Sharon Kisire, HR Manager, Kenya Pipelin offers her views on the evolving issues in the human resource industry.
1. What are the latest perspectives on HR as a business partner away from just HR Management? And what does this mean to organizations that want to create conducive work environments?
Not sure it is the latest but what I know is that HRPB takes HR to where the business really is ‘and ensures that HR delivers value where it matters most. HR challenges at the work environment will reach HR management quickly, seamlessly ‘and efficiently through HRPB.
2. The gig economy is becoming a reality globally. Is this being witnessed here in Kenya? What are the effects on HR Management?
The practice is not so much witnessed yet in Kenyan traditional companies but we have started seeing it. The government has now put all the top leadership teams in parastatals on three year contracts thereby moving away from the permanent ‘and pensionable terms that we knew before.
The work culture in Kenya needs to mature to enable flexible work arrangements e.g. work from home. We are witnessing a continuous growth of change of careers from the traditional one career in life
3. As generations collide, workforces become more diverse ‘and people work longer; traditional career models may soon be a thing of the past. Will many of the roles ‘and job titles of tomorrow be the ones we have not even thought of yet? How is HR going to change as a result?
The job roles ‘and responsibilities will surely change to adapt to the changes that are experienced in the world of work.
HR must be proactive to be ahead of the game ‘and provide solutions to the ever changing needs of the employee ‘and employer
4. With evolving priorities, there is need to create ever more sophisticated people measurement techniques to monitor ‘and control performance ‘and productivity. How can this be achieved?
Through research ‘and involving the players to arrive at techniques that are effective, efficient ‘and useful to organizations.
5. How can institutions create a healthy balance between effective people management for results ‘and developing happy healthy employees?
This is a thin line. Critical issue is to ensure that employees underst ‘and ‘and appreciate that work output must be measured for work to be done. Employees will be happy if they are rewarded, whether positively or negatively so long as the processes for evaluation ‘and reward are clear, fair, just ‘and equitable.
6. Globally, the level of stress in organizations is becoming a major concern with institutions hiring psychologists ‘and sleep consultants to create better work-life balances for their employees. Is this a concern in Kenya? Is there a cause for alarm now or into the future?
Yes, there is a concern in Kenya on work life balance in all the levels / cadres of employees. Professionals need to develop strategies to ensure the balance. A lot of the practices I have seen are more on training. There is need to do much more given employees are now empowered to work 24/7 with all the ICT innovations around us e.g. smart phones, ipads, easily available Wi-Fi etc.
Email: tareba@kim.ac.ke
