Human Capital Magazine by Human Capital

HUMAN CAPITAL

Magazine for the Human Resource Professional Summit Edition October 2010

A Glimpse of Pay and Benefits in Africa Graduate Unemployment Creative Solutions

HR RISK MANAGEMENT HR Business Partnering - Is Ulrichâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Model still Relevant?

The ULTIMATE CHALLENGE for Top HR Managers Today!

HUMAN CAPITAL SUMMIT 2010

INTRODUCING THE MOST ADVANCED MACHINE IN OUR RANGE The human being. We put over 3000 specialists into dedicated teams that work together to get the best out of every processing and packaging machine we make. They also work closely with our customers to eliminate inefficiencies, reduce their operating costs and maintain product quality. Because, despite our engineering heritage, we think it takes more than state-of-the-art technology to make food safe. You need the human touch too. This is the Circle of Protection. tetrapak.com/protection

Tetra Pak,

and PROTECTS WHATâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;S GOOD are trademarks belonging to the Tetra Pak Group. www.tetrapak.com

HCM Magazine Launch!

Why launch a magazine when there is a depression? This is the wrong time to start! Our people don’t read!! Magazines are closing!!! You will struggle to get adverts!!!!

COVER STORIES 12. HR Risk Management 21. The ULTIMATE CHALLENGE for Top HR Managers Today! 29. Human Capital Summit 38. Graduate Unemployment Creative Solutions

We got tired of hearing the negatives; but surely there is the need for a magazine for Human Capital Professionals in Nigeria. The more we researched the idea, the more convinced about the usefulness of a product that advances what we do as professionals. We quickly came to realise those who err on the side of caution rightly do so because of the understanding of the traditional magazine model. The advantage of technology is new processes, tools, methodology and new ways of doing things. This presents the ability to minimize risk while offering superior value. We felt our EUREKA Moment! We couldn’t wait to get started. Human Capital Magazine is a combination of Hard Copy Print, Online Version and Digital Image version -3 in 1, arguably the first in Nigeria in magazine publication. As the use of the internet continues to increase and advertising budgets shrinks, digital interactive publications prove to be the most cost effective solution for publishers and readers.

58. HR Business Partnering - Is Ulrich’s Model still Relevant?

For our clients we offer huge advertising potentials with capacity for interaction and web traffic referrals for advertisers and high brand exposure potentials throughout.

59. A Glimpse of Pay and Benefits in Africa

You also have access to the magazine anytime, anywhere, download now – read later. Online and Digital versions are also visually appealing – vibrant colours, easy to read and ‘clean’ format with easy to use – simple page turning functions, zoom and search facility and easy to circulate the email or URL to friends, family and colleagues and straight through to advertiser’s websites. In terms of content, we promise enriched and interactive content, enlightening and informative. In the maiden edition, as promised, your Human Capital Magazine is rich with contemporary Human Capital Issues, Global Best Practises and we feature interviews and contributions from top Human Capital Professionals.

Shola ajani

Publisher

We enjoin our colleagues to embrace this new service; as an addition to the tool of the trade and development to the profession in Nigeria. Let’s get started!

fiTc reposiTions, moVes To neW locaTion

neWs

The management of Financial Institutions Training Centre has said that it is poised to offer impeccable services to its clients as evidenced by its relocation to a new corporate office. The Managing Director, FITC, Dr. Lucy Surhyel, in a statement obtained by our correspondent, said the move was in line with the firm‘s strategic plan to reposition itself to serve its numerous clients better. ”The new office complex is located in a more accessible location and has state of the art facilities for enhanced training, research and consulting professional services quality,” she said. According to the statement, the official inauguration of the new office complex will be done by the Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria, Mallam Lamido Sanusi.

nnpc commences The use of hr help desk ‘Don’t ‘park’ your questions…connect to the helpdesk and have them answered’. Just dial 09 200 83555 and you will be connected to NNPC’s latest HR solution; the HR help desk. Designed to be able to give up to date information on any issue relating to Human Resources within NNPC, this solution is set to change the face of how business is done by HR. In the past, wherever you are, as a member of staff you need some information, it is possible that you would have called one of the numbers for admin and personnel department and no one would have picked the phone. It could also be that you actually went to admin and personnel department to get some information but you were unable to get the required information because there was no one around to attend to you or those around don’t have the time though the information is at their disposal. The essence of HR Help Desk is to provide: Service, Service and more Service It is also to begin to actualize HR’s new vision with action. What is the big deal in HR Help Desk? HR Help Desk has been initiated to correct the several flaws in HR’s current service delivery: Poor response time to customer requests which emanates from poor information availability and disparate sources of information rather than centralised leading to lack of consistent information.

Visit our career portal www.oandoplc.com/careers

At Oando, we are always on the look out for highly skilled, enthusiastic and dedicated people who can contribute to our continuing success. We understand that to a large extent, the ability of company to be successful depends greatly on human resources. As we are a company positioned for the future, we attract, develop, motivate and retain individuals who have the required skills and knowledge to join hands with us in facing this great future.

Wale Tinubu Wins Africa’s ‘Business Leader of the Year’

A distinguished panel of judges chaired by Omari Issa, CEO of the Investment Climate Facility selected winners in seven categories from a pool of nominees that came from all over the African continent. Some of the other categories included ‘African business of the year’, ‘Best corporate citizenship’, ‘Telecoms company of the year’, and ‘Outstanding Businesswoman of the year’, among others.

ando PLC, one of Nigeria’s largest indigenous energy Groups today announced that in commemoration of the 2010 Children’s Day celebration and in line with its corporate social responsibility, employees of the company have donated over 14,000 books for use by students under its Adopt-A-School programme. In addition, the company will engage over 100 students who are beneficiaries of its scholarship scheme in extracurricular activities. The book drive was achieved across the Oando Group through a month-long programme where staff donated for the books in kind and cash. The books are intended to boost literacy and ensure that indigent students are provided the necessary material critical for the attainment of their aspirations. Plans have been concluded to distribute the 14, 000 books to various primary schools located across the country this quarter. In the same vein, the company also donated 1,500 Oando branded exercise books to the Lagos State Government in support of the state’s Children day event.

NEWS

Mr. Tinubu was nominated on the basis of his achievements in transforming Oando into a world class company, amongst other esteemed nominees such as Arnaud Lagesse, Groupe Mon Loisir, Samih Sawiris, Chairman and CEO, Orascom Development, Mike Adenuga Jr, Chairman, Globacom Mobile and Sizwe Nxasana, Chairman and CEO, FirstRand Limited and FirstRand Foundation.

O Oando Employees Donate 14,000 books to Students

The Group Chief Executive of Oando PLC, Mr. Wale Tinubu, has been awarded the prestigious ‘Business Leader of the Year 2010’ in this year’s edition of the African Business awards, an award organized by the African Business Magazine and the Commonwealth Business Council in a ceremony held at the Grosvenor House Hotel in London on Monday, 21st June.

ITUC Congress debates global employment crisis and the call for stronger regulations of the Even if trade unions and the IMF did not agree on the economic financial sector strategy governments should adopt, Strauss-Kahn stated

s the ITUC’s Congress moved into its second day, the state of the world economy and the global employment crisis continued to be heavily debated. Leaders of some important international organizations were invited to take part in this debate. First out was Helen Clark, Administrator of the United Nations Development Programme. Former New Zealand Prime Minister Helen Clark became the first woman to lead the UNDP in April 2009. Clark echoed the concern expressed by many Congress delegates that the momentum for substantial financial regulatory reform seemed to have weakened and that the plans of some countries to exit rapidly from fiscal stimulus policies “has significant implications for employment growth”. Furthermore, said Clark, “It cannot be assumed that job creation will flow automatically from a resumption of growth. Often employment figures are the last indicators to move when growth recovers.” She put forward the ILO’s Global Jobs Pact as the path countries should follow to restore employment levels and support decent work. Later in the afternoon, Dominique Strauss-Kahn, Managing Director of the International Monetary Fund and Pascal Lamy, Director General of the World Trade Organization gave speeches and took part in a panel discussion where they, along with ILO Deputy Director General Kari Tapiola, responded to delegates’ comments and questions.

NEWS

Strauss-Kahn spoke of the positive impact of economic stimulus policies to prevent an even deeper recession, and stated that countries not beset by deep financial problems should maintain planned fiscal stimulus this year, given that the recovery has been very uneven. However he stated that some countries unable to finance additional debt were obliged to begin reducing their fiscal deficits now.

that the IMF appreciated unions’ proposals made on behalf of working people and that the Fund had made efforts to ensure social safety nets were maintained to protect the most vulnerable and agreed with the need for more progressive taxation. He also announced that the IMF and the ILO would hold a joint conference next September in Oslo on the theme of employment creation. Strauss-Kahn also spoke of the global trade union movement’s support for a financial transactions tax (FTT). Noting that the IMF had expressed its preference for a different kind of financial activities tax based on profit and compensation, he agreed with the ITUC that a substantial contribution from the financial sector is justified to pay for the cost of the crisis and to dampen overly risky behaviour in the financial sector. He stated that the specific choice between the FTT and another type of tax is “a technical discussion” that needed to take place. Pascal Lamy of the WTO agreed with trade unions’ advocacy of stronger regulation on the financial sector, which had caused the global crisis, and observed that the global trade union movement had played a valuable role in pushing for greater coherence among international institutions. He invited trade unions to play an even stronger role in favour of regulation and coherence in the future, both on the national and international level. Tapiola of the ILO added his concerns that, in recent months, employment has received less attention than fiscal considerations in some countries: “From our point of view, there is no recovery until there is a recovery of employment.”

CIPM to Commence Licensing of HR Professionals The Chartered Institute of Personnel Management of Nigeria has reiterated its commitment to licensing human resource professionals in the country. This was disclosed recently by the President of CIPMN, Mr. Biola Popoola.

Popoola further noted that the institute was raising awareness about professionalism in HR, to give all those operating outside the banner of CIPMN the opportunity to become members of the institute.

He said that one of the seven strategies of the institute was to update the profession in the country, while lamenting the high level of quackery in the practice of human resource.

He also emphasised that the awareness campaign would be aimed at addressing employers of labour in the public and private sectors on the need not to use quacks, who often parade themselves as professionals.

He noted that the institute was the only body empowered by law to regulate the practice of HR in the country. ”As a personnel management institute chartered by law to regulate the practice of human resource development and in line with our vision, to be the foremost people management institute in Africa respected across the world, we would not abandon our responsibility by allowing quacks to ruin the industry through their unregulated activities. We are committed to the highest possible standards of professional conduct and competence amongst our members.” He said that as a first step towards correcting the infiltration of the profession by quacks, the process of licensing core professionals would not start with a total clampdown, but with an enlightenment campaign.

He said, ”We have a plan to license professionals. Once we have done the awareness programme, the enforcement process would be carried out where the institute will go to employers and demand the licences of those operating in the respective HR departments, especially those that are the HR managers as well as those carrying out HR consultancy services.” On the enforcement process, Popoola said that the institute would not achieve the desired result without the full cooperation of appropriate government agencies. On his plans for the institute, the new CIPMN President explained that part of his mandate for the one-year tenure was to focus on the five-year strategic plan of the institute, which was jointly formulated and approved by members of the governing council.

NEWS

He added that the strategy was to help the quacks get the necessary skills to practice HR.

Following a decision of the 2nd ITUC World Congress in Vancouver, Canada, the ITUC is to convene the 3rd World Day for Decent Work (WDDW). The Day takes place, as usual, on 7 October. In previous years, the WDDW has involved millions of trade unionists in action for Decent Work, and in todayâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s conditions of crisis it is more important than ever that trade unionists across the globe stand up for their rights to decent work and a decent life.

We will therefore be putting forward three core messages for the WDDW this year: - Growth and decent jobs, not austerity, are essential to beating the crisis and ending poverty; - Quality public services are essential for a decent life and must not be slashed in the name of fiscal consolidation; and, - The financial sector must pay for the damage it has caused and be made to serve the real economy and real human needs.

Despite talk of recovery there are few signs of an end to the crisis of employment. Every job lost is a human drama, and so far 34 million jobs have been lost as a result of the crisis since it broke in 2008 and 64 million people have been pushed into extreme poverty. The world is at a tipping point: either it can break with the failed policies of the past which brought in the crisis and move forward to a fairer, sustainable and more prosperous future, or it can fall back into the injustices and misery of the past with the prospect of increased poverty and mass unemployment as a permanent feature of our societies.

Last year saw 472 actions in 111 countries.

Here you can see the actions that took place previous years:

2008.wddw.org 2009.wddw.org

Who gives aTweet about Social Media?

The rapid growth and extensive reach of online social media sites, such as Facebook, MySpace, Twitter, YouTube, and the like, has forever changed the way people communicate. The employeremployee relationship is particularly impacted by this fundamental shift, with employers and employees struggling to define the boundaries of appropriate employee use of social media and employer monitoring of this usage. In addition to concerns about employee productivity, social media sites create new challenges for businesses, with possible harm to corporate reputation and brands, as well as potential liability for employee behavior online.

The potential for damage is particularly high in industries that typically employ technologically savvy workers who are boldly using social media to express themselves. In addition to current employee issues, employers are also increasingly venturing into the world of social media themselves to market their business and to search for, recruit, and screen potential applicants, and this online activity also raises potential employment law risks. Because of the relatively recent emergence and growth of social media, the legal landscape of employer obligations is still evolving and there is little case law and legal authority specific to social media. Nevertheless, employers should be aware of some of the anticipated legal issues that could result from online applicant screening and the use of social media by current employees. Because the legal landscape is still evolving and not yet settled, these materials do not attempt to be exhaustive, but rather provide a brief summary of the various laws that may be implicated in connection with the use of social media in the workplace and by employees.

INTRODUCTION The past few decades have witnessed a global transition from manufacturing to service based economies. The fundamental difference between the two lies in the very nature of their assets. In the former, the physical assets like plant, machinery, material etc. are of utmost importance. In contrast, in the latter, knowledge and attitudes of the employees assume greater significance. For instance, in the case of an IT firm, the value of its physical assets is negligible when compared with the value of the knowledge and skills of its personnel. Similarly, in hospitals, academic institutions, consulting firms etc., the total worth of the organization depends mainly on the skills of its employees and the services they render. Hence, the success of these organizations is contingent on the quality of their Human Resource- its knowledge, skills, competence, motivation and understanding of the organizational culture. In knowledge – driven economies therefore, Human resource accounting (HRA) denotes just this process of quantification/measurement of the Human Resource. DEFINITION Assigning, budgeting, and reporting the cost of human resources incurred in an organization, including wages and salaries and training expenses. HRA SCENARIO It is true that worldwide, knowledge has become the key determinant for economic and business success, but Indian companies focus on ‘Return on Investment’ (RoI), with very few concrete steps being taken to track ‘Return on Knowledge’. What is needed is measurement of abilities of all employees in a company, at every level, to produce value from their knowledge and capability. “Human Resource Accounting (HRA) is basically an information system that tells management what changes are occurring over time to the human resources of the business. HRA also involves accounting for investment in people and their replacement costs, and also the economic value of people in an organization,” says P K Gupta, the director of strategic development-intercontinental operations, of Legato Systems India.

human resource

accounTing

BY SHINY P. KUMAR

The current accounting system is not able to provide the actual value of employee capabilities and knowledge. This indirectly affects future investments of a company, as each year the cost on human resource development and recruitment increases. Experts point out that the information generated by HRA systems can be put to use for taking a variety of managerial decisions like recruitment planning, turnover analysis, personnel advancement analysis and capital budgeting, which can help companies save a lot of trouble in the future. MEASUREMENT IN HRA The biggest challenge in HRA is that of assigning monetary values to different dimensions of HR costs, investments and the worth of employees. The two main approaches usually employed for this are: 1. The cost approach which involves methods based on the costs incurred by the company, with regard to an employee. 2. The economic value approach which includes methods based on the economic value of the human resources and their contribution to the company’s gains. This approach looks at human resources as assets and tries to identify the stream of benefits flowing from the asset.

ECONOMIC VALUE APPROACH The value of an object, in economic terms, is the present value of the services that it is expected to render in future. Similarly, the economic value of human resources is the present worth of the services that they are likely to render in future. This may be the value of individuals, groups or the total human organization. The methods for calculating the economic value of individuals may be classified into monetary and non-monetary methods. MONETARY MEASURES FOR ASSESSINg INDIVIDUAL VALUE a) Flamholtz’s model of determinants of Individual Value to Formal Organizations According to Flamholtz, the value of an individual is the present worth of the services that he is likely to render to the organization in future. As an individual moves from one position to another, at the same level or at different levels, the profile of the services provided by him is likely to change. The present cumulative value of all the possible services that may be rendered by him during his/her association with the organization is the value of the individual. b) Flamholtz’s Stochastic Rewards Valuation Model The movement or progress of people through organizational ‘states’ or a role is called a stochastic process. The Stochastic Rewards Model is a direct way of measuring a person’s expected conditional value and expected realizable value. It is based on the assumption that an individual generates value as he occupies and moves along organizational roles, and renders service to the organization. It presupposes that a person will move from one state in the organization, to another, during a specified period of time.

NON-MONETARY METHODS FOR DETERMININg VALUE The non-monetary methods for assessing the economic value of human resources also measure the Human Resource but not in dollar or money terms. Rather they rely on various indices or ratings and rankings. These methods may be used as surrogates of monetary methods and also have a predictive value. The non-monetary methods may refer to a simple inventory of skills and capabilities of people within an organization or to the application of some behavioral measurement technique to assess the benefits gained from the Human resource of an organisation. 1. The skills or capability inventory is a simple listing of the education, knowledge, experience and skills of the firm’s human resources. 2. Performance evaluation measures used in HRA include ratings, and rankings. Ratings reflect a person’s performance in relation to a set of scales. They are scores assigned to characteristics possessed by the individual. These characteristics include skills, judgment, knowledge, interpersonal skills, intelligence etc. Ranking is an ordinal form of rating in which the superiors rank their subordinates on one or more dimensions, mentioned above. 3. Assessment of potential determines a person’s capacity for promotion and development. It usually employs a trait approach in which the traits essential for a position are identified. The extent to which the person possesses these traits is then assessed. 4. Attitude measurements are used to assess employees’ attitudes towards their job, pay, working conditions, etc., in order to determine their job satisfaction and dis satisfaction CONCLUSION The accounting of human resources can be seen as just as much a question of philosophy as of technique. This is one of the reasons behind the variety of approaches and is further underlined by the broad range of purposes for which accounting human resources can be used, e.g. as an information tool for internal and/or external use (employees, customers, investors, etc.), and as a decisionmaking tool for human resource management (investments in human resources as well as personnel management in gene

hr Management

The goal of Risk Management is to identify, assess, and resolve risk items before they become threats to a specific project or to the organization as a whole. Risk Management plans should include short-term and long-term risks to project schedules, costs, and the functionality, adequacy and quality of project deliverables. Risk Management is an integral part of the overall quality assurance effort necessary to minimize the major sources of rework, schedule and cost overruns, and performance and quality degradation. 1. PRINCIPLES OF RISK MANAGEMENT • Risk management should create value. • Risk management should be an integral part of organizational processes. • Risk management should be part of decision making. • Risk management should explicitly address uncertainty. • Risk management should be systematic and structured. • Risk management should be based

• • • •

•

on the best available information. Risk management should be tailored. Risk management should take into account human factors. Risk management should be transparent and inclusive. Risk management should be dynamic, iterative and responsive to change. Risk management should be capable of continual improvement and enhancement.

2. CATEGORIES OF RISK MANAGEMENT Risk Management consists of the following two broad categories of activities i.e… • Risk Assessment • Risk Control RISK ASSESSMENT Risk assessment consists of risk identification, risk analysis, and risk prioritization. • Risk Identification It involves identifying items or events (such as changes in customer requirements or

development technologies) that might have a significant negative impact on the project. These items or events might be identified through risk identification checklists, through reporting by project participants, through comparison with historical data, or through contingency planning to accommodate “Murphy’s Law.” • Risk Analysis It employs decision analysis, cost risk analysis, schedule analysis, reliability analysis, and similar techniques and models to analyze identified risks. • Risk Prioritization It employs quantifying the risks and risk exposure, and using statistically based decision mechanisms. 3. RISK CONTROL Risk control consists of Risk Management planning, risk resolution, and risk monitoring. • Risk Management Planning It uses information buying, risk avoidance,

negative publicity due to any of these or other human issues. 4. IMPLEMENTATION Follow all of the planned methods for mitigating the effect of the risks. Purchase insurance policies for the risks that have been decided to be transferred to an insurer, avoid all risks that can be avoided without sacrificing the entity’s goals, reduce others, and retain the rest.

risk transfer, and risk reduction to achieve its goals. • Risk Resolution It techniques include appropriate staffing decisions, detailed multisource cost and schedule estimation, monitoring, prototyping, requirements benchmarking, and simulation. • Risk Monitoring It provides timely risk visibility and resolution. It incorporates techniques such as milestone tracking, tracking of top risks, and regular risk reassessment. Risk Management plans, like human resources initiatives, are living documents that will be updated as new risks are identified and addressed. Risk Assessment and the HR Executive As defined above, risk assessment consists of identification, analysis, and prioritization. The HR executive may identify a risk and a specific need that is not being addressed. For example, there is a deviation between what should be occurring operationally and what is occurring. This deviation is causing productivity to drop slowly but steadily. Upper management is aware of

this drop in productivity and is motivated to rectify the situation. The HR executive having identified a risk, the drop in productivity for example, goes on to define the risk in terms of the human element. This is the underlying cause of the drop in productivity. Perhaps the line manager is not communicating effectively with staff. The HR Executive and Risk Control The HR executive has a vital role in controlling risk. A major component of Risk Management planning is risk avoidance. Many risks can be avoided by controlling and planning the human side of the corporate equation. Succession planning, adequate severance and outplacement, executive coaching and development will ensure that an organization has the means to deal with current and future challenges .Risk resolution and control are important responsibilities for HR executives. Identifying crucial attributes for key executives within an organization, coaching and developing these attributes and monitoring the executives on an ongoing basis will help to minimize and resolve potential areas of risk such as employee turnover, low morale, potential litigation from misunderstandings arising between staff and management and

5. LIMITATIONS If risks are improperly assessed and prioritized, time can be wasted in dealing with risk of losses that are not likely to occur. Spending too much time assessing and managing unlikely risks can divert resources that could be used more profitably. Unlikely events do occur but if the risk is unlikely enough to occur it may be better to simply retain the risk and deal with the result if the loss does in fact occur. Prioritizing too highly the risk management processes could keep an organization from ever completing a project or even getting started. This is especially true if other work is suspended until the risk management process is considered complete. CONCLUSION People and risk are as integral to farming as are weather, prices and technology. Human resources must have careful attention if managers are to have a full understanding of their sources of risks and their alternatives for handling risk .Managers’ paradigms, understanding of human resource management and human resource skills determine the success they will have with people. Like the rest of risk management, blaming others for management shortcomings neither solves problems nor provides escape from the problems. The good news is that managers can make human resource management one of their strengths. The result will be better risk management, more effective management and greater satisfaction from working with people. Shiny P. Kumar

n international expert in human resources management, Mr. Brian Glade, has charged human resources management practitioners in Nigeria to uphold the principle of Best practice by always ensuring that the right people are matched with the right opportunities. This, he said, would help organisations achieve, their set goals and objectives especially during the ongoing global economic meltdown. Glade, who is also the Vice-President, International Programmes, the Society for Human Resources Management, said this, while speaking at a focus group meeting and interactive session with human resources management practitioners in Lagos, Nigeria. According to Glade who was on a working visit to Nigeria from the United States, the major global challenge facing the human resources management in this critical period of economic meltdown is to help organisations attract and retain competent employees. He also identified that, “Talent management‘ as the current issue in HR around the world. “Talent management is the current global issue HR practitioners have to grapple with as the majority of school leavers have been found to lack management and leadership skills required,” he said. Glade described the Nigerian members‘ forum of the SHRM as the fastest growing forum in the world and the largest group. This, he said, showed that HR was a serious business in the country. Also speaking at the event, the volunteer leader of the SHRM member forum in Nigeria and Chief Executive Officer, Profiliant Development Resources

Uphold the principle of Best practice Brian Glade, Society for Human Resources Management

Limited, Mr. Oliver Nnona, encouraged practitioners to take full advantage of opportunities of information, trainings, and publications offered by the society to constantly update their knowledge and skills in human resources management. SHRM is the world‘s largest association devoted to human resources management, representing more than 250,000 members in over 140 countries. It serves the needs of HR professionals and advances the interest of HR profession. The Society was founded in 1948 and has more than 575 affiliated chapters within the US and subsidiary offices in China and India.

cipm 42nd Annual national Conference Venue : Abuja International Conference Center Abuja Nigeria THEME

BEYOND EXPECTATION: THE LEADERSHIP EDgE

20th - 22nd October 2010

gENERAL INFORMATION The CIPM Annual National Conference is open to all Human Resource Practitioners and Line Managers who manage people. It is therefore not restricted to CIPM members only. CONFERENCE OBJECTIVES To update the knowledge & skills of HR Practitioners. To provide a forum for a review of contemporary HR management issues and proffer workable solutions. To enrich the network of HR Practitioners. CONFERENCE FRAMEWORK 1ST PLENARY SESSION Topic: Exceptional Leadership: Transforming Organizations Speaker: Jim Laferty, CEO, Coca Cola HB West Africa Chairman: Mazi Sam Ohuabunwa, President/CEO Neimeth Pharmaceutical Pic. MASTER SERIES Topic: Leadersâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; Success and Successors Speaker: Engr. Ernest Ndukwe, Former Executive Vice Chairman, NCC Chairman: Prof. Pat Utomi, LBS 2ND PLENARY SESSION Topic: Outperforming Competition - The Talent Advantage Speaker: Dr. (Mrs.) Lucy Newman, ACIPM - Managing Director/CEO Financial Institutions Training Centre (FITC) Chairman: Dr (Mrs.) Kate Okpareke, FCAN, Past President ICAN TECHNICAL SESSION 1. Strategic HR: Living Tomorrow Today Speaker: Dr. Joseph Odusanya, General Manager, Africa HAYGROUP Chairman: Emmanuel Immoagene, FCIPM HR Director, Cadbury Nigeria 2. Leveraging ICT to Maximize HR Contribution Speaker: Mr. Kehinde Awe, Project Delivery Executive, SAP (Africa) Chairman: Dr. Oladimeji Alo, FCIPM Immediate Past President CIPMN 3. HR leadership: The Key to Public Sector Reform Speaker: Chief (Mrs.) Ijeoma A. Umez-Eronini, mni Federal Commissioner, Civil Service Commission Chairman: Mr. Victor Eburajolo, FCIPM Past President CIPMN 4. Vision 2020: Speaker: Chairman:

The People Factor Mrs. Oghogho Olakunri, Head, Talent and Organizational Performance, Accenture Mrs. O. Green, FCIPM Chairman, OPASS Ltd. For all enquiries, please call: MRS. MARIA NZEMEKE Tel: 0805 526 5484. e-mail: marianzemeke@cipmnigeria.org e-mail: marianzemeke@yahoo.com

Nigeria needs 25 million jobs over 10 years THE Next Generation report on Nigeria has stated that the country would have to create about 25 million jobs over the next 10 years in order to prevent the crisis in the job market from worsening. This is one of the many recommendations given by the report presented in Abuja by the British Council and the Task Force of the Next Generation project. The report was read to the public at the Shehu Yar’Adua Centre by the Director General of the Nigeria Economic Summit Group (NESG), Frank Nweke jr. The number of jobs recommended, according to the report, would help to offer jobs to new entrants in the job market and help reduce current unemployment by half. Aside from this, the country will also need to develop its infrastructure to underpin a world-class economy by spending up to an additional four per cent of its Gross Domestic Product (GDP). The report advised that the country diversify from oil by paying greater attention to sectors that will improve employment prospects for young people. The government was also advised to remove all obstacles to economic growth and private enterprise. “The oil industry contributes as much as 40 per cent to national GDP but is highly capital intensive and employs a tiny fraction of the population. Other industries still in their infancy offer greater potential to Nigeria and Nigerians’, the report read, referring to sectors such as communication, manufacturing and the mining of resources other than oil.

It was advised that the country pay attention to young people and development by tapping into their energies, releasing their innovative and entrepreneurial potentials and giving them access to better opportunities for political expression without leaving out the potentials of its Diaspora.

Online Recruitment Solutions ....since 2005

www.nigeriajobsonline.com

emploYmenT laW

understanding nigeriaâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s employee compensation bill T

he Employee Compensation Bill 2010 is raising a lot of dust, especially on how its funds should be managed. It is expected, if passed into law, to bring the Nigerian Social Security Law in line with the international labour standards. The Bill has scaled through second reading at the National Assembly. Below is a continuation of the draft as presented to the Senate. 4) An accredited medical practitioner or other person authorized to render health care under this Act shall confine his or her treatment to injuries to the parts of the body he or she is authorized to treat under the Medical and Dental Practitioners Act under which he or she is permitted to practice, and any unauthorized treatment shall not be paid for by the Board.

5) An accredited medical practitioner or other person who fails to submit prompt, adequate and accurate reports and accounts as required by this Act or the Board, commits an offence under this Act, and the accreditation to render health care pursuant to this Act may be cancelled by the Board or suspended for a periof to be determined by the Board.

2) A periodic payment under this Act shall not prejudice the beneficiary receiving any entitlement under the Pension Reform Act 2004.

6) Where the right of accreditation of a medical practitioner or other person is cancelled or suspended under sub-section (5) of this section, the Board shall notify:-

a) is equal to 7.5 per cent of the periodic payment, or an amount set by the Pension Reform Act 2004; and

a) the medical practitioner or other person; b) inform the Nigerian Medical and Dental Council established under the Medical and Dental Practitioners Act or the relevant professional body to which the person is authorized to treat human ailment; and c) the injured employee who seeks treatment from him or her, of the cancellation or supervision. 28. Retirement Benefits 1) This section shall apply to an employee who is receiving periodic payments under section 21 or 22 of this Act.

3) The Board shall set aside, at the time a periodic payment is made to an employee, an amount that:-

b) is in addition to the periodic payment. 4) Subject to the Pension Reform Act 2004, an employee may apply to the Board to contribute to the amount set aside or to be set aside under sub-section (3) of this section an amount that is not less than 1 per cent and not greater than 7.5 per cent of each subsequent periodic payment made to the employee. 5) Subject to sub-section (6) of this section, if the employee makes an application under sub-section (4) of this section, the Board shall, deduct the amount of contribution of the employee from each subsequent periodic payment made to the employee and remit

this contribution along with the amount set aside under sub-section (2) of this section to the retirement savings account of the employee pursuant to the Pension Reform Act 2004. 6) The deductions made by the Board under sub-section (5) of this section may not be varied, except in response to an application by the employee to stop the deductions or transfer the deductions into his or her retirement savings account. 7) An employee may make the respective applications under subsection (4) or sub-section (6) of this section only once. 8) An application made under sub-section (4) or (6) of this section shall be made in a form prescribed by the Board. 29. Payment of retirement benefits Any amount set aside as retirement benefit under Section 28 of this Act shall be paid to the employee as part of his or her accrued retirement benefits in accordance with the provisions of the Pension Reform Act 2004. 30. Reconsidering benefits The Board may make rules for the reconsideration of benefits payable under this Act. 31. Manner of payment of compensation Payments of compensation shall be made periodically at such time and in the manner and form the Board considers necessary. PART V – POWERS AND FUNCTIONS OF THE BOARD 32. Powers of the BoardThe Board shall:a) be in charge of overall policies for the administration of the Fund established under Section 57 of this Act; b) approve investment of any money in the Fund on the advice of the Investment Committee established under Section 63 of this Act; c) fix the terms and conditions of service including remuneration of the employees of the Fund; d) formulate policies and strategies for assessment of compensation, rehabilitation and welfare of employees who sustain injuries or contact occupational diseases at the workplace or in the course of employment; and e) do such other things which in the opinion of the Board are necessary to ensure the efficient performance of the Board under this Act. 33. Function of the Board The Board shall:a) carry out assessment of the amounts to be paid into the Fund by employers under this Act; b) undertake regular actuarial valuation of industries, sectors and workplaces and determine the rates of contributions by employers into the Fund by such industry, sector or work place; c) receive and credit into its account, all moneys payable into the Fund under this Act; d) make all payments of the various compensation or benefits to any person entitled to such compensation or benefit and make all disbursements required to be made out of the Fund established under this Act; e) invest any money standing to the credit of the Fund only in accordance with the advice of the Investment Committee established under section 63 of this Act; f) cooperate with the National Council for Occupational Safety and Health for the prevention of occupational accidents and diseases and for the promotion of safety and health culture at the workplace; and

g) carry out other activities as are necessary or expedient to ensure the effective performance of its functions under this Act. 3) No investment shall be undertaken by the Board under this Act unless there is evidence to show that such investment is safe and not susceptible to market failures. PART VI – EMPLOYERS’ ASSESSMENT AND CONTRIBUTIONS 34. Employers’ contribution to the Fund 1) Every employer shall, within the first two years of the commencement of this Act, make a minimum monthly contribution of 1.0 per cent of the total monthly payroll into the Fund. 2) Without prejudice to the provisions of sub-section (1) of this section, the Board shall, from time to time, make regulations prescribing:a) the categorization of risk factors of each class or sub-class of industry, sector or workplace and the amount of contributions to be made into the Fund; and b) for different assessment rates applicable to each class and subclass of industry, sector or workplace mentioned under paragraph (a) of this sub-section. 35. Assessments 1) The Board shall assess employers for such sums in such manner, form and procedure as the Board may, from time to time, determine for the due administration of this Act. 2) Assessments shall, in the first instance, be based upon estimates:a) of the employer’s payroll for the year provided under section 42 of this Act; or b) as determined by the Board under section 44 of this Act. 3) The Board may, by order establish a minimum assessment. 36. Assessment payable 1) |Payment of any assessment made under section 34 of this Act shall be due on the 1st January in the year for which it relates. 2) The Board may provide for the payment of the amount of assessment by instalment, in which case the assessment for the year is payable on the dates determined by the Board. 37. Liability for assessment, etc. 1) The Board shall have a cause of action for any unpaid assessment and shall be entitled to the costs of any action to recover the unpaid assessment. 2) If, for any reason, an employer liable to assessment is not assessed by the Board, the employer shall be liable for the amount for which the employer should have been assessed, or as much as the Board considers reasonable, and payment of that amount may be enforced as if the employer had been assessed for that amount. 38. Assessment rates 1) The Board may provide for different assessment rates applicable to each class and sub-class of industry classified under section 39 of this Act. 2) Publication in the Federal Gazette of a statement of percentages and rates fixed by the Board applicable to specific industries constitutes an assessment upon, and notice to, each employer in those industries for the period named in the Federal Gazette. 39. Employer classification 1) For the purposes of this section, the Board may establish classes and sub-classes of industries as it deems appropriate. 2) The Board shall assign every employer to an appropriate class or sub-class based upon the industry in which the employer operates.

The Enemy Within: A Roadmap for Managing Corporate Fraud and the Employee

• •

In a new white paper, The Enemy Within: Corporate Fraud and the Employee - A Roadmap, UK law firm Glovers Solicitors and Privy Council Agents states that over £40 million is lost every day to fraud in the UK, that 80% of that fraud involves an employee, and that 90% of fraudulent employees have been with their employer for more than a year – 20% for more than a decade. Arguing that these statistics represent a huge risk to corporations, the guide offers companies directions for three main elements of dealing with insider fraud - deterrence, punishment and protection (Note: While the guide refers to some laws specific to the UK, its suggestions can be useful for all companies).

DETERRENCE

Managing Workplace

The paper makes several suggestions for deterring corporate fraud Use the employment contract as a deterrent against fraud by including a “fraud buster” clause that mandates fraud awareness training and includes: • a rigorous monitoring policy • a contractual clawback provision for owed sums • notice of instant termination for gross misconduct

notice of possible suspension during investigations and noted rather than tape-recorded disciplinary meetings, which, the paper argues, can delay fraud investigations.

PUNISHMENT The Disciplinary Process - Investigating Fraud The paper argues that the best approach to investigating employee fraud is to report the activity to the police, taking legal action to preserve evidence and freeze assets before informing employees of the investigation; make IT-based evidence clear and understandable; get statements from potential witnesses early in the process; and make decisions of guilt based on a balance of probabilities. The Disciplinary Process - The Letter The letter should: • Set out the allegations • Include witness statements, unless there is a risk to the witness • Inform the employee of their right to be accompanied by either a trade union representative or a colleague • Inform the employee that they could be terminated on the grounds of gross misconduct • Include who will conduct the meeting • Include a date, time and place.

PROTECTION The paper makes several suggestions for protecting companies legally and in terms of maintaining an ethical corporate culture: •

•

Involve the Police - Failing to report to the police undermines deterrent. While management may feel that by reporting to the police they will lose control of the process, this rarely happens unless there are money laundering issues, in which cases police involvement is essential to minimize risks to the manager or money laundering officer. Avoid Compromise Agreements Compromise Agreements, in which the employer and employee agree to settle all employment law claims that an employee may have, can send the wrong signal to other employees (hence damaging corporate culture) and add little to limiting publicity as the fraudulent employee is unlikely to advertise his own fraud. Follow all Processes

It means using insightful technology and processes to foster effective synergy of organizational systems and subsystems.

The Ultimate Challenge for Top Hr Managers Today!

Dr Akin- Ogundeji, CEO OD Synergy

Developing total organizational poise and synergy is the ultimate HR challenge for long-run corporate success and growth! It is to imaginatively foster the synergy of excellence of people’s actualizing attributes and excellence in the facets and interfaces of organizational systems and subsytems for sustainable high performance. A Little Exercise Here! When last did you undertake an organization development project or an organization intervention program? Let’s consider two scenarios... If you undertook an oganization development project at least over 12 months ago, consider thesse Was the initial organization development programm conceived around certain specific burning issues? What did you achieve six months after the conclusion of the program? How much of that did you get one year after? What are the challenges and issues seen as likely to result in, or determine the course of, any subsequent organization development project in, say, three years? What about in five years? How much of these were factored into the design of the initial organization development program?

How did the organization development project address and position the organizational or business systems and their interfacestheir quality,functional interdependence, alignment, and synergy? Which explicit principles of sustainable organization development drive the project? If you recently undertook an organization development project, say, less than 12 months ago consider these questions. What burning issues did you start with? How much effort did you put into getting commitment to drive the intervention program? What did you consider as the overall outcomes of the program? How much of them were you prepared for? What would you say is the proportion of forseen outcomes (say, good ones) to the unforseen outcomes (say, bad ones)? How much consensus did you get on the impact of the intervntion program considering the burning issues you started with? How did the organization development project address and position the organizational or systems and their interfacestheir quality, functional interdependence, alignment, and synergy? Which explicit principles of sustainable organization development drive the project? Total Organization Development Issues, and considerations, such as the foregoing inform the model, quality and thrust of organization development.They underpin ‘total organization development’... Which translates to fostering effective synergy of people’s attributes and excellence of integrating systems and facets-together with their interfaces- for high performance.

Total organizational development involves exploring and nurturing the total poise of all organizational systems and subsystems for ultimate high performance. It helps your business position the drivers (e.g. attributes, attitudes, talents, and skills), vectors (e.g. mission, vision, values, ground rules and processes)and equilibrants (e.g.methods, technology and tools) operating in your organizational or business systems and their interfaces for long-run high performance. Total Organizational Poise Is Key! Keen watchers of corporate history and practices will marvel that not many top HR managers are heeding lessons of tokenism, resulting in limited corporate success. This for long arose from poor alignment and lack of effective organizational synergy. When top managers tend to allow their organizations to remain in a state of partial poise- so long as they are attaining an already defined level of profitability or productivitytheir people are not motivated to pursue, and commit to, a vision of long-term corporate excellence and sustainable high performance. Far too often, and for too long, we see an organization which tends to focus on certain systems to the detriment of others forgetting the interdependent nature of subsystems in an organization. The ultimate challenge facing top HR managers in a pulsating business environment is how to achieve and maintain total organizational poise for breakthrough performance. When there is total poise in your organization, your people and integrating systems are positioned for high performance on a sustainable basis. The truth is that the nature of today’s competition is beyond technology, but what drives technology, creativity and innovations: the superior essence of the human mind and character. This is where the competition will be-and is being-won or lost! Top HR managers need to explore and address total organizational poise development if they really care about their ultimate HR mandate. This mandate is simply, to foster effective organizational synergy, through total poise, to assure the future of their organizations in business.

BEST PRACTICES

Recruitment

at Microsoft

Microsoft is one of the wealthiest and most successful companies in the world. Even more important, from a human resource perspective, is the fact that Microsoft is an employee-driven organization. While other organizations base their success on better manufacturing techniques, or better technology, Microsoft ’s success is based on the effectiveness of their employees. Essentially, Microsoft value their staff and realize the importance of their staff. This focus on employees may, in the future, expand to all organizations. Microsoft then, is worth studying as an example of best practice in human resource management. This study will focus on Microsoft ’s employee management methods including how they recruit and how they retain their staff. By looking at how Microsoft operate, there is opportunity for other organizations to consider how they manage their employees and to consider whether their staff are also valued. Firstly, the study will present information on the human resource practices at Microsoft. Secondly, the study will analyse these practices with a view to showing why they are effective.

HUMAN RESOURCE MANAgEMENT AT MICROSOFT Recruitment and Selection - In the Beginning Bill Gates was the driving force for Microsoft and from the beginning of the company he believed in recruiting extremely intelligent staff, favoring intelligence over experience, “his preference for hiring extremely intelligent, not necessarily experienced, new college graduates dated from Microsoft ’s start-up days, when he and cofounder Paul Allen recruited the brightest people they knew from school - their ‘smart friends’” From the beginning Gates realized that his employees were his greatest assets, shown by his quotes including “it’s the effectiveness of our developers that determines our success” and “take our 20 best people away, and I will tell you that Microsoft will become an unimportant company” Microsoft ’s recruitment strategies reflect their philosophy. They sought the smartest and the most driven people and did so aggressively, as Steve Ballmer says “whenever you meet a kick-ass guy, get him” The recruitment strategies in the beginning included sourcing people from the elite educational facilities such as Harvard, Yale, MIT, CarnegieMelon and Stanford. Microsoft recruiters would visit these universities “in search of the most brilliant, driven students” Experience was not required and it was in fact, preferred that new employees had no experience.

Once selected, these students had to undergo a thorough selection process. The first stage was an interview “by at least 3, and sometimes up to 10, Microsoft employees” .These interviews were designed not to test knowledge, but to test “thought processes, problem-solving abilities, and work habits”. Technical interviews are described as being focused mainly on problem-solving, with interviewers posing problem scenarios. To test the composure of the candidate and also their creative problemsolving skills, unexpected questions were also included. Two examples of these questions given are “how many times does the person use the word ‘the’ in a day” and “describe the perfect TV remote control”.

After the interview, interviewers would e-mail their decision on the interviewee with the words ‘Hire’ or ‘No Hire’ and comments on the problem area, the future interviewers would then use these comments to further investigate whatever issues there were with the interviewee. This interviewing process was essentially a ‘make or break’ one, where interviewees were pushed to their limits, if they thrived and survived this meant they would also thrive and survive in the Microsoft working environment. After this series of interviews, if the majority of interviewers were favorable the interviewee would finally meet with their manager and this manager would make a final hire/no hire decision. The very last step is an interview by someone outside the hiring group, this person is independent and so unbiased in their opinion. This person is meant as a final check that the person is a good Microsoft person and also to prevent managers from hiring the wrong people because they have a need to fill a certain position. The importance of hiring the right people is also shown in Microsoft ’s ‘n minus 1’ strategy which means less people are employed than are required. This policy reinforces that hiring the right people is more important than hiring just to fill a position. Recruitment and Selection - Later Stages Microsoft retained the same basic principles as they expanded but had to change their methods when the number of new employees required could no longer be sourced only from universities. The recruiting practices continued to be active rather than passive, with Microsoft ‘head hunting’ the best staff. These staff were found, monitored and recruited from other companies by over 300 recruiting experts, “once someone had been identified as ‘hard core’ - Microsoft ’s euphemism for the kind of highly talented and driven people they sought - the pursuit was relentless, if subtle. Regular telephone calls at discreet intervals, conversations at industry conventions, invitations to formal dinners - recruiting team members employed every means possible to keep the lines of communication open”. Microsoft also took advantage of breaking opportunities such as company layoffs, one example is with the AOL down size, “when we heard AOL was downsizing Netscape’s operations in the valley, we assembled a team to identify the best talent and go knocking on doors”.

Employee Satisfaction and Loyalty Microsoft attempted to cater to the needs of its employees from the beginning. Recognizing that the majority of employees were just out of college, the Microsoft company operated like a campus. The former director of human resources describes this saying, “how do you make young kids who had never been away from home - or only as far as college - comfortable? We wanted to keep the atmosphere at work one they were somewhat familiar with, and also make sure it gave them a sense of social belonging”. This environment also included every employee having their own office they were free to decorate as they please and the provision of subsidized food and drink. Employee satisfaction was also afforded by the opportunity for growth, “development also occurred by encouraging horizontal transfers, and employees were encouraged to develop themselves by switching jobs”. It is noted that few employees leave the organization by dismissal, with the majority leaving voluntarily. Concern over high attrition rates in the 1990s led to surveys to find the cause of the problem and for changes to be implemented. One of the major changes was the requirement for top management to coach lower levels, assisting in their development by doing so. This became known as ‘turning over the keys’. This is important because it allows people an opportunity to develop further. Also critical to the changes was a new focus on empowering people and of defining clear goals. These changes were all designed to increase employee satisfaction and commitment to the organization, while maintaining the same spirit the small company began with. Employee Rewards In the early days Gates was a firm believer that employee ownership was critical in raising motivation and employee retention, in lieu of high salaries he offered employees equity . Once listed on the stock exchange, this continued, with the company offering stock options to employees based on performance. Critical to this is the link between individual performance and reward, with semi-annual performance reviews linked to pay increases, bonus awards and stock options . Performance goals employees were measured against were specific measurable ones, these performance objectives shortened to SMART: Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Results-based, and Time-bound. This formal review system also included more common evaluations by managers to ensure no unexpected deviations. The system also included the process of employees evaluating themselves, these self-evaluations then being sent to the manager who does their own evaluation. The employee and manager then meet to discuss the review. Stock options awards are based on whether the employee is considered a long-term asset of the company and awarded on this basis. This is an important symbol of Microsoft ’s commitment to retaining good employees.

ANALYSIS OF HUMAN RESOURCE MANAgEMENT AT MICROSOFT Recruitment and Selection It is reported that companies must be aware of where they are going in the future and how the current configuration of human resources relates to this. As we have seen, Microsoft employ different recruitment practices than many organizations based on their need for the very best people. Microsoft actively recruit suitable employs and focus on the right type of person rather than the right type of skill level. In ‘Human Resource Management: An Experiential Approach’ (Bernadin & Russell) human resources are described as an important source of competitive advantage. Microsoft use human resources for competitive advantage, basing their success on having the very best people in the industry and inspiring them to be the best. It is this that leads to Microsoft ’s unique recruitment practices. Based on the importance placed on having the best people in the industry, their aggressive ‘head hunting’ techniques are justified. What is most crucial here is that Microsoft ’s recruitment practices meet their human resource needs. It is an important sign of the focused approach of Microsoft, with their actions always leading towards their ultimate goals. Some important factors to be considered in recruiting staff include that the recruiter should be from the same functional area and that candidates should not be deceived about the negative elements of a job (Noe et al., Ch.5). The interview process at Microsoft reflects this with the new employee being interviewed by the manager. The recruitment process also goes further than just informing the employee about the negative aspects, instead the recruitment process actually tests the employee on the negative aspects, putting them under the same type of pressure they would be put under on the job. This is an effective method, as it can be ascertained, that if the

employee is successful in the selection process, they will be successful within the organization. Employee Motivation McNamara says that “the key to supporting the motivation of your employee is understanding what motivates each of them.” The important thing about Microsoft is that they employ people who specifically will be motivated by the environment they provide. They do not employ skilled people and expect them to be motivated, they employ intelligent and driven individuals and give them the environment and the opportunity to develop beyond their current level. The fit between employee and organization is important to motivation and this is what Microsoft ensures. A recent study reported in the Journal of Applied Psychology reports that employees working on projects are more efficient when their goals relate to the overall team goals rather than individual goals (Kristof-Brown). Microsoft ensures that the goals of the organization are understood via its strong culture and by employees being clearly aware of what is required of them. Motivation can be described as providing a work environment in which individual needs become satisfied through efforts that also serve organizational objectives (Schermerhorn 395). Microsoft achieves this by incorporating their goals into their human resource management programs. The people recruited and the systems within the organization all serve to motivate the type of people that Microsoft values. Employee motivation can also be related to Maslow’s hierarchy of needs theory. This theory has the top level of the needs theory as self-actualization needs, which is a persons need to be self-fulfilled. It is described that the way to achieve this is to “provide people with opportunities to grow, be creative, and acquire training for challenging assignments and advancement” (Daft 530). This is exactly what Microsoft provides for its staff and also exactly what it expects, for them to be the very best they can be. One employee of Microsoft describes this saying “the only way to achieve here is to push the envelope of what you can do. Every day try to do better. Work smarter. Work harder. Innovate more.

People are focused 100% on performing their job as successfully as possible (Bartlett 5). The link can also be seen here between the type of people that are employed and what is expected. Microsoft hires the very best people, for these people to achieve self-actualization they need to be pushed harder than most and given greater opportunity to achieve than most. Employee Loyalty and Satisfaction We have seen that empowering employees is one of the new approaches being utilized by Microsoft. It is noted that empowering employees requires a culture that reflects this. In the Microsoft case we see that a change of culture is actually the reasoning behind the introduction of empowerment, suggesting that the change is considered and will be successful. Employee loyalty and satisfaction is also assisted by Microsoft ’s consideration of its employees. We saw that in the early days, the

company largely consisted of young graduates and the company built a culture around the needs of this group of young graduates. This process has continued, with Microsoft always attempting to cater for the needs of its employees. The latest attempt is by providing greater opportunity for younger employees, by having older employees coach them. Three aspects of tasks that affect job satisfaction are job complexity, degree of physical strain and perceived value of the task. Microsoft manages this by providing the high complexity high achievers require and by ensuring the perceived value of the task is high. This high value is communicated via the high-achieving culture the company maintains.

As we have seen, Gates recognized the importance of his people from the beginning and this is reflected in the reward systems, that not only rewards for current achievement but rewards stocks to those that are seen as valuable future assets of the company. This can be seen as a prime example of the focus on a partnership, those that are seen as being valuable to the company, are rewarded with shares that will increase in value even as that person assists in moving the company forward. Important to the reward system is also the fact that there are two reward paths available, one for those following the technical path and one for those following the management path.

This issue can also be looked at in terms of an employee’s role. There are three factors associated with roles: role ambiguity, role conflict and role overload. Role ambiguity is kept low by Microsoft because of the consistency in the culture and in what is required, role conflict is also kept low. Role overload is kept high, with employees pushed to their limits. In most organizations this would be a concern, but Microsoft’s awareness of this means that they specifically seek employees who will react well with role overload.

The skills of employees can be divided into three areas: conceptual skills, human skills and technical skills. Typically, conceptual skills become more required and technical skills less required as one moves up the corporate ladder (Daft 15). Microsoft is a company valuing technical skills, due to the nature of its product. In most organizations, employees with conceptual skills would be rewarded by moving up the corporate ladder, while those with technical skills would not advance. Microsoft, however, offers two advancement path, allowing those with technical skills to advance as technical experts, just as those with conceptual skills advance as managers.

Employee Rewards In ‘Ideas That Will Shape the Future of Management Practice’ (Bohl, Luthans, Hodgetts & Slocum) human resources is described as being the way of the future with it being argued that we will see a more mature articulation of the importance of people as a firm’s only sustainable competitive advantage. The change is described as giving high reward for high performance with the focus on a partnership.

Reward systems are an important part of organizational culture, they communicate to employees what is valued by the organization (Robbins, Bergman & Stagg 84). By having these two reward systems, Microsoft effectively communicates that both sets of skills are valued. This is also an important sign of Microsoft’s consistency. They recruit people for technical ability and so not rewarding for it would be dissatisfying to employees.

careers.microsoft.com

hilst many organisations worldwide are focused on the management of its capital assets and constantly being measured from a strictly financial viewpoint due to the increasing pressure to generate quick return on investment (ROI) they fail in putting in place adequate measures to monitor, maximise and safeguard their biggest asset- people. Organisations that invests in the latter seems to achieve their organisational goals, boost investor’s confidence as well as position themselves advantageously in this shrinking global economy. The UK commission for employment and skills launched the Investor in people programme in 1991 and by 2008; over 40,000 organisations in UK were already running the programme. This represents over 7.5 million of the United kingdoms workforce. Jeremy Bowler, chief executive of Cooper Parry declares “Investing in People has been the catalyst for our transformation from a traditional accountancy practice into a forward-looking and vibrant firm of business advisers.” Cooper parry achieved a 38% increase in profitability within 3years. In 2007, after putting suitable and sufficient measures in to improve its staff working conditions and seeing their profit target exceeded by 40%, John Barrow, people and culture manager for Welcom software says, “Happy staff strive for excellence and are eager to learn and develop. They are more efficient, more productive and deliver better results. The company believes that Investing in People has also played an important part in helping it significantly increase both its sales and profitability.” Jim pinto, CEO Action instrument, says in his write up on investor in people that successful companies treat people as assets. But many profit-orientated corporations treat people as costs and overhead expenses, much like any other expense that can be reduced or eliminated for short-term gain. That attitude becomes embedded as part of the corporate culture.

Treating people as if they are costs demoralizes and disenfranchises them. A company’s competitive advantage erodes whenever the investment in people is cut back—when layoffs occur. This takes a predictable toll on the company’s health and inevitably the bottom line. The success of any human capital investment will be dependent on the simultaneous development of the three main attributes; competency matching and development, knowledge management and organisational culture. Competence is the state or quality of being adequately or well qualified, having the ability to perform a specific role. It is a combination of skill, knowledge and behaviour. Companies need to develop standardized requirement for an individual to demonstrate, monitor and develop their competence vis-à-vis the expectations within such roles. The aim of such requirement is to drive outstanding performance in a given job, or function.

For any organisation’s Human Capital investment to generate the expected result, it must succeed in establishing an adequate and self operational framework to ensure that its culture is passed down and not compromised. Where Are We? As organisations we need to ask ourselves, where are we with respect to our greatest asset and how do we ensure that these assets continue to function at its maximum capacity? What Next CapstoneBCTS leverages on our work with organisations to safeguard their Human Capital Asset. How? We can work with your organisation to determine where you are in this regard. Let us know how we can partner with you to explore improvement options for your organisation.

Knowledge management comprises a range of strategies and practices used in an organization to identify, create, represent, distribute, and enable adoption of insights and experiences. Different organizations have tried various knowledge capture incentives, including making content submission mandatory and incorporating rewards into performance measurement plans. Knowledge management strategy could be as simple as rewards or storytelling as a means of transferring tacit knowledge to investment in bespoke system and technology. Individual companies will determine what is suitable for its culture, process and goals. The greatest challenge facing most Companies in Nigeria and other developing countries is that of Organisational Culture. Most companies find it difficult to define and adhere to their mission, values and beliefs due to the continuous socio-political influence from the community in which it operates. Several organisations invest in recruiting individuals who seemingly have the same core belief system as theirs only to find such individual corrupted under the same pressure.

Safeguarding Human Capital Asset By Opeolu Awolesi, Senior Consultant CapstoneBCTS UK

CapstoneBCTS

We are an advisory consultancy providing innovative solutions and support to our clients. Our services are unique and designed to meet our clients peculiar needs. We work with you in partnership to achieve your set objectives. Working with Individuals, teams and organsations to maximise resources to achieve optimum performance

140 Balaam Street, London, E13 8RD, United Kingdom Tel: (+44)20 8471 1295 Email: enquiries@capstonebcts.co.uk

www.CapstoneBCTS.co.uk

jiNe africa 2010

Africa Diaspora Recruitment Exhibition Nigeria 15th - 16th December 2010 Ghana 20th â&#x20AC;&#x201C; 21 December 2010 Join over 30 organisations that have used our events to recruit the best of Africa from the Diaspora

www.jinexpo.com

Human Capital Summit 2010

4th October 2010 marks the beginning of the 3 day Conference and Exhibition tagged Human Capital Summit The Human Capital Summit, Conference & Exhibitions is an annual knowledge building and capacity enhancing event that exposes participants to the global trends and best practices in Human Capital Management. The conference provides a unique forum for the exchange of ideas among the key managers and decision makers in both the Public & Private sectors. Participants are drawn from Government Agencies, Financial Institutions, Oil and Gas, Construction Companies, Telecoms and IT Companies, Consulting Firms, Education Providers and independent Consultants, etc. The Human Capital Summit Concept has evolved into a vibrant platform for sharing innovations in Human Capital Management and networking avenue for professionals across the Nation and beyond. The Human Capital Summit 2010 is a mixture of Seminar, Workshops, Good Practise Sessions and Exhibition. This provides unrivalled networking opportunity to meet with leaders and key Human Capital decision makers from some of the leading companies in Nigeria today. According to the organisers, Human Capital Summit 2010 will provide an unrivalled industry positioning opportunity. The HCS debuted in 2009 and was initiated by Shola Ajani, according to Mr Ajani, the aim of HCS is essentially to challenge HR professionals to be open to global trends and HR Best practices. It is not unusual for some professionals to quickly dismiss some emerging trends as unworkable in ‘’our environment’’ The vision is to take this event beyond the shores of Nigeria with planned events in Ghana and Britain. The summit features leading professionals in Nigeria; it is a mix of seminars, concurrent good practise sessions and workshops. The opening session will be presented by Mrs Ayodele Jaiyesimi, Head of Human Capital, First Bank PLC. HCS 2010 is sponsored by Silverbird Group, First Bank PLC and C & I Outsourcing (a subsidiary of C & I Leasing) The summit will also witness the Launch of the Human Capital Magazine. The magazine will be a combination of Hard copy Print, Online Version and Digital Image version-3 in 1, arguably the first in Nigeria in magazine publication.

Profile on Sponsors – Human Capital Summit, Lagos

Silverbird Group The Silverbird Group is one the largest entertainment companies in Nigeria and Africa. Consisting of Silverbird Entertainment, Silverbird Cinema, Rhythm FM and MBGN, it is thought to be third largest media entertainment company in Western Africa. Founded by Ben Murray in 1980, the group has grown to a diverse holding of Radio, TV, beauty pageant sponsor and movie distribution via its Cinema holdings in Nigeria, Ghana, Zambia and Kenya. The group is credited for bringing back Cinema to Lagos, Nigeria in 2004, and establishing the Ghana’s first-ever Cineplex of five theaters fully equipped to international standards and with Dolby digital surround sound and contiguous with a media store. Early history Ben Murray-Bruce a Bayelsa state born, and American trained Entrepreneur reportedly founded the organization with a 20 000 naira loan from his father and working from a small office space rented from the same. Armed with the contacts of his elder brother, Michael Murray-Bruce, the second of 10 children made early forays into event organizing, organizing 20 big time music festivals in Lagos, Benin, Port Harcourt and Ife between 1980 and 1984. Musical groups like Shalamar and Dynasty and Evelyn King were brought to an appreciative audience by his start-up concern Management The group is managed by the three Murray-Bruce brothers - Ben, Roy and Guy. Beauty Pageants Capitalizing on the downward spiral of Daily Times organized Miss Nigeria, the Silverbird Group won rights to the Miss World Pageants and put together a rival Most Beautiful Girl in Nigeria pageant. Through this medium, talents like Bianca Onoh (later wife of civil-war General and Biafran Warlord- Chief Ojukwu) and future Miss World, Agbani Darego were discovered. Today, MBGN remains the foremost beauty contest in Nigeria with winners featuring prominently on the global stage and advancing to promising careers. Radio & TV Radio and TV remains Silverbird’s most important strides especially in the 90s. Rhythm 93.7 FM dominated the Lagos Airwaves and today is growing into other countries in the West Africa subregion. Silverbird TV is a popular syndicate of foreign program including 24, Lost and Desperate Housewives. The award winning programming of STV is to be noted. Cinemaplexes & Malls Widely credited with bringing back popular Cinema to Lagos, the offerings of the Silverbird Group include the flagship Galleria Mall in Victoria Island that opened in 2004 with four modern screens, and in Kenya a state-of-the-art Cineplexes, with a total of 18 luxury theatres, and two media stores selling the latest books, music, apple computing and filmed entertainment products. In Ghana, Silverbird has established the country’s first-ever Cineplex. Indeed, the group has acquired Nu Metro Cinema at Ceddi Plaza in Abuja by the acquisition of its Kenyan parent- Nu Metro Group, as a well as opened up its own 9 theatre offering in its modern Abuja plaza. The opening of Silverbird Showtime in Port Harcourt also promised new growth with 8-screen cineplex, a kingpin restaurant and Baglios ice cream. Growth The group’s Chairman sets it sight on expanding to Uganda and Tanzania. He was reported to have said, “After Zambia, the Group has set its sights on expansion into Uganda and Tanzania,”

C&I Outsourcing Ltd The diversification into outsourcing and human resource consultancy by C & I Leasing, the only publicly quoted leasing company in Nigeria was informed by the company’s mission of being the best support service providers to its ever growing clientele. C&I Outsourcing’s primary function is the deployment and management of Human Resource functions and personnel. For over nine years C&I Outsourcing has provided this service to key players in the oil industry, Telecommunication and Manufacturing concerns, specializing in providing qualitative staff for corporate solutions and Business Support solution for organizations. Its strategy is built on the need to continuously customize its services and terms to suit each client’s specific needs; avoiding a ‘one-size-fits-all’ service and its goal is to improve efficiency, greater effectiveness and ultimately better results of its clients. C & I Outsourcing is an end-to-end business process outsourcing service provider. Our expertise in the domain we operate combined with a process-centered approach, an unparalleled record of accomplishment in seamless employee migration, and consistent service delivery ensures that we provide qualitative, customized and result oriented outsourcing solutions to our clients at all times. C & I Outsourcing is a provider of choice in Nigeria, setting standards for others to follow in various areas of personnel, equipment and business process outsourcing. We have a sizable share of the outsourcing market and our operation is even growing bigger by the day. The benefit organizations derive from outsourcing to us is reflected in our market share and feedback which in itself stands as a testimony to our ability to meet your needs. Our client base is quite expansive, we pride ourselves in the value we infuse into our clients’ business and their production level before and after our involvement. We are licensed by the Ministry of Labour as a recruiter of labour and provider of personnel. At C & I Outsourcing, our certified, professional work force, supported by a highly developed sourcing network, provide expert management / support of our clients’ operations. Our strategic outsourcing solution s allow companies to transform their operations enabling them to focus on their core competences – banking, finance, insurance, telecommunications etc. Our strength in the industry manifests in the following areas: • •

• •

Management Team - We have an experienced management team Track Record - We have over nine (9) year proven track-record easily verified from our present clientele which include multinationals and many quoted companies; we presently have close to 3,000 employees outsourced to various clients in the key sectors of the economy Continuity - We have been established for a number of years with proven financial stability We belong to a group that prides itself on providing world-class services to its clients evinced by the NIS ISO 9001:2000 certification for quality management systems which we were awarded in 2007. we are currently in the process of up grading our Quality Management systems to the 9001: 2008 certification. We pride ourselves on our ability to be proactive in our dealings with our clients. Our Service exemplifies our culture – Fairness, Integrity, Responsibility, Excellence & Safety (FIRES), to this end we exhibit total transparency in all our transactions:

Its HR outsourcing services include provision of: skilled, Semi-skilled and unskilled, permanent staff – long term (Unspecified tenor), temporary staff, fixed Term staff, and project staff – Specified assignments and outplacement service. The unit also offers human resource consultancy services, these include but not limited to the following; Employee performance monitoring and feedback management, recruitment, incentive and benefit planning and administration, feedback integration, training, severance, Attrition and exit administration and team building. The unit is committed to adding value to the performance of its clients through * Its Proactive Service delivery * Its Professional and efficient workforce * Its Experienced and innovative management team * A data base of personnel with different qualifications and experience levels.

(A division of C & I Leasing Plc)

First Bank PLC First Bank of Nigeria is a Nigerian bank and financial services firm. First Bank traces its ancestry back to the first major financial institution founded in Nigeria; hence the name. The bank is the largest retail lender in the nation, while most banks gather funds from consumers and loan it out to large corporations and multinationals, First Bank has created a small market for some of its retail clients. At the end of August 2006, the bank had assets totaling 650 billion Naira or $5 billion dollars. The bank was also the most highly capitalized stock on the Nigerian Stock Exchange, and had about 10 billion outstanding shares. It has a subsidiary in the United Kingdom, FBN Bank (UK), which has a branch in Paris. The bank also has representative offices in South Africa and China. The company was named the best bank in Nigeria by Global Finance magazine in September 2006. The firm’s auditors are Akintola Williams Deloitte & Touche (Chartered Accountants) and KPMG Audit (Chartered Accountants). The firm has solid short and long term ratings from Fitch and the Global Credit Rating Company partly due to its low exposure to non-performing loans. The firm’s compliance with financial laws has also strengthened with the Economic Financial Crimes Commission giving it a strong rating. Vision “To be the clear leader and Nigeria’s bank of first choice” Mission “To remain true to our name by providing the best financial services possible” History Pre-independence The Bank traces its history back to 1894 and the Bank of British West Africa. The bank originally served the British shipping and trading agencies in Nigeria. The founder, Alfred Lewis Jones, was a shipping magnate who originally had a monopoly on importing silver currency into west Africa through his Elder Dempster shipping company. According to its founder, without a bank, economies were reduced to using barter and a wide variety of mediums of exchange, leading to unsound practices. A bank could provide a secure home for deposits and also a uniform medium of exchange. The bank primarily financed foreign trade, but did little lending to indigenous Nigerians, who had little to offer as collateral for loans. Post-independence In 1957, Bank of British West Africa changed its name to Bank of West Africa (BWA). After Nigeria’s independence in 1960, the bank began to extend more credit to indigenous Nigerians. At the same time, citizens began to trust British banks since there was an ‘independent’ financial control mechanism and more citizens began to patronize the new Bank of West Africa. In 1965, Standard Bank of South Africa acquired Bank of West Africa and changed its acquisition’s name to Standard Bank of West Africa. In 1969, Standard Bank of West Africa incorporated its Nigerian operations under the name Standard Bank of Nigeria. In 1971, Standard Bank of Nigeria listed its shares on the Nigerian Stock Exchange and placed 13% of its share capital with Nigerian investors. After the end of the Nigerian civil war, Nigeria’s military government sought to increase local control of the retail-banking sector. In response, now Standard Chartered Bank reduced its stake in Standard Bank Nigeria to 38%. Once it had lost majority control, Standard Chartered wished to signal that it was no longer responsible for the bank and the bank changed its name to First Bank of Nigeria in 1979. By then, the bank had re-organized and had more Nigerian directors than ever. In 1982 First Bank opened a branch in London, that in 2002 it converted to a subsidiary, FBN Bank (UK). Its most recent international expansion was the opening in 2004 of a representative office in Johannesburg, South Africa. In 2005 it acquired MBC International Bank Ltd. and FBN (Merchant Bankers) Ltd. Paribas and a group of Nigerian investors had founded MBC in 1982 as a merchant bank; it had become a commercial bank in 2002. In June 2009, Stephen Olabisi Onasanya was appointed Group Managing Director (CEO), replacing Sanusi Lamido Sanusi, who had been appointed governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria. Onasanya was formerly Executive Director of Banking Operations & Services.

Soteria Hotels Our Hotel and Conference Centre The Soteria Parkview, Parkview Ikoyi, Lagos. At Soteria Hotels, we aim to please you, our guests, because youâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;re special. We have therefore provided every, facility that will make your stay with us pleasant and unforgettable. Come and experience unsurpassed comfort Our Rooms We offer 32 luxurious and exquisitely furnished en-suite rooms that are ideally suited for families, business people and visitors. Our Suites, Landmark and Premier rooms are elegant, fully air conditioned and offer world class amenities. The rooms are equipped with well stocked mini-bars, flat panel LCD televisions with a wide range of satellite TV channels ,and other guest amenities .Fast internet access is available in every part of the hotel. Cuisine Enjoy a range of mouth-watering continental and local dishes from our renowned chefs.The dishes are prepared daily from the freshest produce by our experienced chefs. Other Services Include Conference hall, Meeting rooms, In-house laundry, True internet broadband and full,wifi coverage, Round the clock state-of-the-art, security, Secretarial services and business centre Conference management services for up to 80 people Health and Sport Facilities We focus not only on your comfort but also on your personal fitness and well being. Start off your day with a work-out at our state of the art gym, or enjoy a relaxing swim in our big and elegant swimming pool. The experience will keep you yearning for more. Soteria Hotels & Resorts Ltd. Plot 40C, Agodogba Avenue, Parkview Estate, Ikoyi, Lagos, Nigeria Tel: 01-2714671-2, 01-7389624 , 2348023915219

Det oun Ogwo Graduate Unemployment Creative Solutions

Undaunted Pioneer

Tall, slim and ebony-black Mrs. Detoun Ogwo is a beauty to behold any day. Not a few who have encountered her eulogize her poise and sophistication which radiate warmth and humility. Beneath her always-clean looks, however, is her passion to develop the competencies and employment skills of young people, especially fresh Nigerian university graduates. She is the Executive Director of AGD Employability and Enterprise Development GTE, a social enterprise she and Mrs. Ibukun Awosika and Funmi Adeyemi pioneered in August 2007. The non-governmental organisation runs innovative, human-capacity development programmes to enhance Nigerian youthsâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; ability to manage their careers and reduce the effects of unemployment and redundancy on the larger society. Ogwo is a Human Resources professional with several yearsâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; experience in human capital

development and customer relationship management functions in blue-chip companies which include Halifax Plc, UK, British Airways UK, BAT, London Underground, T-Mobile, Celtel and Guinness Nigeria Plc. A Biochemistry graduate of University of Lagos and alumni of Fate Foundation, Nigeria, Ogwo holds a Distinction Certificate in Organizations and Strategic Management from the London School of Economics and Political Science.

She is also a member of the Chartered Institute of Personnel Development, UK. and holds a certificate in Strategic Management Development from the same professional body. She recently concluded a course in Career Counselling for graduates at the British Psychological Society UK. Her achievements reflect a leadership that is focussed, strong and challenge-driven. They also represent the dividends of perseverance, hard work and professional integrity. Her enormous capacity for work, dedication and integrity is exemplary. Industry watchers see her as one of those few technocrats and professionals who have brought their innovativeness to bear on the discharge of the duties.

She is a recipient of the Goldman Sachs 10,000 women business leadership initiative and holds a certificate in Entrepreneurial Management from the Enterprise Development Service of the Lagos Business School and currently partners with Samsung, International Youth Foundation and MTN Foundation. She also serves on various boards and actively participates as a facilitator on various in-plant training programs for large corporations. These include training on topics such as: Customer Service, Presentation Skills, the 21st Century worker, Train the Trainer, Business Ethics, Strategic Recruitment and Selection, Business Writing and Developing Leadership Competencies, among others. Ogwo has honoured several invitations by youth groups and delivered career focused seminars on university campuses across the nation. She also serves as a member of the renowned women NGO otherwise called Wimbiz Conference Planning Group. A passionate believer in the Nigerian dream and columnist for a leading national newspaper, Ogwo has compareed on several occasions at The Platform, a national development seminar which features global achievers and attracts over 20,000 participants. She is married with children and currently resides in Lagos. She thinks that one of the things that Nigeria graduate job seekers lack and which has affected their employability is professionalism which in most cases, is no fault of their as it is usually after leaving school that graduates get to interact with employees in the working environment, it is her thinking therefore, that this causes a huge gap between graduate and job seeker competencies and employers’ expectations. It is also her belief that tertiary education should be a response to the needs of the society and the economy at large as it is done in civilized economies. On the contrary, she thinks that a lot of organizations have to retrain Nigerian graduates on basic things like computer skills, telephone ethics, personal development, grammar, business writing and etiquette before they can be effectively integrated into the workplace. To her, institutions of higher learning need to position themselves more relevantly and strategically, to the nation’s needs as an emerging economy. Such institutions, she also believes, need to raise the 21st century worker if the nation wants products of such educational system to compete globally. People, not oil, are the greatest assets of any nation. Investing in human capital is both a humanitarian imperative and driver of economic vitality, technological progress and political stability. Ogwo does not agree less.

Hear her: “There are a lot of negative influences. Graduates see individuals who have no evident source of income riding big cars and living in posh houses and these graduates erroneously believe that everything comes easy without paying the price of diligence and ethical living. As a result, you may find some who just want to ride high up in their careers but have refused to match their expectations with the necessary commitment of a sense of duty, life of integrity, purposeful use of their time and goal-setting. “Indeed, our leaders must now play a bigger role in mentoring the next generation and promoting reorientation programmes in our society; otherwise we would have an exceedingly money- conscious and valuelacking future generation.” The problem is as it was in my own time, we spent our undergraduate years seeking entertainment and excitement that often didn’t profit in the long term. Do all things in moderation and start investing in your future today.” “Use your time wisely, find out from successful people in the career field you are interested in what books, resources, trainings helped them rise up the career ladder, research various vocations in our environment, you may get to pioneer a field that is lacking in our economy. Think globally. Find out what your counterparts in other parts of the world are learning. At the end of the day you will be competing in the same market so how will you be different? What will differentiate you from the pack, start learning and building your capacity along those lines from now. Don’t think like an employee, think like a solution provider.” Find what you are good at and hone it; everybody has potential. Find yours and determine not to while years away at home waiting for employers to advertise or call you. “Beyond gaining technical knowledge in your course of study, think globally. Expand your mind and mental capacity. Find what you can really do with your hands and abilities and get cracking at it. Some youths have made successful living from beading, photography, sewing, cooking, braiding, agriculture, sports, others. “Attend relevant seminars, book appointments with career counsellors and visit career centres. I know there are six accredited centres in Nigeria, including AGDC. It’s time for the private and public sector to support relevant and impactful causes that will create pathways for your youth to gainful and productive living.”

The human resources department within a business is literally the core of the business. That is because human resources help keep all of the employees happy. They take care of employee concerns and may even take care of the hiring within the business. When someone leaves their job, human resources will do an exit interview to see why the employee left, This helps them to improve conditions for the rest of the employees by identifying the issues that led to people leaving the company. Human Resource Audits Human resource audits are necessary to ensure that human resources is doing their job. Strengths and weaknesses are indicated so that human resources can do what they need to do to make sure the entire staff is happy. Here are some of the benefits of human resource audits: - A through analysis is able to pinpoint what needs to be improved. - Paperwork is evaluated to ensure accurate recordkeeping. This is something that is important to both current and former employees. - Those who make decisions within the human resource department can see where improvements must be made.

- The overall design and structure of the business can be evaluated so that it can be improved for better functioning. - HR managers are better able to evaluate the positions within the business and see who needs to be promoted, who doesnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t, and what needs to be done staff-wise that will improve the business. - Legal compliance can be determined. It is very important that the business complies with everything legally. If not, then those improvements can be made. - Employee morale can be kept up and so can job satisfaction. - The business can improve its reputation. Satisfied employees will talk about how great their job is. Satisfied employees also do a much better job at their job. When they do this, customer satisfaction increases and the company can make a better profit. These are benefits that every business with an HR department needs. There are many businesses with high turnover rates and the improvement really needs to be in the human resources department. If the HR departments within these businesses would make the necessary improvements, these businesses would have lower turnover.

A Successful Business All-in-all, the human resources department is what can make a successful business. As stated before, employee morale can be improved if the overall function of the human resources department is improved. So by doing audits, all of these issues can be found and they can be rectified so that the business will run smoothly. The human resources department will feel better about what they are doing, management will feel better about what they are doing, and the employees will also feel good about how things are operating within their place of employment. If your business needs an overhaul, this is the way to do it. An outside company can audit the human resources department or upper management can take care of it. It really depends on if you want to spend money on having the department audited or if you want to spend time on an audit. Either way, the audit is going to make a significant difference in how the business operates. But you may want to have someone come in from the inside so that they have an unbiased view of the business activities.

Lower turnover also means that money is saved within the business. This is due to the fact that it costs a lot of money to train new employees. If a business has to train fewer employees, that is less money that they have to spend on training. This significantly improves their bottom line.

The Importance & Benefits of Human Resources Audits

Organizations Worthy & Employers of

Choice Human Edge Online

Many employers in Nigeria have recognized that the rules for finding and keeping top performers have changed. Fierce business competition and equally fierce competition for top talent seem to have combined to create a situation in which good people have become more mobile than ever. Indeed, it seems to have become standard operating procedure for many workers to keep their resumes permanently updated and in circulation. Not surprisingly, this means that the people most likely to leave their jobs are those who can most easily find jobs elsewhere. Unfortunately for those whose business may be amongst those struggling to meet intensifying competitive challenges, it also means that the people necessary for their future success are the most talented managers, knowledge workers and revenue producers - and the ones most likely to walk off. Clearly, we are no longer competing for just a larger share of the market – now we are competing for talent. As in the more developed economies, Nigeria is beginning to witness the development of a ‘market for talent’ in which the best people seem to have the upper hand and are exercising their right to choose the workplace in which they will deploy their talent. To be worthy of that choice, businesses have discovered that they must now offer much more than just good pay. Talented workers are insisting on ‘a good place to work.’ Typically, this involves more than just good pay and benefits; it also means a place that provides a welcoming work environment, creates opportunities for professional development and advancement, treats employees with respect and dignity, and enables them to feel valued, both as contributors to the organization’s success and as human beings.

During executive search engagements, Human Edge consultants often report that given a choice of comparably remunerated positions, an increasing number of high potential people are indicating a preference for organizations that offer the greatest opportunity to grow, develop, and do their best work. Obviously, this trend must be kept in perspective. A business that is foundering or heading towards bankruptcy will certainly have a difficult time competing for talent, no matter how wonderful its internal culture may be. Nevertheless, we subscribe to the view that the long – term success of any organization is heavily dependent on its ability to recruit and retain the best talent, and enable its people to develop and perform to their highest potential. The term ‘employer of choice’ is used to describe a company whose status and reputation as a great place to work, makes it the first choice of top class people. There is evidence to suggest that organizations that are able to attain this status enjoy certain advantages; there is a growing recognition that in order to compete for market share, an organization must first compete for talent share i.e. the most talented future leaders, knowledge workers and producers who will enable the organization to remain competitive. A decision to become an employer of choice is therefore a strategic commitment. In general, it seems logical to assume that the greater the public awareness of an organization’s reputation as an employer of choice, the greater the pool of talent it will attract and have to draw upon. Successful implementation of an employer of choice strategy should help to make the search for top talent more of a selection process. The increased quality, value or performance of better people combined with expected savings on recruitment costs should, in turn, more than repay any costs associated with the process of becoming and remaining an employer of choice.

Some Key Issues For reasons similar to those identified above, an increasing number of organizations around the country are choosing to identify with the employer of choice strategy. Unfortunately, as with so many deceptively simple concepts, it is not quite so easy to convert theory into practice. We believe there are a number of reasons for this. First, becoming an employer of choice requires employers to see their people as valuable assets, to invest in them as assets that can appreciate in value, and to treat them as human beings who have a range of personal and professional needs and preferences and who really do have the option of walking out of the door if those needs and preferences are not satisfied. Second, there are two elements involved in becoming an employer of choice: being worthy and being known. As we have already seen, being a worthy organization requires policies and practices that support people in doing their best work and developing to their fullest potential, both professionally and personally. However, it is also important for organizations to be known and recognized as leaders in the creation of environments that enable people to succeed and to develop behaviors and skills that will position them for greater success in the future. It seems likely that to be well known, but not particularly worthy might create a discrepancy between people’s expectations or experiences that could ultimately lead to the loss of high performers whose expectations are not being met. On the other hand, to be worthy but not particularly well known would also be largely ineffective as it would result in the organization’s failure to leverage a critical success factor i.e. having the best people. We believe both of these elements are necessary to create the pull that will draw the most desirable people to the organization. Neither is sufficient.

Tips for Performance Appraisal To minimize exposure to employee litigation, employers should develop a checklist of items that are necessary for the enforcement of fair, consistent and legally sound performance appraisal systems. • Apprise employees of performance standards in advance. When a new employee is hired or when new standards are adopted, supervisors should amend job descriptions and performance evaluation forms and copies should be given to all affected employees. • Document all performance problems regularly on appropriate appraisal or progressive discipline forms. Provide the employee with a copy immediately. A precise format for conducting an evaluation leads to more thorough, accurate recording of information. Informality, on the other hand, may lead to claims of discrimination. • Provide employees with relevant feedback. Vague, generalized or subjective evaluations may lead to litigation. • Promptly evaluate non-productive employees. When managers tolerate

Performance Management

•

an employee with a performance problem for months and then suddenly give him/her a negative evaluation and terminate him/her, the employee may claim that the action was arbitrary or discriminatory and may be able to show that no opportunity for improvement was given. Give the employee an opportunity to comment on or dispute the performance appraisal. This will support the fact that you provided the employee with notice. Train supervisors how to evaluate employee performance and how to administer the company’s appraisal system. Establish a review audit system to prevent manager bias or personal feelings from impacting on the appraisal. Develop written policy statements approving only a specified procedure for conducting appraisals. Document through performance files as well as job-related testing, rating systems, appraisal forms and signed memoranda.

Measuring Employee Performance through Balanced Scorecard Skills Training There are many ways to ensure that you will succeed in your business but not all of them can guarantee that you will really acquire the results that you would like to achieve. Nevertheless, there is a verified method that one should practice and that is to motivate the employees. This will enable you to deliver your strategy. To be able to start this practice, you should first set people targets. After that, you should be prepared to reward your workers when they are able to meet the targets that you have specified. With such application, they will often perform their best so that they will receive the award and recognition they deserve. Even though motivating your employees sounds so easy, this can turn out to be disastrous when put into practice. This is why you should find suitable ways that will permit you to start inspiring them to do their work even better. One of these can be through drills and workshops. You can measure their performance through

the use of the balanced scorecard skills training. As you may know, the balanced scorecard is one of the most effective systems that will help you in gauging the efficiency of the processes that you are currently managing. In order to unleash their leadership skills, there is a need to train them so that they will have the understanding of how to run an administration. There are easy ways on how to implement the balanced scorecard skills training programs. However, it is important that you first lead the implementation. You will serve as their guide when learning how to become a leader and a good worker at the same time. When in this stage, you are obliged to start with the strategy of the organization that you are running. Make sure that you have taken enough time to think through the things that you will discuss with them. The next step towards motivating your employees is to ensure that you are prepared for changes. Now that you have decided that you will be using the balanced scorecard to measure the performance of your employees, you will have to embrace the changes that are slowly taking effect. In addition to that, you should also be ready to do a lot of work especially during the phase of BSC training. The employees should also learn about the balanced scorecard because they should know that their work is being monitored by the executives or the managers. It is significant that you develop specific performance measurements that will be used to determine whether the employees are learning and gaining knowledge from the activity. If they meet the expectations from the drill, rest assured that they have greatly improved on their skills that they can contribute for the company. When developing the measurements for employee performance, you should take on the four important areas namely customers, internal business processes, financial and innovation and learning. Lastly, you should follow up the event and evaluate their performance. This way, you yourself will be able to observe how they are responding with the skills training program.

Nigeria at

Evaluating Africa’s Most Promising and Frustrating Colossus – Views from America Most Americans know very little about Nigeria, and that which they do know is extraordinarily negative. Nigeria is viewed as a nation with a breathtakingly corrupt government, intractable violence in its oil producing region, and as the source of the email scams that clog countless inboxes each and every day. Nigeria’s most damaging label, that of burgeoning terrorist haven, was sadly affixed last Christmas Day when a young Nigerian who was radicalized in the Middle East attempted to blow up a plane over Detroit. While Nigeria’s miserable reputation has mostly been wellearned, the country’s critical importance to the United States still cannot and should not be ignored. Nigeria is by far the most populous nation in Africa. One out of every five Africans is a Nigerian. The country is Sub-Saharan Africa’s most prodigious oil producer and the fourth-largest exporter to the U.S. Those who denounce Nigeria as a haven for angry Islamic terrorists fail to realize how highly the country regards America. According to the Pew Research Center’s 2010 Global Attitudes Survey, 81% of Nigerians have a favorable view of the U.S. The only two countries ahead of Nigeria on survey are Kenya (94%), the homeland of President Obama’s father, and the United States itself (85%). Nigeria has been recognized by the United Nations not for exporting terrorists, but peacekeepers. The country is the fourth-largest contributor of troops to UN peacekeeping missions around the world. Nigeria played an indispensible role in ending brutal civil wars in Liberia and the Sierra Leone, and soldiers from the country constitute the majority of the African Union’s peacekeeping forces in Darfur. Just as the importance of Nigeria is often overlooked and underappreciated, so to is the positive impact of Nigerians living in America. Nigerians are the largest African immigrant group in the U.S. They are the largest group of black professionals in the country and have the highest levels of education in the nation. According to the U.S. Census Bureau’s 2006 American Community Survey, 17% of all Nigerians in United States hold master’s degrees, 4% have doctorates, and 37% have bachelor’s degrees. By comparison, 8% of whites have master’s degrees, 1% hold doctorates, and 19% have bachelor’s degrees. Nigerian Americans have made their mark in all aspects of American life, including sports, where they have led teams to NCAA titles, NBA championships and Super Bowl victories. Several are among the highest-paid athletes in their respective leagues. While Nigerians have flourished in America, our native land has suffered bitterly. In the fifty years since independence, the

country has endured a devastating civil war, multiple military coups, sporadic eruptions of deadly religious and ethnic-based violence and repressive regimes which wrecked the country’s economy and trampled on basic political and human rights. According to the World Bank, 85% of Nigeria’s oil revenues accrue to a mere 1% of the population, and approximately $300 billion of that revenue has been stolen over the last forty years by corrupt politicians and bureaucrats. Nigeria is home to the third-largest number of poor people in the world. Approximately one million – one million – Nigerian children under the age of five die each year, most from preventable causes. Nigeria also has the second highest number of maternal deaths annually, behind only India. Every ten minutes, at least one Nigerian woman dies in childbirth. Nigerians flourishing in the U.S. have not been indifferent to this suffering. Armed with degrees from schools like Harvard, Princeton and Yale, they are returning home in droves to reform government agencies, start successful businesses and build up the country’s infrastructure. After I graduated from Stanford Law School in 2007, I declined several lucrative corporate law offers in order to help my father build a world-class hospital in his home state in eastern Nigeria. Through this work, I have been continually inspired by the ferocious desire of young Nigerian Americans to help transform our parents’ homeland. For the past fifty years, Nigeria has failed as a nation while its people have achieved stunning success outside of its borders. If the country is to achieve political stability and increased economic growth, Nigerians living both inside and outside of the country must dedicate themselves heart and soul to the country’s development. With such commitment, and with the sustained support and engagement of American philanthropists and the U.S. government, Nigeria can fulfill its immeasurable potential and become, at last, a nation worthy of its amazing people. Nigerians think very highly of the United States. As the country begins its second half-century of freedom and opportunity, it is my fierce hope that Americans will one day regard Africa’s Colossus with the same admiration and respect. Afam Onyema is Co-Founder and Chief Operating Officer of The GEANCO Foundation, which develops medical, educational and athletic facilities in Nigeria.

Aliko Dangote to lead National Committee

on Job Creation in Nigeria

With more than 12 million Nigerians currently unemployed, the federal government has appointed President of Dangote Group of Companies, Alhaji Aliko Dangote to lead National Committee on Job Creation (NCJC) to work out mechanism of creating one million jobs within a year. Announcing the appointment of Dangote and others into the National Committee on Job Creation, the Permanent Secretary, Federal Ministry of Finance, Mr. Danladi Kifasi said the the committee is to examine what other countries (developed, emerging and developing) have done to ensure increased job creation with a new view to developing a pool of possible policy interventions and incentives that will create an environment that is conducive for job creation. The Committee would also review existing reports on employment generation in Nigeria and outline key findings and recommendations and come up with an Action Plan, encompassing practical and specific interventions for ensuring increased job creation. Other members of the committee include Ernest Ndukwe, former Executive Vice Chairman, NCC; Maryam Uwais: Principal Partner, WaliUwais & Co; Folusho Philips: Executive Chairman, Philips Consulting Group; Stella Okoli, GMD/CEO, Emzor Pharmaceutical Industry Ltd; Mazi Sam Ohuabunwa, Chairman NESG and Prof. Ademola Oyejide: Chairman NEIC. Other members of the committee include Ibukun Awosika, Entrepreneur; Albert Okumagba, MD BGL PLC; Bashir Yusuf Ibrahim, President Dirham Group; Omobola Johnson: Country Chairman, Accenture; Bukar Tijani, National Coordinator FADAMA/NPAFS; Ausbeth Ajagu, President Academy for Entrepreneurial Study Nigeria, Tunde Obileye MD Great Heights Property & Facilities Management LTD; Tonye Cole: MD Sahara Energy Group and Yemisi Ransome-Kuti: Executive Director Nigeria Network of NGOS-NNNGO.

About The National Committee on Job Creation The National Committee on Job Creation (NCJC) is an initiative of the National Economic Management Team (NEMT) tackling the tetraheaded problem of unemployment in the country. The committee was inaugurated by the Honourable Minister of Finance, who is the chairman of the National Economic Management Team, with the very important task of helping to develop an Action Plan on job creation. To execute this urgent national assignment, men and women who have the experience, reputation and passion to help lift the down-trodden were sought and charged with the following mandate: * To examine what other countries (developed, emerging and developing) have done to ensure increased job creation with a view to developing a pool of possible policy interventions and incentives that will create an environment that is conducive for job creation; * To review existing reports on employment generation in Nigeria and outline key findings and recommendations; and come up with an Action Plan, encompassing practice and specific interventions for ensuring job creation. This committee is made up of eminently qualified Nigerians who have served this country in various capacities. They were carefully selected based on their track record and relevant experience and invited to put their heads together and come up with practical and quick win strategies which when implemented will translate to quantifiable and increased job opportunities for our teeming population of qualified but unemployed Nigerians. Website: www.jobcreation.com.ng

uba’s new management Team The management team of the group is made up of a crop of seasoned and industryrecognized professionals with diverse but complementary skills in various backgrounds as well as depths of experiences (garnered from national and international institutions).

Over the years, these executives have brought their knowledge, experience and leadership to bear in the development and delivery of solutions (through products and services) to meet the needs of our customers, and in the process contributing to sustaining the performance of the group till date.

C�� F�� N. A�� CHAIRMAN

Chief Alabraba is a graduate of Quantity Surveying from the University of Reading, England and also holds a Master of Science degree in Construction Economics and Management from Aston University, England. He is a fellow of various professional bodies including the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors, Nigerian Institute of Quantity Surveyors and Institute of Construction Industry Arbitrators, Nigeria. He has served as a Director on many Boards including African Continental Bank Plc, Continental Trust Bank Plc, Crown Realties Plc and Standard Trust Bank Plc and is currently the Managing Partner/Chief Executive of Aman Associates. He is also the Chairman of Nitel and Bicontinental Investments Nigeria Limited. Mr Alabraba has received several awards, such as the “Nigerian Institute of Quantity Surveyors Merit Award” and “Winner, Fellowship of the Science Research Council of England.”

M�. P�� O�� gMD/CEO

Mr. Phillips Oduoza is the GMD/CEO of UBA Group. He has a 1st Class B.Sc. (Hons.) degree in Civil Engineering and an MBA (Finance), both from the University of Lagos. He has undertaken the Advanced Management Programme of Harvard Business School. He commenced his banking career in 1987 with International Merchant Bank (IMB) as a Credit Officer, where he trained in credit analysis. He had a stint between 1988 and 1991 at Citibank, the world’s largest financial services institution, a period during which he was equipped with an indispensable knowledge of banking operations, relationship management, credit/marketing, efficient implementation of technology, risk management and lean banking methods. In 1991, he worked with a small team of young and talented professionals to pioneer Diamond Bank PLC and built it into one of the strongest brands and most successful financial services entity in the country. As Executive Director, Operations & Technology at Diamond Bank in 1999, he transformed IT within the bank to global standards. In 2002, he became the Executive Director, Commercial/Retail Banking at the same bank until 2004. He joined Reliance Bank Limited in August 2004 as Deputy Managing Director, where he worked briefly before joining the Management and Board of Standard Trust Bank PLC in December 2004. He has attended numerous banking, management and leadership courses, and has strengths in execution, talent management, technology integration and lean banking.

V�� O�� Mr. Victor Osadolor is a seasoned banker and chartered accountant with an accounting degree from the University of Benin, fellowship of the Institute of Chartered Accountants of Nigeria (ICAN) and honorary life membership of the Chartered Institute of Bankers of Nigeria (CIBN). He joined Standard Trust Bank in 2000 as Divisional Director, Strategy and Support, and was appointed Executive Director in June 2002. An alumnus of Harvard Business School’s Advanced Management Programme, Victor co-chaired the team that managed the STB-UBA integration programme. Currently the Deputy Managing Director UBA South and oversees UBA Group’s business under the region. He was previously Executive Director in charge of Risk Management and Finance and at one time, the Deputy Managing Director/COO at Continental Trust Bank Limited before its acquisition by UBA.

k�� U�� Kennedy Uzoka is the Executive Director, Resources. He has a B.Sc. in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Benin and an MBA majoring in Finance from the University of Lagos. Kennedy, a multiple awards winner brings a unique set of experience which spans almost two decades in marketing, business strategy and now resources management to the executive team. He was at different times Head, Strategy & Business Transformation of UBA Group and later Regional Bank Head, South Bank covering over 17 states in southern part of Nigeria. Prior to the merger, he was Regional Director-South East, Vice President-Northern Nigeria, Chief Marketing Officer— Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Chief Marketing Officer, Lagos and later as Managing Executive Officer at erstwhile Standard Trust Bank. He is an alumnus of Harvard Business School in Boston, USA, International Institute of Management Development (IMD) in Lausanne, Switzerland and the London Business School, UK.

F�� T��-M�� Mrs. Faith Tuedor-Matthews holds a Masters degree in Business Administration from the University of Aston, Birmingham, U.K. and is an alumna of the Harvard Business School’s Advanced Management Programme. She is also a graduate member of the Chartered Institute of Marketing, London and a member of the Chartered Institute of Bankers. Faith joined Standard Trust Bank in 2003 as Executive Director, Public Sector, where she led the directorate to establish robust relationships with a number of major Public Sector agencies. Later, she was appointed Regional Bank Head in charge of Abuja Region. She is currently the Deputy Managing Director, UBA Nigeria-North.

F�� O�� Femi Olaloku, B.Sc Civil Engineering and Masters in Business Administration from the University of Lagos He has over 19 years of Banking and Financial Services Experience

I�� O�� Ifeatu Onejeme, Executive Director, is responsible for UBA Group’s Corporate Banking Directorate. He has First Class degree in Accountancy, is a Fellow of the Institute of Chartered Accountants of Nigeria,is an Alumnus of Wharton Business school of the University of Pennsylvania, University of Chicago Graduate School of Business and Lagos Business School. He has over 23 years experience in Banking and Financial Services.

A�� A�� J. B�� Alhaji Abdulqadir J. Bello as Executive Director has supervisory responsibilities for the bank’s upcountry business. A Chartered Accountant and a Credit Risk Specialist with over 20 years of banking experience. Prior to this appointment, Bello was the Chief Credit Officer, UBA Group. His other appointments are Special Assistant to the CEO of GAMJI BANK OF NIGERIA PLC (International Trust Bank Plc), Abuja Branch Manager in 1996 prior to joining UBA.

Formerly Vice President Operations Controls and Information Security, Citigroup Sub Saharan Division. He joined UBA in 2006 as General Manager, Information Technology He is Executive Director and Group Chief Operations Officer with responsibility for IT, Operations, Global Shared Services and Customer Service.

E�� N. N�� Mr. Emmanuel N. Nnorom is a seasoned auditor and accountant with over 2 decades of experience working with several companies quoted on the Nigerian Stock Exchange. Mr. Nnorom is an Alumnus of the Oxford University Templeton College and a Fellow of both the Institute of Chartered Accountants of Nigeria (ICAN) and the Chartered Institute of Bankers of Nigeria (CIBN). He trained as an accountant with Peat Marwick Castleton Elliot & Co., winning the First Prize in the finals of the May 1982 diet of ICAN examinations. Mr. Nnorom held the position of Group Chief Operating Officer with responsibility over information technology, operations, corporate services, marketing and corporate communications, customer service, UBA Properties, human resources and regulatory affairs. He was appointed Executive Director of UBA in 2008 and responsible for the Group’s Finance Directorate

R�� O�� Rasheed Olaoluwa, An Executive Director, holds a First Class honours degree in Civil Engineering, an MBA, and has had an illustrious working career that saw him through Arthur Andersen and in the banking industry, various senior roles in marketing and relationship management, treasury management, currency trading and investment banking, culminating in his appointment as MD/CEO of the erstwhile Universal Trust Bank PLC. He was appointed Executive Director of UBA and Chief Executive Officer, UBA Africa in 2008. As CEO UBA Africa, he is responsible for the expansion of UBA’s operations in West, Central, East and Southern Africa

www.ubagroup.com/careers

South Korea’s LG Electronics Inc ousted its chief executive on Friday, replacing him with a founding family member in a bid to turn around its loss-making mobile phone business, the world’s third largest. Koo Bon-joon, the head of trading firm LG International will take over from Nam Yong, who resigned from the top job to take responsibility for poor management, LG said on Friday.

LG Elec names new CEO as mobile business struggles

Nam is the second CEO of a major mobile phone maker in a week to lose his job after the world’s No.1 handset maker, Nokia, last Friday replaced Olli-Pekka Kallasvuo with Stephen Elop, a Canadian Microsoft executive. Both LG Electronics and Nokia have been under pressure due to a lack of strong smartphone models to rival Apple’s iPhone and Samsung Electronics Galaxy S. LG’s mobile business reported a record loss last quarter and warned of a similar loss this quarter. Investors welcomed the sudden change and pushed LG Electronics shares up nearly 6 percent. The shares closed up 4.7 percent, their biggest percentage gain in about six months. “Koo is expected to reshuffle the organization and actively cope with the fast-changing IT industry... LG is expected to narrow the gap with Apple and other leading smartphone markers,” said Lee Yong-jik, a fund manager at AIG Investments in Seoul. markers,”

NEW CEO FOR FMBN The Federal Government of Nigeria has appointed Mr. Michael Nwogbo as the Acting Managing Director/ Chief Executive Officer for the Federal Mortgage Bank of Nigeria, with effect from Monday, September 6, 2010. This follows the dissolution of the erstwhile Board of the Bank under the Chairmanship of Alhaji Deda Attah, a statement signed by the Head, Corporate Affairs, FMBN, Mr. Dauda Yusuf, said. Nwogbo, a 1985 graduate, holds several academic qualifications which include an MBA and BSc. Business Management from the University of Lagos and the University of Nigeria Nsukka, respectively. He is a member of a number of professional associations among

which are, Associate Member Institute of Chartered Accountants of Nigeria; Associate Member Chartered Institute of Bankers; Associate Member Chartered Institute of Stockbrokers, Associate Member Nigerian Institute Management. He is a Registered Market Operator with Securities and Exchange Commission. Until his appointment, Nwogbo was the General Manager in-charge of Securities Issuance and Market Development in the FMBN, a position he held since 2008. The department was responsible for developing and issuing the first ever FMBN mortgagebacked Bond which raised N26bn to refinance the acquisition of nonessential Federal Government houses in the FCT.

SAMSUNG, a popular telecommunication company in West Africa, has appointed a Nigerian, Mr. Idorenyen Enang, as its new managing director. Enang would serve as deputy managing director, Samsung West Africa, and have the direct responsibility for the business in Nigeria. It described him as a seasoned economist and a marketing strategist, who joined the company with over 20 years of handson experience after his Bachelor‘s Degree in Economics and in Marketing. He had also worked with several multinational companies in Nigeria, it said, adding that his ”experience has been brought to bear on foremost brands in over 39 countries across the African continent.” Enang, began his career with Elf Nigeria as a cost controller had also worked as a commercial director at the Cadbury Nigeria Plc and other companies such as Coca-cola and Guinness Nigeria Plc. ”Enang is the incumbent President of the Advertisers Association of Nigeria, the head Advertising Sectoral Groups, a member of National Institute of Marketing Nigeria and had recently been appointed to the Governing Council of Advertising Practitioners Council of Nigeria,” the statement said.

uniTY bank promoTions UNITY Bank Plc has announced the promotion of about 400 staffs. Out of the number, two were promoted to the rank of Assistant General Manager. Three of the senior managers were elevated to the rank of Principal Manager while 13 managers moved up to senior manager position. The rest of the beneficiaries were promoted to other managerial levels and executive positions. Announcing the exercise, the bank said it is in response to staff contribution to the progress being made by the bank and expressed its determination to reward more deserving staff as it continues to record more successes. Another set of 2,305 employees were given graduated salary increases also in recognition of their contributions to the progress of the bank. Speaking on the promotion exercise, the Managing Director, Falalu Bello urged staff to continue to raise their performance to enable the bank attain its objective of becoming one of the five largest banks in Nigeria.

AFRICAN PETROLEUM APPOINTS NEW ACMD

AFRICAN Petroleum (AP)Plc has appointed Mr. Michael O. Ahme as the Acting Managing Director of the company, following the resignation of the former Chief Executive Officer, Mr. Joel Tunde Falasinnu. Also, the company has appointed a journalist and public relations practitioner, Alhaji Tajudeen Olaniyi Adeyemi, as the new Manager, Corporate Communications. Ahme has experience, spanning over 31 years in petroleum marketing and distribution in the downstream sector of the oil and gas industry. He joined the company in October 1979 working in the Marketing Department till April 1992, when he left for Petralpha

Limited, where he worked between May 1992 and November 1997 and as Managing Director of Eterna Plc between 1998 and 2004. Adeyemi holds a B.Sc and M.Sc degrees in Mass Communication from the University of Lagos, with brief stints as a reporter with the Nigerian Television Authority (NTA) Ilorin, Radio Kano FM and the defunct Democrat . Between 1992 and 1993, Adeyemi was a news producer and Special Assistant to the Director-General, Voice of Nigeria (VON). He joined AP Plc in March 1993, and became the Public Relation Officer from 1993 to 1999, before he was transferred to the South-West Region Operations as Distribution Officer.

Adeseyi Sijuade, New Managing Director, Nigeria Railways Corporation (NRC) The new helmsman Adeseyi Sijuade until his appointment was the client Project Director of the Lagos-Kano Railway modernisation project. He is a chartered civil engineer and holds a MBA degree from Loughborough University. Mr Sijuade is coming into the NRC at a time when the nation’s railway is in state of comatose.

It is suffice to say that he already has his work cut out. He is also expected to lead a workforce with low skill base and weakened staff morale. The NRC MD was quoted in the media to have said he will make the rebranding of the corporation a priority. He noted the need to change public perception of the corporation for better.

LBS APPOINTMENT Dr Constantine Imafidon Tongo. He joins the Department of Human Behaviour in Organisations/Human Resources Management. Lagos Business School

Dr Tongo holds a PhD in Business Administration and an MBA from the University of Benin, Nigeria. His research interests are in human resource management, organisational behaviour, operations research and industrial relations; and his works have been published in many leading international journals. His appointment will provide additional expertise to boost the school’s research output.

Commenting on his reason for joining LBS, he said “I believe that LBS values diversity and offers a conducive environment for work. The school also has a good corporate image which emanates from its very high ethical standards that drive it into being socially responsible to all its stakeholders”. Dr Tongo has several years of management consulting and teaching experience. He taught general management and industrial relations to students at Covenant University before joining LBS. He is a member of the Nigerian Industrial Relations Association

Diaspora Nigerians remit $7bn as CBN releases N130bn to BoI for 317 projects Diaspora Nigerians remit $7bn as CBN releases N130bn to BoI for 317 projects The Nigerian Export Import Bank (NEXIM) has disclosed that Diaspora Nigerians remitted over $7 billion in 2009, which represents 50 percent of the $14 billion globally remitted to Africa. Robert Orya, managing director, NEXIM, who made this known on Monday in Abuja at the 2010 Enterprise Exhibition and Business Forum, said the $14 billion global remittance in 2009 formed the highest source of foreign exchange into the continent. Meanwhile, the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has also disclosed that it has released over N130 billion to the Bank of Industry (BoI) to execute 317 projects that are to be undertaken by their clients. While urging the Diaspora community to tap into the various opportunities that abound in the country for purposes of national development, an official of the CBN, Muda Olaitan, advised for improved networking between relevant government agencies and Nigerians abroad. “Those that have done the country proud should be celebrated. Government must accelerate infrastructure development to drastically bring down the cost of doing business in Nigeria in order to enhance the mobilisation of Diaspora’s fund for national development,” Olaitan advised. The over 50 percent contribution of the $14 billion remittance globally by the

Diaspora Nigerians is attributed to the fact that Nigeria has the highest number of migrants in the continent. Olaitan, therefore, added that the CBN would not relent in playing its role in developmental effort to achieving the various milestones as indicated in the national development plan, noting that focus would be placed on developing the real sector of the economy through stimulation of assets to finance entrepreneurship development, poverty reduction and building a sound and robust financial system. The level of recorded remittances has assumed downward trend since 2009 due to the global economic recession, as the upside of the meltdown has triggered a further brain drain that characterised the exodus of most Africans and indeed Nigerian talents to other better economies, particularly in the last two decades. Orya, therefore, posited that “the recession that started in relatively more developed nations has given rise to what is now called ‘brain-gain’ as many Diasporas are growing and are not as hard hit by the recession.” Underscoring the importance of the exhibition and business forum, he noted that the global financial meltdown and the over maturation in the market of the developed countries present good opportunities for the Diasporas to seize,

along with their Western partners, by embarking on joint venture in Nigeria, “a country whose investment potentials remain largely untapped.” Evelyn Oputu, managing director/CEO, BoI, informed that in the last three years, her bank and its domestic development partners including Nigerian Association of Small Scale Industries (NASSI), and National Association of Small and Medium Enterprise (NASME) had also gone beyond conceptualisation level by identifying some Nigerian entrepreneurs with export potential to feature in business-to-business meeting. Oputu, who was represented by Waheed Olagunju, general manager, corporate communications, BoI, expressed the optimism that the Nigerian entrepreneurs would be assisted by missioners to achieve the required standard in their various businesses with a view to becoming competitive and viable enterprises to be linked to the global entrepreneurial value chain. Assuring participants at the forum, Oputu stated: “Nigerian businessmen and their Diaspora counterparts should remain assured that BoI and domestic and foreign development partners will always be on hand to provide all the support required for them to succeed in these challenging but highly rewarding environment

reVersing nigeria’s brain drain The Brain Drain is often used to describe the movement of highly skilled experts from the country of origin to a new host country, more frequently from developing countries to developed countries. The brain drain deprives developing countries like Nigeria of valuable personnel that end up contributing to the economies of the developed nations who in turn have been accused of poaching the best and brightest highly skilled workforce from a country that desperately needs them. A United Nations report stated that “The failure of the postcolonial state in Africa in the 1970s and 1980s – Low morale, lack of academic freedom and collapse of tertiary education, rise of authoritarian regimes, hardship and paralysis ushered in by Structural Adjustment Programs (SAP) and so forth – provoked the exodus of highly skilled Africans”. The migrants’ economic wellbeing not available in their country of origin is a major push factor in deciding to migrate. Other push factors include but not limited to salary and benefits differentials, inadequate professional and career opportunities, large technological gaps and inadequate local technological capacity, lack of willingness to change by the home country, the relevance and quality of foreign education, training and qualifications compared to those acquired in the home country, discrimination or the sense of not belonging, political balkanization or instability, lack of realistic and accurate human resources policies and plans and restrictive trade practices of the developed nations that strangle the development of the developing nations.

neWs

A United Nations report stated that many students sponsored to do postgraduate studies in technology, science and engineering abroad have stayed away at the end of their studies. To fill

the vacuum created by the brain drain, Africa spends $4 billion annually to recruit and pay 100,000 expatriates to work in Africa when we can use a portion of that amount to recruit from the vast pool of equally qualified and experienced African professionals living and working outside Africa. In today’s knowledge-based economy a major concern is the adverse effect of the loss of skilled professionals, due in part to the talent hunt policies and better working conditions of the developed nations. The global Competition for skilled Professionals by the developed nations is fierce and those trained in the developing nations end up filling the skills shortage of the developed nations. The effects of the brain drain to Nigeria and Africa respectively is enormous, resulting in more African engineers working in the USA than those in the whole of Africa. A report by the United Nations estimates that ‘over the next decade Africa will need to train an additional 1 million health care professionals and find ways to retain more of the doctors, nurses, pharmacists and laboratory technicians it currently produces. The International Organization For Migration (IOM) estimates that ‘“It would have cost the developed nations about $184,000 to train each of the estimated 3 million professionals educated in developing countries now working in the developed world, resulting in a savings of $552 billion dollars for the developed nations.” In essence, developing nations like Nigeria is giving developmental assistance to the developed nations, making the rich nations richer and the poor nations poorer, an analogy of pouring water from a drum into the river, springs to mind. The challenge of reversing any brain drain is huge but the opportunities it presents, far outweigh the threats. Most of the developed nations have policies in place to attract high skilled labour from around the world needed to fill their own vacuum. The United Kingdom, the United States, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand have all made, and continuously updated, their policies to recruit this segment of international migrants. The United States doubled its H1-B visas from 65,000 to 130,000 largely due to great lobbying by the IT and other industries. This figure does not include the 586,000 students that are attracted to the U.S. institutions from around the world, annually. Britain’s points system, adopted in 2006, ensures that only people with the right skills or contribution will be able to enter the UK to work or study. There is no reason why Nigeria should not have a similar policy in place to attract the best to aid in accelerating our own national development.

Nigeria along with most African countries still do not know how many of their Professionals leave the country annually, why they left their home country, the number that return and why they returned back. The impact of this lack of awareness by the African Governments and most developing nations can be shown by the lack of policies in place to curb the unaccounted flow of their much needed highly trained people and little or nothing in place to attract back those currently in the Diaspora. Chairman, House Committee on Diaspora at the House of Representatives, Hon. Abike Dabiri – Erewa, sponsored the Nigerian Diaspora commission bill, which has resulted in Nigeria being the first African country to establish a Diaspora Commission. The speaker of the House of Representatives Hon. Dimeji Bankole, said “Nigeria’s Diaspora communities are capable of mobilizing substantial investments and development capital into the country, especially with a 2008 World Bank estimate that put the annual remittance of Nigerians in the Diaspora at well over $11 billion”. President Goodluck Ebele Jonathan, a former lecturer, has also lent his support to the much needed Diaspora Commission. He stated that “We want to upgrade it to the level of a commission to coordinate experts in the Diaspora. We want to raise it beyond a department in foreign affairs. We are looking at establishing the Commission before the end of this administration, in the next 12 months.” These are positive signs coming from the key decision makers of the nation and are a welcome development for Nigerians at home and in the Diaspora. Though we have much catching up to do, in comparison with the developed nations and the BRIC economies in this important area, we have started the long journey with an important step. These positive words must be backed up by specific, measurable, attainable, realistic and time related actions or it risks being piled up in the ever growing dump of brilliant ideas that were never bore any fruits due to regional wrangling, selfish interests and recruiting people based on anything but their existing skills and experience.

Nigeria must be put before any region with national interest and pride over regional interest and pride. Another important development includes the ability of the Nigerian Diaspora to cast its vote for the first time in Nigeria’s history, come 2015. This will be an inflection point in our growing democracy, as it will engage the Diaspora in the political development of the nation. The loot from the corrupt leaders of our Nation is stored in the banks of the developed nations, thus making them richer and us poorer. Any increase in the cost of living in Nigeria equates to an increase in the size of the remittances sent back home from the Nigerian Diaspora. These remittances have lifted families out of poverty, educated siblings, created employment and given hope to what was once viewed as a hopeless situation by many. We must understand the reasons behind the brain drain, compare our results with the real experience of living in the developed nations and identify the ways to attract our Professionals back home. These Professionals will be returning with skills and experience gained internationally and with the right business environment, will make positive contributions to our growing economy, with a main focus on improving the non oil sectors of the economy. There has been evidence of some people returning to Nigeria, only to pack up and go back abroad as they could not deal with the challenges of settling back into their motherland. Reasons have included being ripped off financially and emotionally by family members and friends, business failure, complexities of doing business in Nigeria, poor infrastructure, security concerns and the lack of constant electricity. Research has shown that some businesses set up by the Diaspora in Nigeria are headed by people without any business experience or experience of managing a project of that magnitude. Recruitment is often based on being related to the business owner, which is no surprise why most of them fail. Other reasons for business failure include the business owners not being present to manage the growth of the business as

NEWS

PHOTO: HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES UNDER SPEAKER, HON. DIMEJI BANKOLE HAS PASSED LEGISLATION THAT WILL ENABLE NIGERIANS IN DIASPORA CONTRIBUTE TO NATION BUILDING.

they immediately return back to their host country, once the business has been set up. Research has also shown that even with the challenges of settling back into Nigeria, most Nigerians will prefer to be back home, especially with the global credit crunch forcing everyone to reconsider their options. Nigerians are excelling in their selected industries around the world, as we are without doubt one of the most creative and hard working people on earth. It hurts each time we all get painted with the same brush, when a Nigerian breaks the laws of the host country. In Africa, the annual amount remittances received from its Diaspora is higher than the total foreign aid it gets annually, so letâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s refocus our energy in the right areas. The Diaspora can contribute to Nigeriaâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s much needed development from their current abodes, by maximizing the opportunities presented by the advancement in information and communication technology, where physical location becomes less important in the new global village. The New Nigeria is a country that celebrates its heroes that exhibit our true values, home and abroad. These heroes that act as good ambassadors of our country by excelling against all odds in a foreign land, add positively to the challenge of re-branding the battered image of our great nation in the eyes of Nigerians and the International community. Nigeria is on the rise as positive change, in high and low places, sweep across the face of the New Nigeria. Long live the New Nigeria, as the old myopic regional way is swept aside by the new national and positive way. One Nigeria forever and our true values must be passed onto the next generation of Nigerians!

NEWS

Kevin Idehen recently completed an MBA (09) at the London South Bank University and his dissertation topic was: Reversing Nigeriaâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Brain Drain. email: kefosa@ yahoo.com.

OML provides strategic HR management services to businesses in Africa to improve their profit line including:

A new international consultancy, [Occupational Management Limited](www.hrforafrica.com) (OML), has recently launched in Accra to provide high-quality Human Resource (HR) services and training to the private, public and not-for-profit sectors in Ghana. Occupational Management Limited, a Ghanaian-owned HR management firm operating with 4 years experience in the United Kingdom, is extending its bespoke HR services to the local market and has already hosted their first major recruitment and talent management event, Brighter Futures 2010 Exhibition and Conference which attracted both foreign and local organizations and experts. Speaking at the launch of the new HR company, Miss Anita Wiafe said, “HR has a role to play in de-veloping Human capital for Ghana. Organizations in Ghana be they local, regional or branches of multinational companies must position themselves for a coming era of intense competition and growth, and that means they must have the right talent in place.” “ HR leaders have to adopt the right human-capital strategies to ensure they have the right employees with the right skills in the right places at the right time in order to reap the business opportunities that are emerging out of the global economy. Therefore, OML aims to provide HR services that will contribute tackling the human capital challenges in Africa”.

Miss Wiafe continued, ”Our international expertise and experience, coupled with local knowledge in the provision of high quality and modern HR services, places OML in a unique position to help businesses in Ghana run better by aligning people with business objectives and most importantly, providing Ghanaian businesses with strategic HR management services that will boost their profits.” She concluded, “We are a client-focused HR company driven by a deep understanding of the industry, a passion for the provision of quality HR solutions and an enviable record of helping our clients to succeed. We attach a personal touch to every call, email or on-site visit. We have a combined total of over thirty years of top quality HR knowledge and expertise. It is the vision of OML to open offices across Africa and become the continent’s leading HR consultancy”. Some international companies that have benefited from OML’s services include UK’s Industry and Parliamentary Trust, United Carribean Society, GVEP International, Article 19, Interpal, Springboard for Children and many other reputable organizations. At the recently held Brighter Futures 2010 organized by OML this July in Accra, exhibitors, speakers and delegates from the Central Bank of Nigeria, Vodafone Ghana, MTN, Gambian Ports Authority, Ecobank, Ghana Commercial Bank, Joblinks newspaper, Modern Ghana, The Ghanaian Journal,Ghana Labour Commission, Staces HR, Gateway Services Limited, Rana Motors, Bioss from South Africa, IPMC, etc benefited from attending the event.

neWs

neW hr firm opens in ghana

• Recruitment, selection and retention • Personnel administration outsourcing • Performance management implementation • HR systems software • Talent management • Training & Development centres • Employee handbook (policies and procedures) • Workforce strategies

Ghana Faces Worrying Brain Drain IOM spokesman, Jean-Philippe Chauzy, tells VOA a growing number of highly skilled young professionals are heading toward countries such as the United Kingdom, the United States and Canada. The International Organization for Migration says an increasing number of qualified, educated young Ghanaians are migrating to foreign countries. It says this so-called “brain drain” could affect the country’s economic and development prospects. Ghana remains attractive for migrants from West African countries because of its political stability and relative economic well being. But, at the same time, a new study shows many educated Ghanaians who are unable to find suitable employment at home are going abroad in search of work. The study by the International Organization for Migration finds more than 70 percent of Ghanaian migrants stay in West Africa. But, it says this trend is starting to change. IOM spokesman, Jean-Philippe Chauzy, tells VOA a growing number of highly skilled young professionals are heading toward countries such as the United Kingdom, the United States and Canada.

“The report, for instance, shows that 56 percent of the doctors who are trained in Ghana and 24 percent of the nurses trained in Ghana are now working abroad,” he said. “Similarly the report shows that 60 percent of faculty positions in polytechnics for instance and 40 percent of positions in university remain vacant because there simply are not enough qualified people to take up those positions.” IOM says the co-called “brain drain,” which has been increasing since the 1990s, is worsening labor shortages in critical sectors such as health and education. It says Ghana does not have enough qualified teachers to train the next generation of nurses and doctors. Chauzy says poor working conditions and the lack of opportunities for career advancement are pushing qualified Ghanaians to seek greener pastures abroad. “It is unfortunately mostly a matter of money,” he said. “The report shows, for instance, that a Ghanaian doctor finding employment, let us say in Canada, will have a salary 25 times superior to the salary this person could have had in Ghana.” “So, obviously, one of the main driving factors is the gap between salaries inside

the country and salaries that can be had outside of the country, especially in developed northern countries such as Canada, the UK and the United States of America,” he added. The number of Ghanaians estimated to be living abroad ranges between one-and-a-half and three million. IOM says a positive impact of this growing emigration is that remittances to Ghana have increased dramatically. The Bank of Ghana estimates remittances increased from $476 million in 1999 to nearly two billion dollars in 2008. The report recommends Ghana create programs to encourage qualified Ghanaians to return to home for short periods of time so they can impart their skills to young people at home.

ccra, Sept. 16, GNA - MTN Ghana’s Chief Executive Officer, Mr Brett Goschen, has confirmed that the company’s Chief Marketing Officer, Mr George Andah, has resigned to pursue a new professional opportunity outside Ghana. Mr Goschen said “George is an outstanding marketing professional and we wish him well in his future endeavours”. This was contained in a press statement issued by MTN Ghana on Thursday The statement said Mr Clement Ofori Asante will assume responsibilities for the Marketing Division of MTN Ghana, as Acting Chief Marketing Officer. It said Clement has been part of MTN’s senior managerial team since 2007, bringing to the company, over 13 years of experience in marketing with core competencies in Brand Communications & Development, Market Segmentation and Competitor Gaming Strategies.

MTN Ghana’s CEO announces leadership movements Mr Goschen stated that MTN Ghana retains arguably the strongest team of highly skilled Ghanaian marketing professionals in the telecoms sector, who are very well positioned to continue to deliver on all corporate value propositions for our customers. “We remain confident of our team’s unique understanding and ability to respond quickly to the needs of our cherished subscribers and this will continue to ensure that MTN sustains its significant leadership”, he said. It concluded that MTN Ghana is part of the MTN Group, a multinational telecommunications group, operating in 21 countries in Africa, Asia and the Middle East, and that, MTN Ghana, increased its subscribers to 8.7 million as at June 2010. 16 Sept. 10

Sankofa International, Inc. (Sankofa) Launches National Scholarship Program To Assist Ghanaians Living In Ghana On May 20, 2010, Sankofa International, Inc. (Sankofa), based in Washington, D.C., and Sankofa International Youth Ghana, based in Ghana, launched a comprehensive National Scholarship Program (Program) to assist all Ghanaians living in Ghana. Under the Program, Ghanaians have the opportunity to register for and win full scholarships at the junior high, senior high, vocational, technical, and tertiary levels. The scholarships include school fees, books, accommodations, and pocket money. The registration fee is 30 Ghana Cedis. The plan is to award scholarships, through registration, three cycle times each year. One scholarship is guaranteed duiring each registration cycle. However, multiple scholarships may be awarded during a registration cycle based on the number of registrants. The first scholarship(s) will be awarded in May-June, 2011.

he model was first put forward by Dave Ulrich, a leading HR academic, in 1997. The idea revolved around reorganising the HR function around three main pillars - a shared service centre, centres of excellence, and strategic partners. Business Partnering was - and often still is - considered radical as it is a fundamental re-think of what HR is for, and how HR success is measured. What are Shared Services? A Shared Service Centre is a single unit which handles all of the routine or ‘transactional’ HR services for the business. This is very often facilitated by an HR database or an HR Information System, a software solution that integrates the routine HR procedures. The idea of a Shared Service Centre is to provide low-cost HR administration, freeing up time for HR to become more strategic in its thinking.

HR Business Partnering

What was the aim of the model?

Is Ulrich’s Model still Relevant?

The initial aim of the model has barely changed over the years. In the UK, one of the main drivers of change has been cost efficiency, with a Shared Service Centre providing low-cost HR administration. In the US - and increasingly today in the UK - the aim has also been to adapt HR to modern business practices - i.e. to make HR fitter and stronger.

Although over the years, Ulrich has modified the model, the basic idea behind the model has remained the same - to rebuild HR in order to face modern competitive business challenges, while making it more cost-efficient and accountable.

This implies that HR is growing in importance, and as a result must be more strategic. The result of this was the creation of HR Business Partners who worked closely with line managers and departments to provide relevant HR delivery. By working more closely with line managers, HR are better able to understand their organisation and the challenges that it faces and therefore can deliver people activities that enable the business rather than merely support it. Ulrich originally broke the model down into four roles: Strategic partners Administrative Experts (Shared Services) Employee Champions Change Agents

Why is it failing? If a quarter of businesses say that the model has been ineffective, we can safely say that there is still work to be done if the Business Partner model is to be a success. Indeed, Business Partnering on paper as conceived by Ulrich - is different from Business Partnering in practice. Ulrich claims that many organisations have failed to implement their own models successfully. This can mean that they have failed to apply the roles correctly or the people in the new strategic roles have not been given sufficient training for the added responsibility. It can also imply that the lines of communication between the business and HR have not been sufficiently thought through.

According to Ulrich “HR has been woeful at knowing the business well enough. We still have people in HR that cannot talk to board members when they start talking about cashflow or numbers.” Highlighting the strategy aspect of his model, Ulrich reminded HR professionals that it was not “how HR can get into the boardroom, but what it does once it’s there.” What can be done to revive the model? The reorganisation of an entire department is not something that can be carried out overnight. Shifting to an HR Business Partner model requires a certain amount of up-skilling and development, and a large amount of adaptation to each individual business. It also requires HR professionals who have experience outside HR. As Business Partners, HR has to see the rest of the business as ‘customers’, and therefore has to understand the customer’s business needs.

a glimpse of Pay and Benefits in africa Warren Heaps Birches Group LLC Africa is a Diverse Continent Africa is a vast continent with over 50 countries. There is much diversity, too, amongst the people, cultures, climate, economies and businesses across the region. Not surprisingly, there is also tremendous diversity in compensation in Africa — not only the obvious differences in actual amounts of pay, but importantly, a wide range of practices in addition to base salary. Pay and Benefits in Africa Birches Group recently examined the total compensation for Working Level Professionals – college graduates with five to eight years of experience and a level of technical expertise in their respective profession. Typical positions included Accountants, Brand Managers, Bankers, Engineers, Human Resources and other occupations across ten markets in Africa. The results confirmed the wide range of absolute pay levels – from around $40,000 to over $110,000 per year. Allowances and In-Kind Benefits Are Important The salary numbers only tell half the story. In many developing countries, employers provide allowances and in-kind benefits to local staff. These benefits include cash allowances such as 13th month and vacation bonus, as well as cash or in-kind payments for transportation, food, housing, recreational activities, and more.

Percent Allowances and In-kind Benefits Allowances and in-kind benefits provide from 8% to over 30% of the total package, depending on the country. Therefore, it’s critical to consider these elements in designing pay packages. To overlook these “extras” and focus just on base salary would result in a potential gap against the market. global Approaches Need Local Tailoring Global employers take pride in having consistent approaches to compensation around the world. But in developing countries, local practices and insights need to be fully considered in the broader context of the employer’s compensation strategy. The best way to ensure your pay package is competitive is to reference a good market survey, that captures all of the elements of compensation in the market, from the leading employers present in the market. Warren Heaps is a Partner with Birches Group LLC in New York City. He has over twenty-ﬁve years of experience in Human Resources, most of it focused on international HR. Warren brings strong knowledge of compensation, beneﬁts, and expatriate compensation, with a particular specialty in developing markets.

Corporate Profile

The Xceed™ family of HR Products includes the following suites:

allied Soft Hr Solution

Allied Soft offers a range of People Management Solutions suited for organizations of all sizes. Our solutions are characterized by ease of use, fast time to market, best practice implementation methodology and a great after sales support service. Our solutions include Xceed™ Global HR suite

Xceed™ Global HR provides the following modules:

Xceed™ Global HR is a suite of integrated software products that provide endto-end people management for the globally spread organizations - enabling organizations plan, secure, organize and direct their people management strategies. Xceed™ Global HR provides the tools to empower the workforce, enforce policies, processes and procedures and leverage state-of-the-art technology to help drive global HR Strategy forward. Xceed™ Global HR is a member of the Xceed™ family of HR products designed from the ground up as the most flexible platform for delivering on the most demanding Enterprise Talent and Human Capital Management strategies. Each module is designed to provide the highest level of functionality to align local HR requirements with global strategy. Xceed™ utilizes a single, global HR core database to consolidate information to create leverage for HR decision making. Xceed™ Global HR provides employees and managers with the Self Service environment to complete tasks quickly, get up-to-the-minute information, working in a simple, profile based environment designed for today’s knowledge worker. For each global subsidiary, Xceed™ Global HR provides a secure partition for managing local rules for HR, payroll and compliance – such as taxation. Payroll localization rules are built as Localization Plug-ins so there is no infrastructural bottleneck to implementing a payroll system for another region – even with a different language.

Call for Papers: Understanding and Creating Caring and Compassionate Organizations Sponsor:

Academy of Management Review (AMR)

Description:

Guest Editors: Sara Rynes, Jean Bartunek, Jane Dutton & Joshua Margolis

SPECIAL NOTICE

Academy of Management Review (AMR) Journal. Special Issue

This call for papers comes at a time of great reflection and stock-taking. Organizations and governments are currently confronting the largest economic crisis and highest unemployment rates since the Great Depression, an ever-widening gap between rich and poor, declining natural resources, threatened ecosystems, and widespread commercial and political corruption. Trust in big business and business leadership is at an alltime low (Zuboff, 2009), as news reports make abundantly clear how little some businesses care about their consumers and employees.

Further, employment relationships have become more contractual, fragile, and short-lived (Cappelli, 2008). Corporate downsizings have resulted in some workers having far too much work and stress, while others have no work at all. Increasing numbers of people work either in isolation from others (e.g., telecommuters) or in factories where they are tied to production lines or call centers with no time to converse with the people around them. Millions of global employees suffer from overwork, hunger, stress, and disease with little hope of a better future, while millions of employers compete for the same scarce (and dwindling) resources.

Yet, at this same time, the expectations of what businesses can contribute positively to the world have escalated, and many business leaders are calling for greater care and compassion in organizations. These include: CEOs of care-oriented and environmentally-sensitive companies that serve as models of how to combine profits with passion and compassion (Anderson & White, 2009; Chouinard, 2005; George, 2004); social entrepreneurs who combine the passion of a social mission with business discipline, innovation, and determination (Hawken, 2008; Yunus, 2003), and leaders of philanthropic-university partnerships such as the Omidyar Network-Tufts University collaboration or Paul Farmer and Harvard’s Partners in Health, to name just a few.

“Creating Caring and Compassionate Organizations” seeks to expand on these emerging trends by considering how the worlds of management, organizations, and management and organization scholarship might change if themes of compassion and caring were at the forefront of thinking about organizing. Submissions to the STF may take a range of formats and focus on different levels of analysis. Potential topics include but are not limited to: • • • • • • • • • • • •

How might the themes of compassion and care be implemented alongside the rational and instrumental objectives of organizations? Where are the tensions and how might they be resolved? What conditions or events call forth compassion and care in organizations? How do compassion and care develop and get expressed in organizations, both internally and externally, and what difference do these feelings and behaviors make? For what kinds of organizations or in what kinds of contexts are care or compassion most important? Can organizations be compassionate and caring, or can only people exemplify these qualities? Through what processes might compassion and care improve employee performance and organizational success? How might caring, compassionate business missions spur organizational innovation? How do caring and compassion influence employee health and well-being? What new theories might be created around the ideas of compassion and caring in job and organizational design? How might theories of organizational effectiveness change when compassion and care are included in the criterion set? How do compassion and care affect interactions and outcomes at different levels of analysis (e.g., individual, dyad, group, organization, inter-organizational and cross-society)? The respective roles of business, academia, government, and non-governmental organizations in pursuing more compassionate management practices What are the potential downsides of emphasizing care and compassion in organizations?

Paper Procedure:

All submissions should be uploaded to the Manuscript Central/Scholar One website: http://mc.manuscriptcentral.com/amr between September 1 and October 31, 2010. Please do not submit your article prior to September 1 or after October 31. Contributions should follow the directions for manuscript submission described in “Information for Contributors” in the front of each issue of AMR and on the AMR web page.

For queries about submission, contact AMR’s managing editor, Susan Zaid: szaid@pace.edu. For questions regarding the content of this Special Topic Forum, write to one of the guest editors: Sara Rynes, Jean Bartunek, Jane Dutton, or Joshua Margolis. Type:

Call for papers

Deadline:

October 31, 2010

Issue Date:

October 31, 2011

Website:

http://mc.manuscriptcentral.com/amr

Contact Info: phone: email address:

Susan Zaid (914) 944-2970 szaid@pace.edu

Work-life balance is a broad concept including proper prioritizing between “work” (career and ambition) on one hand and “life” (pleasure, leisure, family and spiritual development) on the other. Related, though broader, terms include “lifestyle balance” and “life balance”. History The expression was first used in the late 1970s to describe the balance between an individual’s work and personal life. In the United States, this phrase was first used in 1986. Over the past twenty-five years, there has been a substantial increase in work which is felt to be due, in part, by information technology and by an intense, competitive work environment. Long-term loyalty and a “sense of corporate community” have been eroded by a performance culture that expects more and more from their employees yet offers little security in return. Many employees are experiencing burnout due to overwork and increased stress. This condition is seen in nearly all occupations from blue collar workers to upper management. Over the past decade, a rise in workplace violence, an increase in levels of absenteeism as well as rising workers’ compensation claims are all evidence of an unhealthy work life balance. Work Statistics According to a survey conducted by the National Life Insurance Company in the USA, four out of ten employees state that their jobs are “very” or “extremely” stressful. Those in high stress jobs are three times more likely than others to suffer from stress-related medical conditions and are twice as likely to quit. The study states that women, in particular, report stress related to the conflict between work and family.

Stress and work-life balance It is clear that problems caused by stress have become a major concern to both employers and employees. Symptoms of stress are manifested both physiologically and psychologically. Persistent stress can result in cardiovascular disease, sexual health problems, a weaker immune system and frequent headaches, stiff muscles, or backache. It can also result in poor coping skills, irritability, jumpiness, insecurity, exhaustion, and difficulty concentrating. Stress may also perpetuate or lead to binge eating, smoking, and alcohol consumption. Women and family According to Sylvia Hewlett, president of the Center for Work-Life Policy, if a woman takes time off to care for children or an older parent, employers tend to “see these people as less than fully committed. It’s as though their identity is transformed.” Research conducted by the Kenexa Research Institute (KRI), a division of Kenexa, evaluated how male and female workers perceive worklife balance and found that women are more positive than men in how they perceive their company’s efforts to help them balance work and life responsibilities. The report is based on the analysis of data drawn from a representative sample of 10,000 U.S. workers who were surveyed through WorkTrends, KRI’s annual survey of worker opinions. The results indicated a shift in women’s perceptions about work-life balance. In the past, women often found it more difficult to maintain balance due to the competing pressures at work and demands at home. Similar discrimination is experienced by men who take time off or reduce working hours for taking care of the family. For many employees today—both male and female—their lives are becoming more consumed with a host of family and other

personal responsibilities and interests. Therefore, in an effort to retain employees, it is increasingly important for organizations to recognize this balance. An increasing number of young children are being raised by a childcare provider or another person other than a parent; older children are more likely today to come home to an empty house and spend time with video games, television and the internet with less guidance to offset or control the messages coming from these sources. No one knows how many kids are home after school without an adult, but they know the number is in the millions. Responsibility of the employer Companies have begun to realize how important the work-life balance is to the productivity and creativity of their employees. Research by Kenexa Research Institute in 2007 shows that those employees who were more favorable toward their organization’s efforts to support work-life balance also indicated a much lower intent to leave the organization, greater pride in their organization, a willingness to recommend it as a place to work and higher overall job satisfaction. Employers can offer a range of different programs and initiatives, such as flexible working arrangements in the form of part time, casual and telecommuting work. More proactive employers can provide compulsory leave, strict maximum hours and foster an environment that encourages employees not to continue working after hours. It is generally only highly skilled workers that can enjoy such benefits as written in their contracts, although many professional fields would not go so far as to discourage workaholic behaviour. Unskilled workers will almost always have to rely on bare minimum legal requirements.

Work-Life 62

Bala n

Book R REINVENTINg TALENT MANAgEMENT by William Schiemann Over the past 10 or so years talent management has become something of an HR hurrah term. Surely, the sheer tonnage of newsprint, books and articles on the subject, along with space on HR internet sites and air time at conferences indicate that talent management is a dominant issue. The extent to which all the hubbub has led to tangible results is quite another issue, but the publication of Dr. William Schiemann’s Reinventing Talent Management: How to Maximize Performance in the New Marketplace (John Wiley, June 2009) is indeed likely to “reinvent” how value related to the human side of an enterprise is approached, measured and enhanced.

TRANSFORMINg HR: CREATINg VALUE THROUgH PEOPLE, 2ND EDITION by Martin Reddington, Mark Withers, Mark Williamson Transforming HR, 2nd edition offers robust, practical advice on changing the way human resource management is undertaken in organisations, walking you through the transformational process from initial planning to the evaluation of outcomes. The authors draw on their experiences and those of leading HR practitioners to address the critical questions and present the latest research in the area to inform your decisions and approach to transformation.

BALANCED SCORECARD STRATEgY FOR DUMMIES by Chuck Hannabarger, Rick Buchman and Peter Economy Wiley The Balanced Scorecard method is an analysis technique designed to translate an organization’s mission and vision statement and overall business strategies into specific, quantifiable goals, and to monitor the organization’s performance in achieving these goals. Balanced Scorecard Strategy For Dummies breaks down the basics of Balanced Scorecard in simple language with practical, Dummiesstyle guidance on getting it done.

Review THE SPEED OF TRUST by Stephen M. R. Covey

MANAgINg PEOPLE ACROSS CULTURES By Fons Trompenaars, Charles Hampden-Turner Managing People Across Cultures is a cornerstone book in the Culture for Business series. Processes like job evaluation and reward systems are affected significantly by the cultural environment. Trompenaars shows what HR executives can do to reconcile cultural dilemmas.

THE HR VALUE PROPOSITION by Dave Ulrich, Wayne Brockbank The authors argue that HR value creation requires a deep understanding of external business realities and how value is defined by key stakeholders both inside and outside the company. They provide practical tools and worksheets for leveraging this knowledge to create HR practices, build organizational capabilities, design HR strategy, and marshal resources that create value for customers, investors, executives, and employees.

Following a touching foreword by father Stephen R. Covey (author of The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People and related books), the junior Covey outlines 13 behaviors of trust-inspiring leaders, such as demonstrating respect, creating transparency, righting wrongs, delivering results and practicing accountability. Coveyâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s down-to-earth approach and disarming personal stories go a long way to establish rapport with his reader, though the bookâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s length and occasional lack of focus sometimes obscure its good advice.

kk k kkPidgink

Body dey inside cloth.

How you dey?

How body?

I dey fine.

Nigerian academics seek to elevate humble (Reuters Life!) - It may share many of its words and basic grammar with English, but a perplexed look descends across the face of most newcomers to Nigeria the first time they are addressed in Pidgin. “How you dey?” comes the question, or “How body?” (both meaning “how are you?”) “I dey fine” is the correct response, or, if you’re in a less upbeat mood, “body dey inside cloth”, meaning “I’m coping/making do with the situation,” or literally “I’m still wearing clothes.” Once considered the language of the uneducated, Pidgin is one of the world’s fastest evolving languages and Nigerians of every age and social class can now be found greeting each other in its clipped, concise tones. Spoken by an estimated 50 million people, variants are also used in Ghana, Liberia and Sierra Leone. Now, for the first time, a group of academics is working to elevate the status of Nigerian Pidgin to more than just a practical means of communication in a country with several hundred indigenous languages and a huge educational divide. Created a year ago, the Naija Languej Akademi is the first to try to harness the unbridled growth of Pidgin by putting together a reference guide which would include an alphabet, the first comprehensive dictionary, a standard guide for orthography, and an authoritative history of the language. “It’s not a contact language any more, it’s an independent, fully fledged language,” said Christine Ofulue, head of linguistics at the National Open University of Nigeria. According to the Akademi’s research, Nigerian Pidgin English evolved from a contact language developed in the 1400s to trade with the Portuguese then the British in the southern Niger Delta, a shipping route for the slave trade, then for palm oil, and now the hub of Africa’s biggest crude oil industry. It draws from indigenous languages such as Edo, Itsekiri and Yoruba, meaning many of the hundreds of ethnic groups in southern Nigeria can claim it as their own. The Naija Akademi is funded by IFRA-Nigeria. IFRA-Nigeria is an institute set up with French Government funding to promote research in the social sciences and the humanities, and enhance collaborative work between scholars in France and West Africa.

CONSTANTLY EVOLVING Pidgin has become the language of choice for entertainment media wanting to appear all-inclusively Nigerian, in a country where national identity is tested by competing ethnic loyalties. “Pidgin is the only language that cuts across Nigeria,” said Mallam Okechime Abdul, a music producer and promoter.

“To speak the Queen’s English, you have to go to school, but everybody understands Pidgin. Yoruba, Hausa, and Ibo people, they can all understand Pidgin.” Brimming with life, playful and illustrative, Nigerian Pidgin English lends itself well to creativity, evolving quickly and readily borrowing from current events. A World Cup blunder by Nigerian player Sani Kaita briefly spawned the word “Kaitalistic” to mean catastrophic and the frequent acts of kidnapping in Nigeria has popularized the term “Colombia people” to describe the perpetrators on Nigeria’s first pidgin station Wazobia 95.1 FM. “American Presido say time don reach to comot im troop for Iraq,” announced the newscaster on a recent lunchtime bulletin, after U.S. President Barack Obama announced a formal end to the U.S. military’s combat mission in Iraq last month. Nigerian Afrobeat music pioneer Fela Kuti was a major proponent of Pidgin, further popularizing its use with albums like “Why Black Man Dey Suffer” and “I Go Shout Plenty”. “Good English (could) not convey the message of African music,” he was quoted as saying in one of his biographies. Despite the popularity of Pidgin, the Akademi faces an uphill struggle convincing all Nigerians, many of whom see it as a by-product of the country’s falling education standards. “Pidgin looks like a bastardization of the English language,” said Reuben Abati, chairman of the editorial board for Nigeria’s Guardian newspapers and a respected columnist. “The West African elite, who see it as the language of commoners, like to dissociate themselves from Pidgin. They want their children to sound like Upper Class Britons. That attitude is wrong because it has to do with identity. As second users of the language, we must promote varieties of English.” (For more Reuters Africa coverage and to have your say on the top issues, visit: af.reuters.com/

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