By Henry Uche, Lagos
The Chartered Institute of Personnel Management of Nigeria (CIPM) has charged its new inductees not to let a hostile business environment define them, encouraging them to strive to be game-changers.
The President/Chairman of the Governing Council of the Institute, Wale Adediran, made the charge at the 42nd induction ceremony of 521 persons of different grades into the HR profession.
Mr Wale encouraged new inductees to brace up for future challenges and ensure that employees are roundly engaged in their respective organisations to deliver values, noting that unexpected contingencies would surely strike but that their preparedness would make them surmount all.
‘For an organisation to thrive, employee engagement must be prioritised. Research shows that engagement is a critical driver of business success in today’s fiercely competitive marketplace, and in the war for talent that is not relenting. As HR professionals, we must have a very good grasp of tactics for driving up employee engagement, which ultimately drives productivity. Our goal is to keep learning, unlearn and learn new things to remain relevant in a rapidly changing world,’ he said.
He beckoned on the inductees to make maximum use of opportunities posed by the pandemic by leveraging the use of technology to bring out the best from employees, saying, ‘HR professionals have been noted as the heroes of the pandemic. We are increasingly being seen as true thought partners across organisations all over the world.
‘Business leaders are faced daily with unprecedented situations requiring new learning approaches with the aid of technology. We currently live in the new world of work that explores how technologies like Big Data and Analytics, Predictive Analytics, Robotics, Artificial Intelligence and others are shaping how we work, where we work, and the skills and education we need to work.
‘We must always prepare for the next wave of change and more. As people managers, we should approach employee engagement principles as a change management toolkit that helps drives the emergence and embedment of a new paradigm in leading and managing people for success.’
He assured new members of CIPM’s support should any of them suffer unduly at the hands of their organisations in the course of upholding professional ethics and virtues of the HR practice.
‘Should you get to a point where your professional stance is in conflict with the code of conduct and you find you may lose your job as a result, maybe you will gain some comfort in knowing that we have in place a Job Loss Insurance Scheme that provides incentives to cushion the effect of such a situation, until those affected might be up on their feet again,’ he added.
