The Chartered Institute of Personnel Management of Nigeria (CIPM), on Thursday 25 August urged the 398 newly inductees of the institute to be change agents as worthy ambassadors of the human resource (HR) profession.
According to the institute, the CIPM induction is not just a commencement event, rather it is the right of passage to professionalism, collaboration, and performance. Hence, it is therefore not enough to be inducted, as professionals are expected to integrate and blend through active engagement in the activities of the Institute after induction.
“Role of an HR manager as a successful change agent in an organization is to foster business leaders who can anticipate change; analyze the environment, act decisively and collaboratively, and affirm the value of positive change. Change is first being then doing,” said Victor Adebayo, the chief operations officer, CIG Group, and guest speaker at the hybrid 46th induction ceremony of the CIPM.
Speaking on the theme, ‘Optimal Performance: HR as a Change Partner’ Adebayo said HR managers and professionals must be the change agent in succeeding in today’s world. According to him, optimal performance refers to a mental state in which people feel totally immersed in the performance of the task.
He further states that regardless of tools they use, HR managers and professionals must be able to deliver the end results while appropriately deploying and maintaining resources available to them. “Pattern of training and coaching needs to change,” he said.
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Exploring HR as a ‘Change Agent’, Adebayo said that every organisation expects that their people and processes lead to optimum output. According to him, as far as management and business owners are concerned, people and processes leverage tools to optimize productivity and that for them is optimum performance.
“To HR professionals, what puts an employee in the frame of mind to utilize tools following laid down processes or creating new processes to achieve this optimum performance then becomes his/her goal,” Adebayo said.
According to him, the day-to-day job of HR is beyond communicating performance objectives and getting set to measure those objectives against actual performance. He said professionals must first understand how their companies make money. “HR cannot create change in the organisation via policies, processes, procedures or otherwise if they do not put themselves in the shoes of the organisation.
“Change begins first with understanding: know the business of your organisation. Know the daily work life of the entire team. Demonstrate good emotional intelligence working with employees of the organisation. Understand social and communal trends and how they impact the workspace,” Adebayo said.
Olusegun Mojeed, president and chairman of the governing council, CIPM, said HR professionals and business leaders are faced with unprecedented contexts and situations requiring new learning and approaches, including tactics to cope with the ‘Japa’ phenomenon.
According to him, the new inductees should wear the CIPM badge with pride as good ambassadors of the Institute. “I just want you to know that you can always make a difference anywhere you are. With the right set of knowledge and skills, the sky becomes your launching pad,” he said.
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