President’s Welcome
The launch of the institute’s new website and rebranding of its logo marks some of the changes we will witness in the new chapter of the institute. There are exciting as well as challenging opportunities out there that we need to tap into.
The website provides an opportunity for greater access to you the members. It provides an avenue for greater interaction as well as up to date communication. The team at the institute will strive to ensure they provide the cut edge stuff on what is happening in the field. The website also provides for a column for the President to keep in touch with the membership on a more regular basis. I hope to provide you with some insights that we can share, debate and grow from. The first one is based on the address by Jonathan Taylor the Chairman of the Society for Human Resources Management (USA) at the IPM (SA) Annual Convention held recently at Sun City.
Some of the things your institute has done to date include, hosting this year’s Annual Convention outside Harare. Despite all the challenges we face as an economy, the convention was a success. Plans are to have the 2006, convention in Victoria Falls with a regional flair to it. Again it should provide an exciting opportunity for the greater membership of the institute. In this regard, I am pleased to mention that we have established a reciprocal relationship with our counterparts in South Africa which is in line with our drive to have strategic alliances. Prof. Shirley Zinn, the IPM (SA) President and Dudu Msomi the Director are most readily available to share their experiences for the growth of our two institutes.
Your council recently had a strategic planning session and we should see the roll out of the resolutions in the months ahead. We will also be working on reaching out to the HR executives who need to be more involved in the institute’s activities. Their involvement can only be good to every member of the institute.
The council itself has been restructured to tackle the issues identified as critical to the institute’s strategic thrust. The strategic planning session provided an opportunity for the council to revisit the institute’s Vision, Mission and Values. These are unveiled in the new website. These clarify where we are headed, what we see as our future, what our purpose is and what we hold dear as an institute. It should widen our perception of what we can accomplish, challenge our horizons as well as provide a unity of purpose.
We ask you as members to make greater use of this new site and let us keep ourselves abreast with developments in the field. Let us share, and interact as much as we can.
Brian Maphosa
President
November 2005
President’s Viewpoint - Getting Down to Basics
In my first viewpoint article, I would like to share with you the thoughts provoked by the Chairman of the Society of Human Resources Management (USA) at the Institute of People Management (SA)’s convention at Sun City in South Africa. Two councillors Mr. Moses Ngorima, and Ms. Alice Charewa, the Director, Mr. Lawrence Dahwa and myself represented the Institute.
While I have had the opportunities to share with some of you these thoughts at my addresses in the last few weeks, I believe the message is worth repeating.
Jonathan Taylor’s message was based on four points. His first message was for HR practitioners to ‘Know HR’. In your organisation you must be the Guru in the matters of the profession. Is your knowledge of the profession a source of inspiration for those that seek to know more about the HR field? Do you know the ins and outs of the profession? Do you have information about the field at your fingertips? The challenge was on what are you doing to keep yourself abreast of the developments in the field? As an HR professional are you relatively at the same level if not higher than your colleagues in other professions? While there is a need to have a full appreciation of the entire business, an HR Practitioner must be well grounded in the understanding of the field.
The second message was ‘DO HR’. Having known the HR field, even as an executive, one must ‘Do the HR work.’ Can you roll up your sleeves and get your hands dirty as an HR practitioner? The point was that in as much as we need to do the hairy fairy strategic work, at the end of the day, the ‘Trains have to run on Time’. Make things happen at the coal face. When it comes to the boardroom, be the champion of HR work in there and do not try and compete with your colleagues in their own professions. The marketing executive will champion the marketing work and so will the financial executive. In the desperate drive to be relevant in an organisation, HR practitioners must guard against leaving the HR seat vacant. Done well, HR is the Generator of wealth for any organisation. There is huge untapped potential that an HR practitioner must constantly seek to tap into.
His third message was, ‘Align HR.’ His message centred on whether the HR initiatives that one embarks on are aligned to the firm’s strategies. An effective HR practitioner needs to know what is keeping the Chief Executive awake and how ones’ initiatives are helping solve those challenges. Any initiatives that are not in the realm of the business concerns are irrelevant and will render whoever initiates them irrelevant as well.
The fourth and last message from Taylor was as that as an HR practitioner one must have courage. Do you have courage to stand up for what is right? Some HR practitioners are so apologetic about the profession and let unacceptable unethical behaviour thrive. Taylor acknowledged that the HR profession is a high risk one. He therefore suggested that as a practitioner you have what he calls ‘A Go to Hell Fund’. Without necessarily advocating for insubordination one must have a fund (three to four months pay savings) so that one is able to draw a line somewhere and say ‘sorry boss, I won’t be party to that.’ That way one does not compromise ones’ integrity.
The message at the end of the day is that as HR practitioners get back to basics. Make the profession relevant and valuable in your organisation.
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