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AfricaRecruit HR Newsletter

 

Published By AfricaRecruit HR Club March 2007  | Vol. 3 Issue 1

 

The Role of Human Resource Personnel in Corporate Social Responsibility: Human Resources Management a Critical Role in Emergencies | Mobilising People in Emergencies | The Role of Foreign Investors in Africa’s Human Resource Development | IC Publications classified services: An effective way to spread your message across Africa | The Role of Recruitment Agencies in Ethical Recruitment: The Commonwealth Code of Conduct |

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Corporate Social Responsibility has become a key word in today’s society with many organization positioning themselves as being socially responsible through their various charitable or foundation arms. This however has created some skeptics, as the perception is that without any measurable key performance indicators (KPI’s) most organisations are “window dressing”. Human Resource Personnel can play a key role in building these much-needed KPI’s both externally with their stakeholders and internally with the employees and shareholders by adopting various innovative approaches. This edition focuses on Human Resources Role in Corporate Social Responsibility, looking at the value of skills in emergency management in Africa; ethical recruitment and investment in local or national workforce as an option for organisations.


          Human Resources Management a Critical Role in Emergencies and for employers seeking to be “ Responsible Employers of Choice” with tangible social responsibility to the society at large and its employees.

 

All employers in Africa are a potential resource of skills and local knowledge, which can be tapped and engaged in emergencies thereby having the capacity to limit the impact of the crisis immediately and in the long term.  In return for making skills and knowledge available in an emergency, the employer provides its employees with a once in a lifetime opportunity to make a vital contribution that may have a long lasting beneficial impact on its workers both in their personal and professional life.

 

Employers in Africa, in particular Human Resource Personnel are critical in pre-positioning their staff as well as engaging at the organisational level to develop a robust human resource deployment strategy for emergencies in Africa.

 

This willingness and capacity to contribute people and skills to emergency response benefits all stakeholders, the need’s identified and practical processes for mutual collaboration established. For the company there might be development opportunities for its own experienced staff – e.g. volunteerism which can range from hours to weeks and seconding an accountant, offering a pilot - or in-kind contributions to those employed by International Organisation’s (IO) and Non-Governmental Organisation’s (NGO) which will make them more effective, perhaps information on local human employment law, shared learning opportunities or sourcing guards for warehouses.

 

The challenges faced by organisations are both varied and dynamic and these include:

  • Immediate mobilisation of people with local knowledge and understanding of the culture
  • Mobilisation of skilled personnel at required level
  • Training of local staff on emergency response management
  • Effective communication between all stakeholders
  • Capacity to develop a robust crisis management plan
  • Poor information and knowledge management
  • Lack of or poor infrastructure

 

Perception is a big factor also: is a licence to operate affected by how a non-indigenous company reacts to a crisis?; is being seen as a good corporate citizen a contributor to visibility and profitability (or limitation of loss?).

 

Strong human resource capacity is needed to address existing development constraints and face the challenges of a globalised economy. Strong capacity to plan and adequately monitor their impacts is key to a country’s ability to respond and rebuild following an emergency.

 

Response needs to be immediate, and led by human resources: people who are trained and have full access to local knowledge and resources. Governments have the crucial role to play of course. They need the human resources to plan, to respond, and to rebuild. Aside from their own role and capacity, fostering the required skills and coordination in other organisations will surely ensure a united and more powerful response.

 

              
 

Mobilising People in Emergencies: The Role of Non-Governmental, Private and Public Sector in Africa June 28-29th 2007, Kenya

www.africarecruit.com for details and register

 

 

The event will explore:

  • Impact of emergencies on the continent
  • The need for preparedness, and working together
  • Issues around locating and deploying staff for an emergency – perspective of NGOs, private and public sector
  • Examples of how private and voluntary sector organisations have collaborated on people-related issues
  • What do NGOs need and what can the private sector offer?
  • What role could the public sector play in terms of incentivising or facilitating collaboration?

Benefits:

  • Action plan on how to build alliances and partnership between key stakeholders
  • Determine how to effectively improve communication with crisis management teams and various stakeholders
  • Improve the efficiency of manual processes required to mobilise crisis teams ensuring timely data/information management
  • Bridging the skills gap in emergencies
  • Good practices
  • Shift the focus from traditional “adhoc” process to a more “proactive” approach


For details and how to register kindly visit www.africarecruit.com

 

Thoughts from Jonathan Potter, Executive Director of People In Aid

In a disaster situation it is always local people who react first. This came home to the international disaster response community during the Asian tsunami, ensuring increased concentration on the building of local capacity both for the first few days (part of ‘disaster preparedness’) and ongoing (the relief, followed by recovery phases). For Africa the need for this capacity is great, and the response often controlled by non-African actors.

 

In December 2004, under the auspices of the Ethiopia-based international NGO Africa Humanitarian Action, non-governmental organisations (NGOs), governments, parastatals, academics and others convened in Addis to discuss building the capacity and resources of African NGOs. Two of the symposium’s final resolutions were as follows:

‘African NGOs and institutions to develop strategies for resource mobilisation from the African public and private sectors….’ and ‘NGOs to develop long-term human resource capacities, including through institutions of higher learning, technical exchange and training programmes with international actors’. People In Aid, an international network of NGOs, attended this symposium to see what assistance it could give to strengthen the capacity of African NGOs.

 

Jonathan Potter, Executive Director of People In Aid, never tires of stressing the importance of people and appropriate skills in a disaster response. He says: ‘100% of an NGO’s knowledge derives from its people, and around 93-95% of those people are nationals of the countries where NGOs’ operations take place. The argument for strengthening the capacity of existing staff is strong, and the need for other skilled people to join the forces of those willing to combat the worst effects of conflict, natural disaster and poverty is immense. One source is clearly the African private sector and the conference we are organising in Nairobi in June will be a key step in raising awareness of the ways in which cross-sector collaboration in people and skills development can take place. Do please join us’.

 

 
 
The Role of Foreign Investors in Africa’s Human Resource Development critical to building a viable and skilled workforce.
 
Foreign Investments in Africa should mean increased job and employment opportunities for Africa.  However in many cases this does not translate into reality. Many investors import their workforce at the expense of local talent or nationals of the country abroad who are skilled and willing to return resulting no spill over economic benefits for locals.  Socially responsible investors should develop short-long term plan of bringing jobs to the local or national community as part of their investment plans. The aim should be to recruit and train where necessary into all levels of the organisations; both skilled and unskilled. Best practice can be adopted from many other countries that have used the investments as a leverage to build local talents and skills creating jobs directly and indirectly through the supply chain line. African governments need to effectively leverage the increased foreign investments into Africa for its citizens by setting employment targets for investors from executive to unskilled levels and measure the organisation against the targets relating it to the tax and investment incentives.
 
 


IC Publications Classified Services: effective way to spread your message across Africa
 

 

IC Publications is the publisher of New African and African Business, the best-selling English language pan-African magazines. With 40 years of experience, the magazines are sold in over 45 countries across the continent and 100 internationally and are the ideal vehicle for your classified advertisements. Whether they are vacancies, tenders, courses or an announcement your classified advertisements will be sure to reach a wide and receptive audience of Africans, across the continent and in Diaspora, in a cost effective manner.  

 

As a partner of Africa Recruit, we are offering you the possibility of a free 2 months subscription to our magazines, New African and African Business.  To take advantage of this offer, please click on the following link and follow the instructions:

Find a Job in Africa Special Offer

www.africasia.com

 

 

New African & African Business – Africa’s International Magazines

 

 

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The Role of Recruitment Agencies in Ethical Recruitment: The Commonwealth Code of Conduct
 
 
 

Global shortages of skills have led to some countries systematically recruiting staff from lesser-developed countries, and from those most likely to feel the impact such as small states. This has created great concerns amongst stakeholders and led to the endorsement of the Commonwealth Code of Practice for the International Recruitment of Health Workers by the Ministers of Health (2003) and to the adoption by Ministers of Education of the Commonwealth Teacher Recruitment Protocol (September 2004).  

 

The Teacher Recruitment Protocol balances the rights of teachers to migrate internationally with the need to protect the integrity of national education systems and to prevent the exploitation of the scarce human resources of poor countries” says Roli Degazon-Johnson Chief Programme Officer Social Transformation Programmes Division  

 

These instruments, which have been applauded as good practices by the International Labour Organization (ILO), are intended to provide governments with a framework within which ethical international recruitment may take place. They are sensitive to the needs of recipient countries and the migratory rights of skilled workers but do not propose that governments should limit or hinder the freedom of individuals to choose where they wish to live and work. 

 

For details on the Commonwealth Code of Conduct visit www.thecommonwealth.org

 
 

         

 

Online job portal  www.findajobinafrica.com  A one stop job search engine for Africa connecting recruiters in Africa with jobseekers inside and outside Africa

 

Jobs in Africa in all industry used by recruiters to target local; repatriates and expatriates for details kindly visit www.findajobinafrica.com


 

 

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