The Q&A session from Our FREE Training on HR Best Practices

The Chamber together with our President Club Member Coca-Cola Beverages Africa and our Vice President Club Member, Raxio Data Center recently joined forces to provide a free training on HR Best Practices. The training addressed topics like;
1. Providing security to employees
2. Selective hiring: Hiring the right people
3. Self-managed and effective teams
4. Fair and performance-based compensation
5. Training in relevant skills and access to information
6. Creating a flat and egalitarian organization

As the training came to a close, we opened up the floor for a Q&A session which you will find below:

QN1: How best can we instill a culture of accountability in the teams so that at the end of the day it doesn’t seem like a burden but something that they enjoy.

POINT 1: We need to appreciate that everything to do with building a sustainable work culture must be consistent. You need to communicate, engage and explain why accountability is important. As a leader you need to ask yourself, how are values embedded? You communicate, you create awareness, you reward, you get people excited to be accountable.

POINT 2: Another key element to this is, personal accountability. Creating that culture where people are self-discipline with a framework of holding people accountable. However, if you do not do that, you are not helping them to see their faults and work on them.

POINT 3: Attaching rewards and recognition based on the values that your employees portray that signal accountability. As a leader, you need to help your team to understand why it is important to speak up. The moment your worker pledges to this, then they are compelled to come forward when they see something. This is a behavior that can be cultivated when you put processes in place to embed values.

POINT 4: Lead by example. Sometimes it is hard to say you have failed as a leader. But come out and come clean. As you demonstrate these behaviors, this will make your employees proud to be accountable.

QN 2: Trainings have been highlighted as key in Best HR practices, the trainings available out there are so many, how do you schedule many trainings for your staff?
A: Use a training tracker to schedule them according to which quarter these training shall be done. The training company that our member, Raxio Data Center is affiliated with has trainings in all time zones. You have to look at what works for your organisation and plan for it ahead of time. These training can be intense so you may have to give your employees a number of days off and then re-allocate their tasks to the team/ employees that shall not be participating in the training.

QN 3: Where can we find the best HR courses online?

There are quite a number of options you can get out there, for example;
Coursera
Harvard University has amazing short courses
LinkedIn has great HR and courses for personal development

QN 4: Kindly highlight some of the futuristic skills that we as employees we may need that are not just relevant for our specific roles for employability to grow within the ranks?

POINT 1: The culture is critical. You need to have a growth mindset and a culture of learning. Many of us after 20 years of employment we reach a place where we think we know it all. If you are in that space, you may never grow.

POINT 2: Agility, you need to have the ability to work and be resilient in tough times a clear example is that we are in a world where you have to be able to lead in a pandemic.

POINT 3: Leadership and People skills. The ability to inspire your team to deliver requires a lot of emotional Intelligence

POINT 4: Digital and Tech skills. Are you tech savvy? Right now it doesn’t matter where you are you need to be able to use these virtual and digital tools. You need to be able to adjust to the new technology that is constantly being introduced into the work-place.

POINT 5: Creativity and ability to make quick decisions, can you think on your feet?

QN 5: How do you manage speak up channels to avoid retaliation from Senior leaders?

POINT 1: Have an open door policy. Most organisations in Uganda have small teams which makes it easy to approach any employee, take advantage of this size of your business if you fall into this category.

POINT 2: Work toward building the culture of accountability. It actually becomes very easy to achieve a channel where employees can speak up because employees feel that there are really no consequences. However, what really makes the difference is that as a leader what do you do when someone speaks up? The moment people realize that when they did raise an issue, nothing was done, then no one will come forward after that. As a leader there should be fairness and follow through to conclusion. Any issue that is raised with decorum through the process especially when it comes to disciplinary matters, will make your employees feel confident. This is because they know that what they are doing is right and they shall not be exposed as you bring the matter to closure. So it is very important how we manage the end to end process.

For a FULL RECAP on this training, visit: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4BpDcqQ5vo8

The Chamber will continue to hold a series of trainings for its members on various topics. If you would like to attend, follow us on all our social platforms or visit our website at: https://www.amchamuganda.co.ug/events

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