‘Organisations have failed to address employee engagement’
Ifemena Oji, Human resources manager, Cradle to Grave Consulting Limited in this interview with KELECHI EWUZIE speaks about HR functions within an organisation and the need for firms to focus on employee engagement. Excerpt:
Human resource management Journey
Icall myself an accidental HR practitioner because I started my team building company through the influence of my friends. They felt I had skills in facilitating and getting people together and helping people understand different problems and helping teams in organisations and knowing how to proffer solutions to their problems.
Human Resource practice in Nigeria
I don’t think enough emphasis is placed on employee engagement. It appears that when employees are new in an organisation, they are not given a proper orientation about the culture of the company, how it operates and how they can find successful strategies to survive within the company.
These new employees tend to expect a lot more from their employers. I think organisations need to apply that extra personal touch to their employees to bring out their hidden gifts and find ways in which they can help increase their productivity.
Issue of Unemployable graduates
As a Human resources manager, I get thousands of CVs from graduates who are looking for jobs. Sometimes I find it very difficult to reconcile what the organisation requirement are in terms of talent request forms and what the CV these graduate have submitted contains.
What I find worrying is the fact that some of these job seekers have good skills, but they are actually not presenting them in the right manner in their résumé.
I tell job seekers on a daily basis that they need to be able to present what their skills are at the best way possible. I make them understand that their parents spend money to send them to the university with the expectation that they will have a good degree, but of what use is that degree if they can’t be able to transfer it to actual work? A lot of them have the skills and want to work but have not been able to present it in a way that I, as a recruiter, will find them employable.
The solution for us as a company is to see the possibility of training C2G agents within university and technical institutions. We know that a lot of these universities are having challenges in terms of getting the students to be engaged in classes, to think more practical. What you need is practical and technical experience not theory.
We are looking at finding ways to get them more engaged and we know that SAP is something you can do even in the university. One of our new hires had that training even before she had graduated. If there are more students that think and do things to augment their degrees, then I will be quite happy to take them.
Talent management
Talent management is always an issue because you have to make them engaged. Engagement for me is the solution to talent management. Once you are engaged and know what your employers bring to the team, then half your battle is already won.
About C2G
We are Cradle to Grave Consulting limited. We take you through from the very beginning all the way to the circle. We manage projects. When you think of a project that has grown from cradle to grave, you think of a project that has grown right from the beginning all the way to the end.
As an organisation we make sure we hire the right staff, the right players for the team. We ensure that our employees receive the right training that they need. With this in mind, they can come before our clients and handle their projects effectively without any issue.
As a company, we require a lot of input from other departments in terms of when the next project is going to be; how far it has gone and what are we planning next; more or less like work force plan and make sure our clients are happy.
As the Human resources manager, my function also entails going to the client site and visiting consultants just to get feedbacks from them. Through this visits, I am able to ascertain who are the players in their team? To also know who they think is more productive. It is important for them to know that they are always being heard and have a sounding relationship with whoever the HR person is.
Leadership style
I like to lead from the back. I don’t like to interfere. I am more than an HR person at C2G and I manage the entire support service and anything you can think of in terms of audit, legal. My job is to coordinate from behind. So, I let people do their jobs. If there is a problem, they come to me. That gives me enough time to come up with more programmes to engage the staffs.
Staff Motivation
I will always refer back to the concept of recruitment. It is important to note that recruiting the right person for the right position is very pivotal. You may have someone that has the ability to do a particular job or take up the right role, they may not have the mental or personality traits required to do that job.
For example, if you are a lawyer, you may have the best memory, but a lawyer has to be detailed, analytical. You may be creative in terms of the solutions you are proffering to the client. If you don’t have the patient to sit in a chair for many hours, you may not make head way.
Things that stand C2G out above competition
We have to look at our employer brand. Everyone has challenges with branding in Nigeria. C2G has been able to build a brand for itself as everyone wants to work for the company.
You make sure your social media presence is there; become visible to your potential client, you make sure you are talking to people in the industry on a daily basis. Make them know what you do. Even when you are conducting interview, just because of your interaction with them, they will wish to have the job. Managing the employer brand is extremely important.
Impact of internship training for education sector and organisations
I applaud SAP our partners for bringing that up. It is important because you need to understand the potential hires that are out there, you need to also get people thinking about what they want to do. If they become consultants in the future, they need to know they can work here because C2G cares, want to help and empower.
Those are the things we learnt here. No matter the number of CVs you get that are not qualified, never be discouraged as a recruiter because there are a lot of people who want to work and are so capable.
Challenges
Employee engagement is a big problem. We have a C2G people series that we are putting out there. We want employees to know that we care even in hard times.