Pretoria - The challenges facing the country are bigger than ever. Structural changes in the workplace, the slowdown in the world economy, poor standards of education and an inability to provide the skills required to be competitive, are among the issues we have to deal with.
That’s the view of Elijah Litheko, chief executive of the Institute of People Management (IPM), who believes that businesses are in a unique position to find solutions to these problems.
“We are part of the global economy now, and have to compete with the world, so our culture of entitlement, and constant references to the injustices of the past are not helping us,” he says. “Instead, we need to become a mature society, and to be accountable for our actions in the present.
“That’s the only way to become productive and competitive, there is no other way to become a successful nation.”
And our institutions, including business organisations, play a crucial role in this, Litheko believes.
“In human resources (HR) management we have a concept called onboarding,” he explains. “It’s about initiation and orientation of new employees, not only in terms of the operations of the organisation, but also about culture, values and philosophy.
“The problem with our democracy is that no such onboarding process took place.
“That’s why people have the wrong idea. There’s a culture of handouts, of rights without responsibilities and a feeling that the principles of democracy supersede the need for quality and standards.”
The HR professionals in organisations can play a role here by ensuring the onboarding process in their companies deal with these issues and that their workers are productive and engaged, able to produce quality work.
“If our companies function well, the nation can only get better,” he believes.
The IPM is now in its 70th year of existence and Litheko says its role has transformed completely.
“We were concerned with better personnel management practice in the early days. Now our role is to facilitate engagement between thought leaders, business leaders, HR professionals and experts from other fields, looking for ways in which business can contribute to moving the nation forward.”
The annual IPM Convention, Litheko says, plays an important part in this. Its purpose is to create a platform for this engagement. “It’s an opportunity to reflect on what is good about our people management practices and to identify where we are falling behind global best practices.
“And it’s not just talk. We need to learn about the research that has been done, to listen to the ideas of top people, local and international, and to formulate plans and implement actions that will make us better.”
South Africa suffers from low self-esteem and poor self-confidence, Litheko believes, and we have to lift ourselves out of this to become leaders. The way to do this is through people development and that’s where the HR departments in companies become vital.
“Our education system is deeply flawed, so it’s so important that we look beyond results to identify potential and then follow global best practices to develop those people, for the good of our organisations and the country.”
These are the sorts of issues that a range of speakers and breakaway sessions will be addressing at this year’s IPM Convention in Sun City in November, Litheko says.
The Boston Consulting Group, world leaders in research and measurement of employment metrics, will be there again, with its Carsten Von der Linden talking about emerging trends in HR.
“We need to measure what we are doing and what we need to do,” Litheko says, “and Boston’s contribution in this area has been invaluable down the years.
The opening keynote address will be by Percy Timms, chief executive of People and Transformational HR, who will look at the future of work – the digital revolution and the deconstruction of the job.
“Technology has revolutionised the way we work,” Litheko says, “but you cannot replace the people. You need people to drive the technology. They cannot be removed from the equation, they are more important than ever.”
A range of top speakers from around the world will be at the event. Get the programme on the IPM website - www.ipm.co.za.
* The IPM Convention is on November 1 to 4 at Sun City. For more info or to make bookings go to www.ipm.co.za or call 011 716 7503.
PRETORIA NEWS