Determined to foster 21st-century talents management strategies that will effectively link the vision employers with their bottom-line using the right set of employees post covid-19, Oladapo Akinloye and Gbemiga Owolabi, two human resources professionals have launched a book, ‘Winning With People’ in Lagos.
Oladapo Akinloye and Gbemiga Owolabi, authors of the book, opine that it is people that make an organization to be profitable, not the process only, adding that employers need to understand that if the talents aspect of the equation is handled right, every other element in the organisation will fall in place.
According to them, “When employees are trained for higher performance to fit into an organization’s value, culture and goals, such talents even after leaving the organization, they remain proud ambassadors of such companies”.
Oladapo Akinloye, chief operating officer, Emerald Zone, Nigeria while speaking to newsmen at the official launch of the book in Lagos, observes that employers, businesses be it profit or non for profit aspire to win, noting that the formula to achieve winning is what the book addressed.
Akinloye who also the lead author notes that the book encompasses over forty years experiences of managing businesses, adding that knowledge from the book can help a profit or non-profit organization succeed.
“You will agree with me that the combined practical knowledge of these human resources gurus in authoring this new book ‘Winning With People’ will undoubtedly give a complete spectrum for employers, employees and entrepreneurs,” he said.
Gbemiga Owolabi, co-author of the book observes that the best approach to achieve status of a high performing organization is through the quality of employees not just the machines.
Owolabi, a Human Resources expert with over 25 years experiences working with companies like Airtel Nigeria Limited, Lafarge PLC, says the book deals with how to make personnel in an organization become a high performing employee.
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He opines that the book handles aspects of talents sourcing, training, mentoring among other aspects of motivation to help such talents attain higher-level performance and make them do what they do not want to do ordinarily.
“What we did in this book was to use leadership and management principles. We highlighted those tenets that can help organisations to succeed irrespective of where they find themselves”.
Commenting further Owolabi, O&HR Director, Lafarge Africa Plc, observes he learnt over the years as a human resources manager that there is no way an employee can be happy if the organization he is working in is not succeeding.
According to him, “The first thing that comes to the mind of an employee when an organisation is not succeeding the issue of layoff which is the current situation especially with the coronavirus pandemic affecting companies”.
The book ‘Winning With People’ addresses issues around continuous learning to create an impact on employers and employees. The book provides a pointer on how employers, employees can deploy continuous learning approaches such that if there are changes in the future, the learning imbibed can help them adapt and continue to grow.
Akinloye further noted that Employers and employees must imbibe the learning culture in an organization and not wait until they come to the classroom. That is one of the mistakes people make.
“People feel that except when they go to practice school or training hall where training takes place, they cannot learn. That is not true”.
“In the book, we talked about the 70, 20, 10 principles. A lot of learning happens on the job in the workplace every day. 70% learning happens every day on the job, 20% talks about mentoring and coaching and 10% talks about learning which happens in the classroom.
“If you continue to teach me in the classroom and I have not gone to the market, I cannot succeed. There is some experience you cannot get unless on the job training and mentoring”, Akinloye said.
