Often said, workplace best practice disalignment and human capital mismanagement has been a bane affecting both public and private organisations in Nigeria. Much as these can be attributed to cultural bias, poor performance and low productivity, there is a need to address the systemic situation.

HR Expo Africa conference

In a bid to arrest the situation and re-engineer workplace best practice, human capital development and organizational performances in both sectors of the economy, Doheney Services Limited unveils the 2018 edition of their annual HR Expo Africa fair tagged: HREA 2018.

The 2-day international HR summit slated for April 5 – 6, with the theme, “Leading and Managing Culture Change in Organizations” taking place at the Landmark Centre, Victoria Island Lagos will precisely witness a beehive of activities with HR practitioners and general public in attendance while HR Professionals, Mentors and International speakers will be presenting papers.

Speaking to the media during a press briefing in Lagos the organisers revealed that HR Expo Africa summit that has served as a veritable platform for professionals in human capital development is poised to bring on board new innovations on the local and global trends of the best practice by the highly sought-after HR experts drawn from across the globe.

According to Doheney Services management release, HR Expo Africa is a broad-based human resources platform that attracts a wide spectrum of HR practitioners and other professional from the private, public and third sectors from across the world to its vibrant and exciting hub of ideas yearly. It shapes the conversation on human capital development and organisational performance with special focus on new trends and dynamics.

The overall objectives is to bring to fore the best ideas with the greatest transformative potential to engender sustained productivity, while the clear objectives of empowerment, access to high-value network, expanding the information pool and laying out strategy plans for professional and social impact have remained defining features of the summit.

They further stated that last year expo marked a leap in many ways as a watershed in HR conferences in Nigeria. With its theme as ‘Managing new economy efficiencies’, the summit amplified important conversation on how best to answer the demands of a changing economy without discarding important aspects of the receding system.

In addition to that, the expectation in this year’s summit is expanded to accommodate keynote address, master classes, case study, workshop, HR-in-Dialogue and panel of discussions. It will also feature a new format – special masterclass on business leadership with selected conference stream that include; Talent management and HR essentials, Technology and HR analytics, Learning and development and Organisation effectiveness, People, Culture and Workplace diversity, HR leadership excellence and employment laws, Compensation and health and Workplace wellbeing.

Ayo Akinmade, Executive Chairman, Doheney Services Limited in his remarks pointed that the HREA International conference has recorded a landmark, gets better each year with surge of attendance. “This is the 3rd year from inception; each year has been bigger and better. From that humble beginning, we have been maintaining a full house and have been anticipated move to expand the space this time to accommodate more.”

Continuing, he said, “Going by the 2018 theme, I see it from two perspectives which is ‘leading’ and ‘managing’ HR. Speakers drawn from both local and international community will talk about culture change in organisation. I believe we have come to the era of live anywhere, work anywhere even from home. The old system of approach is fast changing. We are introducing the utilization of modern ideology of use of space anywhere and still be seen relevant without been in an official office. Technology has evolved and people are really utilizing the gadgets to work without stress.” Akinmade said.

Erefa Fynecontry-Coker, founder, Doheney Services limited while lending her voice stated, “This is a dream we have, based on our passion to have effective HR management in Nigeria. International conferences like this are happening all over the world and we don’t have it in the country. We deem it necessary to have such expo to be in tune with global trend. We intend to bring the knowledge home, bring in international speakers to Nigeria to share the global knowledge about best practice in HR experience in workplace.

They will speak alongside local HR experts who will talk about the cultural cohesion with the global trend. I observed that most times, HR practitioners in organizations are engaged in training, but with this expo coming up, HR managers and practitioners will benefit to catch up with the evolving and new trend called ‘Design thinking’, Erefa said.

Another expert featuring in the conference, Tonye Briggs, Director, Sales Initiatives added, “Culture in a workplace is very critical in any organisation, especially in Nigeria today. The belief, value and culture system is very important. The conference is not for organizational transformation system but it is just to transform individuals to conform to the new trend. We are in a digital revolution. Companies need to adopt a cultural change to sustain competitive edge in the new age. Every organisation so far has core value, but it is sad to note that there is a disalignment between values and cultural understanding in workplace.

Also, Maje Ayide, Director, Eden Lifestyle stressed need for organisations to put into consideration that the health of the employees is necessary and should not be overlooked. “Wellness is important in workplace. The principles of wellness will always guide you on how to work. We are interested not only just in the macro economy but in the process to sustain it.

The process is hinged in your lifestyle. For instance, we might not change the traffic situation that affects your work style but we will be able to change the way you think about its process and how you handle the situation.

Stress will always be around you bit how you handle the stress is always the difference between survival and not surviving. Society is changing and people are building empires from their bedrooms. The principles of wellness will teach you on how to inspire for more.” Ayide added.

These, among other enriching packages are the expectations at the summit, said Erefa Fynecontry. “HREA 2018 is one international conference brought to our doorstep by seasoned experts to help reposition workplace best practice and human management that Nigeria need to help power the economy especially in this recession period” she concludes.