Henry Uche
The President of the Chartered Institute of Personnel Management (CIPM), Mr Wale Adediran, has urged the Federal Government to provide conducive environment for businesses to thrive. According to Adediran, who in this interview, commended the ingenuity of Nigerians for being able to identify opportunities, counseled the government to accelerate the process by providing the enabling environment and incentives for workers
Excerpts:
Minimum wage
The Labour law, as at today, says that employer of labour must not pay any worker below the minimum threshold of N30,000. That’s why they started with workers fromlevel one to six. So, technically speaking, the Federal Government is complying with the Act once nobody receives below the minimum threshold. But the fallout of adjusting the N30,000 to meet up with those above the level 6 is what is in contention, having started with the base which is what the law has done. What the labour is talking about now is the consequential adjustment required to maintain parity for all other levels of pay. But objectively speaking, there is need for sincerity, transparency and understanding between the two parties. We can’t afford to grapple with more crisis. So there is need for caution, and dialogue at this critical time. However, we believe something would be done favourably for all. But if something unexpected happens, it won’t spell well for us as a country, and a consequential effect on the private sector like the sympathy move.
OPS compliance
Once there is a law, it’s binding on the private sector. They must comply except on a few cases, they don’t compromise with the Labour law made.
Disengagement
The labour law frowns at unlawful termination and dismissal of workers. For CIPM, we have values. Any Human Resources (HR) professional knows that you must not compromise with the five codes of HR practices. If you feel compelled to break the law of CIPM code in your place of work, you rather resign than to compromise with our values. Currently, we are working on an income protection insurance compensation plan for our members who takes hard decisions to resign or lose their jobs in defence of our corporate code. This will help them to be financially alright over a period of time till he or she gets another source of income. We are finalising this with one of the biggest insurance companies in Nigeria. It’s geared towards ensuring that our members stand on their feet and stand for our values. We also provide mandatory continuous training for our members to get them equipped with professionalism and integrity so that such unlawful practices against the human resources are minimised to the barest minimum.
South Africa’s returnees
Everyone has potential. But the process of transforming the potential to real value, which requires education, exposure and experience, is the challenge. Those who have gone outside and excel can also excel here in Nigeria. How? It’s about solving problems. As long as there are problems to be solved, and some people are willing to pay for the solutions, they can be useful here. Though the government can accelerate the process by providing the enabling environment and incentives. Yet in the dearth of basic infrastructure, some people are able to identify opportunities for rendering services and get paid, but we must moderate our expectations from government. An average young person goes to school to get a good grade, it’s not a bad idea though, but they should be taught to identify at least two problems while in school and create theoretical solution so that when they leave school, they already have a solution to a problem identified. The solution may not be proven, but you should have a theory that can be proven, and when you are looking for a job or you want to be an entrepreneur, you are on a better side because they have problem to solve for the company. Companies are looking for people who can solve their problems. This must start from your days in the higher institution. Most students know which organisation they want to work with. For instance, many love banking jobs. Why not identify a problem that no other person has solved for the banking sector or partially solve it while in school so that when you approach them with your solution, they have no option than to absorb you. It may not really be a solution to a particular problem, it could be an opportunity for your target organisation to thrive in the sector. When you identify an opportunity to explore or a problem to solve, you are fit and proper any time anywhere. That’s the way to go, So our people who just returned can replicate their acumen here because we even have more problems here in Nigeria than South Africa. Let them use their enterprising and resourcefulness to provide solutions. Of course, people are willing to pay. Note, the Nollywood industry was created by creative minds, not the government. Today, it is a very big business opportunity for many.It is still thriving. Our young people must be taught to identify a problem or opportunity to solve and explore before leaving the institutions of higher learning. The problem is, we don’t have critical thinkers, analytics, no-problem solving people. As a HR person, I prefer one who comes here to tell me my problems and his proposed solution to the one who say, tell me what to do for you. Our 200 million population can be assets or a liability to our nation. When our human capital resources are developed and converted to values, then it becomes an assets, but when the potential are not developed and allow to fizzle away, then it becomes a liability.
Human Resources
Human Resources (HR) department is becoming all comers affairs/ dumping place for persons with without a core skills, unlike law, medical departments.
HR practice is a profession. The only reason why it was a dumping ground of organisation was because HR just came into Nigeria not quite long, and the professionalism required to practice HR was not deepened as at then. But it’s just over a decade HR became deepened in Nigeria even globally, then it used to be called “establishment”, just for records keeping and hiring and firing of erring workers. From establishement to personnel management, 50 years ago it was still personnel management associated with more of processes, policies, procedures, memos, letters. So HR was like the police of the organization before we evolved to what we are today. So I don’t think HR practice in Nigeria today is a dumping ground of organisations going by our certificate of membership and practices, and the our working relationship with some higher institutions who are offering HR as a full degree course.