June 2018

Whatever your profession or chosen career may be, ultimately your aim is to grow through the ranks and reach the top as soon as you can, but with all the back-stabbing, competition, cost cutting and downsizing happening in the employment world, the odds look realistically slim. However, that does not downplay the fact that one must rise through the ranks because we all want better pay, perks and all the other privileges that come with holding senior positions in the organisations we work for. James Opio, an HR consultant, says some of the common obstacles to getting to the top include an introverted personality, doing the bare minimum at work, having no mentors, a poor relationship with your boss to mention but a few. One of the best ways to stand out is to identify problems others do not see within your organisations and offer innovative solutions to solve them. He adds that: “There are those problems that organisations grapple with for a long time with no one wanting to solve them due to the complexity or the fact that there seems to be no great reward attached to solving them. These are the ones you should tackle in order….

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The increasing automation of workplaces is likely to worsen the already staggering unemployment rates in the country if deliberate interventions are not put in place to make the workforce adaptable, experts have warned. Robots and computers for control, sensory feedback and information processing at workplaces is a fastgrowing trend that is not only seen to cut costs, but also improve efficiency. “Robots will take over the jobs. We, therefore, need to re-skill the people. They should be able to fit in the new environment and work alongside these machines. It is a challenge to us as a country and industry leaders to ensure that we give people the relevant skills,” said Patrick Ngolobe, the chief executive officer of Africa Executive Leadership Solutions. Ngolobe was speaking during a talent management and succession planning conference held at the Golden Tulip Hotel in Kampala recently. He argued that workplaces are looking for multi-skilled labour. “For example, a bank driver should not only drive cars, he should also do a bit of banking, help with accounts or work at the reception.” According to Forbes magazine, 47% of all employment opportunities will be occupied by machines within the next two decades. The magazine also says about….

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Technological advancement and the changing world of work have brought new challenges to employers with regard to employee engagement. It is no longer enough for employees to be present at work for long hours unless they are actively engaged in what they are doing. More often than not, employers tend to be frustrated with employees who do not deliver according to their expectations. Employee engagement is the emotional commitment the employee has to the organisation and its goals. The Employer of the Year Award Survey that was conducted by the Federation of Uganda Employers in partnership with Makerere University revealed that only 49% of the employees are highly engaged and they exhibit strong emotional and rational engagement, 6% are disengaged and 45% are moderately engaged. The combined percentage of those who are disengaged and moderately engaged (in total 51%) implies that majority of the organisations in Uganda have employee engagement challenges. Therefore, it is important for organisations to work towards increasing the level of employee engagement. It is important for organisations to regularly conduct surveys in order to assess the level of employee engagement so as to develop appropriate remedial interventions in case there are some gaps which are identified or….

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Despite gender activism taking centre stage at the workplace, women still trail their male counterparts at all levels in the workplace. This is according to ‘Women in the Workplace 2017’, a study conducted by renowned consulting firm Mckinsey together with LeanIn.Org, a women empowerment organisation. The study targeted over 222 companies employing more than 12 million people and the biggest discovery was there are a number of blind spots that have led to stagnation in workplace gender equality cause. According to the report, many employees see the small numbers of women who have made it to leadership positions in the workplace as achievement enough and see no more need to push further. Andrew Ssenyonjo, an author and recruitment consultant, says there has been progress in the women’s march to the c-suite. He says there are more women holding key and administrative positions in the organisations now than before. But Violet Kukundakwe, an entrepreneur and business trainer, says the numbers of women holding key positions are not yet adequate despite available opportunities for women to advance. She blames this partly on women being “risk averse”. Lawyer and women activist Joan Agumenaitwe, however, disagrees and says a lot more needs to be done….

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The debate has been on about the runaway unemployment rates in Uganda and generally in Africa. Hundreds of thousands of graduates are released from higher institutions of learning but most of them fail to get jobs yet employers insist they cannot find people to employ. So where is the mismatch? Job Mart explores the issue A recent study revealed something interesting. In 2017, Fuzu, an online career development platform, looked at 30,000 job adverts that ran on the platform and separated this out into three sets of data. The report looked at the percentage of jobs in a certain industry, the total number of postings and percentage of applicants for roles within those jobs. This was to establish the simple equation of supply and demand to better inform both job seekers and employers where the biggest mismatch was happening. This was the skill gap analysis. Fuzu also collected data from their user base as well as job seekers over a 12-month period to gain deeper understanding of the skills gap at different levels. The data set shows that information segmented into job seekers with less than two years experience, two to seven years and seven years and above. This data was….

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In many cases both employees and employers underestimate the value of soft skills training. Yet such training saved an employee from premature resignation on account of her harsh boss who she described as a tyrant. Alice Lubulwa was a senior manager in Kampala when she felt like she had had enough from her boss and was ready to resign two years ago. However, she attended a leadership course and read a book on leadership by John Maxwell, which liberated her from making a hasty decision. She became more assertive and started sharing with her boss what he was doing that she felt was not right. The boss was later persuaded to attend the same course leading to his transformation which was unbelievable. Today, they are happily working together in mutual respect. Such leaders are the target for the TRAIN campaign, aimed at transforming leadership culture among leaders is Uganda. The first such training was organised by Solutions Africa in partnership with Watoto Church. It included management skills, designing management strategies, improving relationships between the employer and employee, customer care, among others. “The development of leaders with the exceptional character and skills is critical to Uganda’s development. Transforming the leadership culture….

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In a heated argument over uncompleted tasks and missed deadlines, Sarah angrily said to her supervisor, “If you keep treating me like your five-year-old toddler, I may miss more deadlines.” How criticisms are given or received goes a long way in determining how satisfied people are with their work, those they work with or those to whom they are accountable. Criticism is one of the most important tasks a manager has, yet it is also one of the most dreaded and a put-off. And today, too many managers and leaders have poorly mastered the crucial art of feedback. This deficiency has a great cost. Just as the emotional health of a couple depends on how well they air out their grievances, so does the effectiveness, satisfaction and productivity of people at the workplace depend on how they are told about nagging problems. Many managers are very willing to criticise but very economical with praise, leaving their employees feeling that they only hear about how they are doing when they make a mistake. This propensity to criticism is compounded by managers who delay giving feedback at all for long periods. Effective handling of mistakes and nagging problems in a way that consistently….

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