when she returned to Jamaica after 26 years, she was unable to find employment on the island and, as a result, established Caribbean Health Management Consultations Limited (CHMC), her first business venture.

“I created that business to create employment for myself, and the area that I went into was wide open, which was cleaning hospitals. My background is in health, and there were a lot of complaints about how hospitals were dirty. With my background of being a hospital administrator overseas and a health advisor for CARICOM, I knew the situation. So I decided that was the easiest thing to go into, to offer to the government of the day to outsource hospital services,” she said.

She expressed that she ventured into a market where her services would be readily needed, and this resulted in the tremendous growth of her company. “I got into an area where the country was ready to buy what I was offering, which is commercial cleaning or janitorial service, commonly known. And that grew from not only just cleaning hospitals, but when word got out that hospitals were being cleaned, then you had private sector companies, homes, and everybody started calling. Of course, I did a lot of promotion and so on, and they started calling. So now, it’s a group of companies,” she added.

Services provided by Manpower Maintenance Services Limited Group of Companies

Hinchcliffe also revealed that due to a large clientele of over 300 businesses and over 3000 staff, she and her team had to establish a myriad of companies to meet their needs.

“At Manpower Maintenance Services Limited Group, we are now formalising a parent company. So you have Manpower Maintenance Services Limited, which is janitorial, grounds, landscape and pest control. Manpower Maintenance Business Services, which does labour management, and we manage workers in different companies. 

“Manpower Maintenance, Sales and Distribution. One of the things that benefitted us coming out of COVID is that when nobody could find enough supplies, we were able to identify a source in Colombia. And so we started flying in gloves, masks and personal protective equipment (PPEs). We now also have an Institute for Workforce Education and Development (IWED), so we train people for the workforce… And that is my legacy; that’s what I’m proud of, and we get grants for training,” she continued.

Hinchcliffe further outlined that there is also the Manpower Maintenance Services Foundation, which is big on corporate social responsibility. So, they support health, education, and sports. “Then we have the Empower Women’s Group, where we support women and girls by sending them to school, and we are being requested by clients to do waste management and property management, which are registered companies that haven’t yet been activated,” she added.

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