Experts give tips on talent management in the disruptive world

Experts have advised that it is imperative that employers change the way they manage talents of their employees in the disruptive world.

Speaking during a session organised by BrighterMonday Uganda, Flavia Ntambi Lwanga, the human resource director at Airtel Uganda explained that since the world keeps changing every day, talent managers too ought to change for the better.

“We are in a dynamic environment. Whereas in the past you had to control people by long service awards and the kind of things that keep people in the same profession and career have completely changed. This disruption has come in because of the advancement in technology.  The demands of the people have changed greatly,”Lwanga said.

She said as the world changes, there are pacesetters that are followed by everyone and in a short time, this is the trend.

Lwanga insisted this is the case with talent management which has changed with time.

“As a talent manager, you have to forget about the old ways of doing things. You have to be open and willing to take risks with talent. It is no longer easy to retain current in one department. The talent may have skills to enable them move in a new department and let them be,” she urged.

“Technology has strung up and technology has become the thing. It means it is not so much the hard skills but the soft ones that take the higher need like critical thinking and creativity is what is needed more now. Allow yourself to move with them.”

Brian Ntambirweki, the CEO for BrighterMonday Uganda could not agree more.

“The world has changed and Covid accelerated it. Technology is a huge disruptor in the way things are done. If you trust your team to deliver where they are, it becomes more result oriented and it is where the world is heading. Stop thinking in the past,”Ntambirweki said.

However, according to the Executive Director of Federation of Uganda Employers ,Douglas Opio ,despite being a disruptive world, the fundamentals remain unchanged and these ought to be followed by everyone.

“The issue of competency still remains key and has to be followed while managing talent. We look at skills and behaviour skills. Here in Uganda, soft skills are key. If someone is not self- driven, how could they work from home remotely? How do you guarantee they will deliver results and not play with children?”

“The experience of the person to take on the job is key. We have to understand our people at a person level than before. If you set your team to work remotely you have to understand their traits. You have to have motivations or drivers that keep the workers at your job.”

Technology

The experts all agreed in unison that technology is playing a very important role in talent management not only in Uganda but world over.

They insisted on the need to embrace technology by not only employees but also talent managers.

“Technology bolsters up skilling. You have to learn new skills to enable you to fit in the disruptive world. The technology is there to enable you do this as an individual but also as an organisation,” said Airtel Uganda’s Flavia Ntambi Lwanga.

She however noted that with the disruptive world, technology has made everything simpler than before.

The BrighterMonday Uganda CEO Brian Ntambirweki said technology is both an enabler and organiser.

“On our end even when  recruiting, we  are now using artificial intelligence and you are able to specify what you are looking for as the employer and then the person looking for the job can choose where he or she fits. As intermediaries, we  are able to  assess and match these two things and give you a score that this person is  70% suitable for the job and you make it up to yourself whether to hire them or not,” he said.