Africa’s blue chip organizations last week renewed their commitment to making Africa a better place to work and fuel the continent’s growth over the next decade. This was agreed during the Human Resource Winners Africa Conference held at the Inter-Continental Hotel in Nairobi.
Making the keynote speech at the conference, Airtel Africa’s Chief Human Resource Officer, Mr. David Ssegawa said companies today need to navigate the increasingly complex business environment where ambiguity, uncertainties and disruptive innovation are key features in the diverse markets they do business in.
Mr. Ssegawa noted that there are new emerging trends in the work force – new war on talent, women in leadership, urbanization, change of values and multi-generations which means that HR practitioners need to step up, step out and be bold to remain relevant in the 21st Century.
“The HR practitioners of the future will have to develop their business acumen quickly and make their HR agenda core to the business Strategy. Leveraging the technological trends, deploying winning talent management tactics and building a customer-centric culture in the companies will be critical new HR Competencies.” said Mr. Ssegawa.
“Amidst all the challenges in the industry, we need to find ways in which we can impact on the business value chain, ensure the desired impact on business outcomes, transform human resource to meet new business priorities and deploy cost containment strategies.” Chairman of The Institute of Human Resource Management Kenya, Paul Kasimu noted.
The two-day HR Winners Africa Conference themed ‘Making Africa a better place to work’ and organized by the Fleming Group, ends tomorrow and brings together HR professionals from successful African based companies to share experiences and discuss trends and insights of the HR practice on the continent.
Represented at the meeting were organizations like Airtel Africa, East African Breweries, BAT, Coca-Cola, Standard Chartered Bank, DHL, Unilever and General Electric, amongst others.
