Human resource practitioners are the most affected emotionally when it comes to downsizing, even though in many cases their hands are tied.
The College of Human Resource Management principal Margaret Kinyanjui on Wednesday said the HR practitioners may be emotionally more affected than the people who are let go in an organization.
This is contrary to popular belief that human resource managers are heartless beings who are sadists and are not affected because of firing someone.
“It’s not an easy place, especially for HR practitioners, because at the end of the day, they are the ones who have to handle that aspect and it is not easy when you are letting people go,” Kinyanjui said.
She spoke during the 7th annual talent summit organized by the college, which looks at different talent strategies that human resource managers need which are critical in their day-to-day running of the organizations.
Kinyanjui said letting people go from an organization may even lead to depression for the HR managers, who sometimes end up needing therapists to help them cope with their inevitable actions.
She said it is the firing aspect, apart from managing talent that makes the work of HR practitioners hard.
This, she said, is especially so if HR practitioners have to deal with Gen Z.
Gen Z (also referred to as Generation Z, iGen or centennials) is the name given to the current generation of young people by many demographic researchers, who mostly describe them as people born between 1997 and 2012, following millennials, who are born between 1981 and 1996.
This generation has been raised on the internet and social media, with some of the oldest finishing college by 2020 and entering the workforce.
Kinyanjui said this generation is the most volatile and mobile and may resign from a workplace anytime, using any means, provided they get what they desire elsewhere.
“Sometimes they just call you and say they have resigned out of nowhere. So if it is a talent critical to your organization, you have to know how to handle them, make them happy and retain them,” Kinyanjui said.
Her sentiments were echoed by Salaries and Remuneration Commission vice chair Amani Komora who noted that identification of the unique needs of the talents is key to being able to devise ways of retaining them, especially Gen Z, who have become so dynamic that different individuals require different styles of management.
“For example, the Gen Zs are more keen on flexible working environments and do not want to be tied inside the four walls of the organization.
“They want to leave the office once they are done with their work for the day. So you have to look for unique ways to manage that taking into account the organization’s rules and regulations,” Komora said.
He said Gen Z are a very agile workforce, especially those in IT and other specialized fields.
“It is about showing them leadership, showing them that they are recognized and allowing a bit of flexibility within which they can support the delivery of business,” Komora said.
Kinyanjui said every time a talent is offered something, you have to keep matching that offer to retain them and this could have a huge cost implication, which may not be sustainable for an organization.
She said there is a lot of talent war in the corporate world whereby retaining talent has been a huge challenge.
“You get in good talent at your workplace or maybe you develop them but before you can enjoy their talent, they have already been snapped up or poached by another organization,” Kinyanjui said.
The talent summit, she said, has helped look at different strategies that would help human resource practitioners or organizations retain the very critical skills that an organization has.
“We use a lot of resources to train these talents and pay them packages that we feel are commensurate with their skills,” she said.
She said is necessary because talents are volatile and mobile because of the critical skills they possess which are key to organizations.
“If you do not have a good succession plan in place and you lose your talent, the organization suffers.
“If it is production of a certain product, then there is going to be delays in how you produce that product, there might be slight differences in the quality and all these affect the product in the market,” Kinyanjui said.
Demotivation of the team occasioned by a lost talent might also impact their productivity, she noted.
“Then there is cost implication because now you have to start looking for somebody else who has equal skills or most likely you will be forced to put in more resources to build somebody else and raise them to the level of the talent you lost,” Kinyanjui said.
Contracts, she said, do not necessarily guarantee retention of talents because some of the poaching organizations are willing to buy out the contracts.
George Hapisu, the CHRM chair, said the college has for the last seven years been providing a platform to HR professionals and line managers to exchange ideas and learn from best practices from different parts of the country and the continent.
“This way, we develop ourselves better and can better handle the expectations of our human resource,” he said.
Komora said talent management is where the future of organizations lies.
“Because unless you properly identify talent and maintain them well within the organization you will keep on losing them,” Komora said.
He said it is not about pay only but about creating a conducive working environment, providing good leadership, and enabling them to work within a good positive culture that endears them to the organization to stay.