By Everest Turyahikayo
Kampala, Uganda
International Human resource consultant
everestdidas@yahoo.co.uk
Tel.+256-772924158
Although there is an outcry over the increasing rate of unemployment in Uganda and beyond, evidence shows high level skills shortage globally. This is perhaps an indicator that many job seekers possess either irrelevant skills or they do not actually go where jobs exist. A thorough scrutiny of recent surveys about the skills shortage reveals that many employers continue to fail to identify job seekers with the desired skills, knowledge, abilities and motivation. The recent Landelahni Mining Survey for example, indicated continued lack of qualified mining engineers in Africa.
Another survey conducted by Springboard Research among 400 Information Technology (IT) end-users, 400 software developers and programmers and 82 IT training and education providers in Australia, China, India, Malaysia and the Philippines reveals that Asia Pacific enterprises are experiencing the greatest shortage in areas such as enterprise architecture, application development and system integration.
The survey also found regional companies to be lacking talented IT staff who also possess business-domain knowledge and managerial skills. The shortage of IT professionals with adequate business knowledge most affected high-tech manufacturing companies, such as those in the semiconductor and flat panel display business.
A joint research conducted in August 2010 by recruitment specialist Robert Half and the Association of Chartered Certified Accountants (ACCA), which involved interviewing 1,600 professionals in finance and accounting across Australia, Hong Kong, New Zealand and Singapore uncovered an alarming rate of skills shortage. A significant 81% of Singapore respondents with recruitment responsibilities believed there was an existing skills shortage in finance and accounting in the country. The problem is more acute in Singapore and Hong Kong with more respondents reporting the shortage to be “chronic” than in Australia and New Zealand. Skills shortage is limiting factor on the expansion of production.
In Austria, construction workers, architects and engineers are in heavy demand. In Bulgaria there is a shortage in particular of IT specialists, waiters and chefs; Poland needs doctors, welders and mechanics; Romania has an urgent need of textile workers. In Slovakia and Hungary the shortage mainly concerns electrical, mechanical and automotive engineers. Throughout Eastern Europe the building industry is most heavily hit.
A recent study by the Asian Development Bank (ADB) in 817 companies in eight provinces of Laos across industries such as energy, clothing, tourism, agriculture, wholesale and retail and machinery has discovered that Laos is facing a major shortage of skilled labour, highlighting the possibilities for foreign workers to find work in the nation. Researchers found that the furniture sector was hit hardest and needed 3,000 workers to make up for the deficit.
In Africa there is high demand for obstetricians and gynaecologists. For example, Namibia's medical directory lists 13 gynaecologists. Uganda and Tanzania each have around 200 such specialists for populations of 33 and 45 million respectively. The shortage of healthcare workers is a global phenomenon. The continent needs more IT specialists, professionals in industrial design, chemists, textile engineers, and mineral explorers, to mention but a few.
With the following measures in place, skills shortage can become history.
• There is need for countries with potential labour force to export man power to countries in need.
• It is high time universities designed curriculum to include competitive courses on the labour market.
• Students should be guided to pursue professions needed in the labour industry.
Sunday, January 2, 2011
INTEGRITY, LIKE CHARITY BEGINS AT HOME
Everest Turyahikayo
International human resource consultant
everestdidas@yahoo.co.uk
The media today is awash with factual stories of murder, corruption, theft, and other forms of integrity. Integrity just like charity is planted in children during their non-formal training in families and homes. Psychologists tell us that human conduct is a consequence of two factors. First, the totality of the accumulated learned experiences over a period of time and secondly; the inherited biological characteristics within an individual. Most of the actions performed in ones adulthood were learnt in childhood.
Children who grow seeing their parents fight will likely become fighters themselves. Such children bully their young siblings and other young children on the village. The same behaviour is carried to school and later to society in adulthood. As a consequence, acts of murder increase and tension overshadows communities.
Children grow as they see the extravagant life of their parents amidst scarce family resources. As early as primary school level, some children have observed how their parents fail to pay school fees and other scholastic materials, but manage to drink alcohol daily. Stories of spouses conflicting due to one or both of them misusing family resources are common today. Unfortunately, this happens in the presence of children.
Poor accountability is therefore learnt at an early age. Children start by squandering school fees and forging accountability at the end of the term. Some children forge bank slips, class report books and marks obtained at the end of the term. Children engaged in such malpractices are always trained by their friends at school who had learnt the behaviour at home.
By the time a student completes university education, undesirable accumulated behaviour has reached appoint below redemption. After school, students secure jobs and are entrusted with public offices. The behaviour learnt in childhood manifests itself in the actions related to violent character, extravagancy, embezzlement and misuse of public property.
Any fight against current moral decadency in our society should begin from our homes. Parents need to inculcate religious values in their children. The importance of Sunday schools in child upbringing should be underscored. Parents should liase with responsible religious leaders in our communities in indentifying training programmes that will benefit children. These programmes should be outside the school calendar and conducted on weekends at churches.
There is need for a collaborate effort in disciplining children in our communities. If I find my neighbour’s children vandalizing people’s property, let me take an appropriate action immediately. Such action should not infringe on the fundamental rights of the child but should deter the child from engaging in bad behaviours in future.
There is need to strengthen recruitment and selection methods and procedures. At the moment, many important personality traits are ignored at recruitment. Recruiters tend to focus on the academic qualifications and relevant working experience. They ignore the importance of a comprehensive background check prior to appointing new employees. Background checking in recruitment is as important as academic qualifications and working experience. Employers should check for the family background of the job applicant, the conduct of the applicant at the schools attended, credit history, and facts related to the academic papers and working experience presented. Any recruitment process is supposed to be fair and comprehensive. Employers should know that negligent hiring is very costly and can cause closure of any corporate organization.
Lastly, regular performance appraisal should be carried out to assess the performance of public officers. Effective performance evaluation helps employers to know whether they hired the right person. If there are undesirable behaviours that were not detected at recruitment, regular performance appraisal helps to notice such behaviours and take appropriate action.
Everest Turyahikayo
Human Resource Consultant
Kampala
International human resource consultant
everestdidas@yahoo.co.uk
The media today is awash with factual stories of murder, corruption, theft, and other forms of integrity. Integrity just like charity is planted in children during their non-formal training in families and homes. Psychologists tell us that human conduct is a consequence of two factors. First, the totality of the accumulated learned experiences over a period of time and secondly; the inherited biological characteristics within an individual. Most of the actions performed in ones adulthood were learnt in childhood.
Children who grow seeing their parents fight will likely become fighters themselves. Such children bully their young siblings and other young children on the village. The same behaviour is carried to school and later to society in adulthood. As a consequence, acts of murder increase and tension overshadows communities.
Children grow as they see the extravagant life of their parents amidst scarce family resources. As early as primary school level, some children have observed how their parents fail to pay school fees and other scholastic materials, but manage to drink alcohol daily. Stories of spouses conflicting due to one or both of them misusing family resources are common today. Unfortunately, this happens in the presence of children.
Poor accountability is therefore learnt at an early age. Children start by squandering school fees and forging accountability at the end of the term. Some children forge bank slips, class report books and marks obtained at the end of the term. Children engaged in such malpractices are always trained by their friends at school who had learnt the behaviour at home.
By the time a student completes university education, undesirable accumulated behaviour has reached appoint below redemption. After school, students secure jobs and are entrusted with public offices. The behaviour learnt in childhood manifests itself in the actions related to violent character, extravagancy, embezzlement and misuse of public property.
Any fight against current moral decadency in our society should begin from our homes. Parents need to inculcate religious values in their children. The importance of Sunday schools in child upbringing should be underscored. Parents should liase with responsible religious leaders in our communities in indentifying training programmes that will benefit children. These programmes should be outside the school calendar and conducted on weekends at churches.
There is need for a collaborate effort in disciplining children in our communities. If I find my neighbour’s children vandalizing people’s property, let me take an appropriate action immediately. Such action should not infringe on the fundamental rights of the child but should deter the child from engaging in bad behaviours in future.
There is need to strengthen recruitment and selection methods and procedures. At the moment, many important personality traits are ignored at recruitment. Recruiters tend to focus on the academic qualifications and relevant working experience. They ignore the importance of a comprehensive background check prior to appointing new employees. Background checking in recruitment is as important as academic qualifications and working experience. Employers should check for the family background of the job applicant, the conduct of the applicant at the schools attended, credit history, and facts related to the academic papers and working experience presented. Any recruitment process is supposed to be fair and comprehensive. Employers should know that negligent hiring is very costly and can cause closure of any corporate organization.
Lastly, regular performance appraisal should be carried out to assess the performance of public officers. Effective performance evaluation helps employers to know whether they hired the right person. If there are undesirable behaviours that were not detected at recruitment, regular performance appraisal helps to notice such behaviours and take appropriate action.
Everest Turyahikayo
Human Resource Consultant
Kampala
THE HARVEST IS RICH, LABOURERS ARE FEW
By Everest Turyahikayo-Kampala, Uganda
International Human resource Consultant
I recently watched a conference proceeding in which one consultant told youths that there are no jobs in Uganda. He concurred with many people who believe that the highest level of unemployment in Uganda is due to lack of jobs. I think this is a misconception about job scarcity, and offers no career direction to the millions of youths still in schools and colleges. There are many jobs in Uganda for people with relevant skills.
The Biblical saying that ‘the harvest is rich but labourers are few,’ Luke, 10:2 is very fundamental in examining unemployment problem in Uganda. There is no single moment in time when labour was sufficient in Uganda. This is even manifested by the outcry of government about lack of enough doctors in the county. Taking a deductive approach, one can observe that there is not enough number of gaenacologists in the country. Dentists, cancer and heart specialist are found in Kampala though very few. I do not think Uganda has enough text tile engineers. In every corner of this country, teachers of science subjects and languages are very few. It is common to find one teacher of mathematics teaching in over five schools in a municipality. The same situation applies to the teachers of English, French, Latin, German and Literature.
Many job seekers want to search for the right jobs yet possess irrelevant skills. Those with relevant skills have indeed landed on the right jobs. Others have relevant skills in professions where there is little demand for labour. In such professions, competition for the available jobs is very high.
In some organizations, an employee must retire or die first so that a vacancy is created for a new entrant. It is in such professions where labour is cheap and employers exploit this situation to their advantage. Job seekers do not have bargaining power and are compelled by the circumstances to accept any salary offer. Job seekers do not ask for the right jobs instead they ask for any jobs available, thereby exposing their desperation and frustration to the employer.
Employers have also complained of the poor work ethics of most professionals. Having the right academic qualifications in a highly competitive field does not mean automatic employment. Core human values expected of an employee play an important role in increasing employment opportunities. These include honesty, sense of responsibility, temperance and prudence. There is an increasing demand for these values by employers. Unfortunately, very few job seekers possess them.
Today jobseekers plan for which type of car to buy and the size of the house they will construct before they start earning. When their first job cannot enable them meet these needs, they resort to stealing from the organization. I have not found any employer who can tolerate such intolerable behaviour. Many of these job seekers change jobs time and again because they are never contented and are regularly fired. It is common to find a CV showing regular change of jobs as if the job seeker is an organizational tourist.
It is important to acknowledge the fact that demand for certain skills and professions is ever increasing in Uganda. The youth should be taught this fact at an early age so that they prepare for them. Parents should also be sensitized about the available jobs so that they prepare their children for those jobs.
There is need to improve on the rural infrastructure especially roads, electricity, hospitals and schools to attract young graduates.
Ethics should be taught right from primary education to university. An accomplished professional graduate should differentiate between good and bad actions. Job seekers should therefore be able to appreciate utilitarianism and Kantian categorical imperativism as important approaches to responsible living.
International Human resource Consultant
I recently watched a conference proceeding in which one consultant told youths that there are no jobs in Uganda. He concurred with many people who believe that the highest level of unemployment in Uganda is due to lack of jobs. I think this is a misconception about job scarcity, and offers no career direction to the millions of youths still in schools and colleges. There are many jobs in Uganda for people with relevant skills.
The Biblical saying that ‘the harvest is rich but labourers are few,’ Luke, 10:2 is very fundamental in examining unemployment problem in Uganda. There is no single moment in time when labour was sufficient in Uganda. This is even manifested by the outcry of government about lack of enough doctors in the county. Taking a deductive approach, one can observe that there is not enough number of gaenacologists in the country. Dentists, cancer and heart specialist are found in Kampala though very few. I do not think Uganda has enough text tile engineers. In every corner of this country, teachers of science subjects and languages are very few. It is common to find one teacher of mathematics teaching in over five schools in a municipality. The same situation applies to the teachers of English, French, Latin, German and Literature.
Many job seekers want to search for the right jobs yet possess irrelevant skills. Those with relevant skills have indeed landed on the right jobs. Others have relevant skills in professions where there is little demand for labour. In such professions, competition for the available jobs is very high.
In some organizations, an employee must retire or die first so that a vacancy is created for a new entrant. It is in such professions where labour is cheap and employers exploit this situation to their advantage. Job seekers do not have bargaining power and are compelled by the circumstances to accept any salary offer. Job seekers do not ask for the right jobs instead they ask for any jobs available, thereby exposing their desperation and frustration to the employer.
Employers have also complained of the poor work ethics of most professionals. Having the right academic qualifications in a highly competitive field does not mean automatic employment. Core human values expected of an employee play an important role in increasing employment opportunities. These include honesty, sense of responsibility, temperance and prudence. There is an increasing demand for these values by employers. Unfortunately, very few job seekers possess them.
Today jobseekers plan for which type of car to buy and the size of the house they will construct before they start earning. When their first job cannot enable them meet these needs, they resort to stealing from the organization. I have not found any employer who can tolerate such intolerable behaviour. Many of these job seekers change jobs time and again because they are never contented and are regularly fired. It is common to find a CV showing regular change of jobs as if the job seeker is an organizational tourist.
It is important to acknowledge the fact that demand for certain skills and professions is ever increasing in Uganda. The youth should be taught this fact at an early age so that they prepare for them. Parents should also be sensitized about the available jobs so that they prepare their children for those jobs.
There is need to improve on the rural infrastructure especially roads, electricity, hospitals and schools to attract young graduates.
Ethics should be taught right from primary education to university. An accomplished professional graduate should differentiate between good and bad actions. Job seekers should therefore be able to appreciate utilitarianism and Kantian categorical imperativism as important approaches to responsible living.
ORGANIZATIONAL RECORDS CAN BE PROTECTED FROM HACKERS
By Everest Turyahikayo, Kampala
There have been reports in the media that USA has lost the most sensitive and classified information to hackers. Such an unfortunate incidence happened at a high profile level to a country popular for its modern technology and powerful security mechanisms. However, it is not an isolated incidence as such problems have been reported in organizations especially banks losing billions of money to hackers.
Organizations survive because of the records they possess. Such records can be kept in both electronic and the traditional way of keeping hard copy documents. Records are as important to the organizations as the engine to the motor vehicle. Without records, organizational survival cannot be guaranteed. Organizational secrets pertaining to unique technologies, indigenous and modern knowledge, information about the foreseen risks in the business enterprise, strategies of how to face uncertainties, information about details of employees, work plans of how to excel beyond competitors; and information about the comparative advantages are all kept in records. This makes organizational records the most important resource of organizations. Whenever new managers are hired they have to study past failures and success of the entire organization using records as the most reliable source of the information.
If any desired change is to be introduced for the good of the organization, Chief Executive Officers justify such a change basing on the information available in records. Hacking into such records undresses the entire organization of its important capital and leaves it vulnerable to crucifixion by the competitors. It is painful to inject lots of money in technology development and design of strategies for expansion at the international level, only to find that another organization robbed you of such resources through hackers.
Some hackers are employees of the victim organizations while others are hired as IT consultants on short term basis-ranging from few hours to weeks. Many organizations prefer hiring computer technicians and systems administrators on a temporary basis. Their nature of work requires installing software, computer repairs and maintenance, all of which can be done occasionally. These professionals access data freely whenever hired by organizations. Unfortunately, most organizations lack systems in place to monitor and supervise short term contractors.
Most of the organizations’ records are left to the hands of these outsiders who cannot be subjected to the disciplinary instruments of the client organizations; leave a lone the absence of contracts of engagement. In spite of the fact that some countries including Uganda have laws to safeguard records and access to information, implementing such a law is difficult. Hackers are aware of such a law and so try to hack data in a very sophisticated style making it impossible to surrender them to the law.
The following measures can be put in place to stop hackers from accessing organizations’ records.
• There is need for every organization to develop and implement records and information management policy. Such a policy should include among other aspects, ethical conduct in records management, records security systems, data backup and adherence to confidentiality. Such a policy should be updated from time to time. This will help organizations to keep pace with modern best practices in records and information management.
• Employers should recruit highly qualified records officers who should be well motivated and regularly trained. Constant supervision and monitoring of records officers will help organizations to detect any misdeed in its early stages.
• It is important that every organization recruits well qualified computer specialists. These professionals should be in position to supervise short term contractors. Quarterly reports should be submitted to the departmental heads in respect of the progress and status of the records management.
The author is and International Human resource Consultant
There have been reports in the media that USA has lost the most sensitive and classified information to hackers. Such an unfortunate incidence happened at a high profile level to a country popular for its modern technology and powerful security mechanisms. However, it is not an isolated incidence as such problems have been reported in organizations especially banks losing billions of money to hackers.
Organizations survive because of the records they possess. Such records can be kept in both electronic and the traditional way of keeping hard copy documents. Records are as important to the organizations as the engine to the motor vehicle. Without records, organizational survival cannot be guaranteed. Organizational secrets pertaining to unique technologies, indigenous and modern knowledge, information about the foreseen risks in the business enterprise, strategies of how to face uncertainties, information about details of employees, work plans of how to excel beyond competitors; and information about the comparative advantages are all kept in records. This makes organizational records the most important resource of organizations. Whenever new managers are hired they have to study past failures and success of the entire organization using records as the most reliable source of the information.
If any desired change is to be introduced for the good of the organization, Chief Executive Officers justify such a change basing on the information available in records. Hacking into such records undresses the entire organization of its important capital and leaves it vulnerable to crucifixion by the competitors. It is painful to inject lots of money in technology development and design of strategies for expansion at the international level, only to find that another organization robbed you of such resources through hackers.
Some hackers are employees of the victim organizations while others are hired as IT consultants on short term basis-ranging from few hours to weeks. Many organizations prefer hiring computer technicians and systems administrators on a temporary basis. Their nature of work requires installing software, computer repairs and maintenance, all of which can be done occasionally. These professionals access data freely whenever hired by organizations. Unfortunately, most organizations lack systems in place to monitor and supervise short term contractors.
Most of the organizations’ records are left to the hands of these outsiders who cannot be subjected to the disciplinary instruments of the client organizations; leave a lone the absence of contracts of engagement. In spite of the fact that some countries including Uganda have laws to safeguard records and access to information, implementing such a law is difficult. Hackers are aware of such a law and so try to hack data in a very sophisticated style making it impossible to surrender them to the law.
The following measures can be put in place to stop hackers from accessing organizations’ records.
• There is need for every organization to develop and implement records and information management policy. Such a policy should include among other aspects, ethical conduct in records management, records security systems, data backup and adherence to confidentiality. Such a policy should be updated from time to time. This will help organizations to keep pace with modern best practices in records and information management.
• Employers should recruit highly qualified records officers who should be well motivated and regularly trained. Constant supervision and monitoring of records officers will help organizations to detect any misdeed in its early stages.
• It is important that every organization recruits well qualified computer specialists. These professionals should be in position to supervise short term contractors. Quarterly reports should be submitted to the departmental heads in respect of the progress and status of the records management.
The author is and International Human resource Consultant
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