By Henry Uche
Following the disruptions brought about by the global pandemic across spectra and the need to strategise in the workplace, the Chartered Institute of Personnel Management (CIPM) has charged employers of labour but particularly People Managers (HR) to strive and unlearn certain things and adopt suitable models to get the best results from employees without jeopardizing employee’s welfare.
The president/ chairman of council of CIPM, Olusegun Mojeed, who made this known with other thoughts leaders at a virtual round-table, said there was need for HR Managers to relearn because the future is only for those that adapt to the new world of work.
“The world we live in is constantly evolving as we have witnessed various paradigm shifts from the 4th revolution, the pandemic which disrupted our entire lives, then the great resignation which is seeing a massive migration of Nigerians moving to developed countries. In the midst of this, the HR Manager increasingly has the responsibility of charting the course of productivity in any organization”
The HR expert noted that, “HR Managers should drive employee wellbeing and the top burner is the Nigerian Labour Law which should guide our actions as everything we do should be within the purview of the law,”
He maintained that HR Leaders need to focus on flexibility of workplace, digitization and artificial Intelligence, employee wellness, among others necessary initiatives to drive business outcomes.
“We are on two sides of the divide with the great disconnect. On one end, employees want flexible work mode while business leaders want a full return to the office. The function of the HR Manager is to ascertain which work mode best suits the delivery of the business outcome and make a business case for it. Interestingly, for HR leaders, the hybrid model would not work for all organizations.
“The Pandemic disrupted our entire lives with the biggest interruption of technology which now permeates every aspect of our lives. We are now in a transition phase with huge investments in Digitization and Artificial Intelligence to drive business outcomes.
Employee Wellness is also a top burner outlook for the year 2022. HR leaders need to be ambidextrous to support the employees and leaders. This signals that this is a good time for HR to make a meaningful impact.
He added that unhappy workforce leads to the migration of citizens to other countries- countries which have made effort to invest in social welfare and wellbeing of workers, saying, “This is a key learning area for business leaders.
“There is no solution fit for all situation, thus; HR Managers must properly understand their business model and then determine how best to drive results within the organization. The biggest focus is that fact as HR leaders- we need to relearn,” he asserted.