….Holds masterclasses to improve productivity

By Ebunoluwa Sessou

Human Resources Expo Africa (HREA) has organised a three-day masterclass and exhibition to solve digitalisation challenges to improve productivity in the workplace.

The Founder, HREA, Erefa Coker, in a chat with Vanguard disclosed that the masterclasses were designed to enable understanding of the diversity and dynamism embedded in human resources.

The three-day 2022 International Work Festival themed, “The Future of Work In A Technology Driven World (Work-Humans)”, was held in Lagos, Nigeria and Kigali, Rwanda as companies across the African countries were in attendance.

Coker explained that the essence of the programme was for managers, team leads, policymakers and employees to discuss how best to succeed in a technology-driven world.

“The essence of this exhibition is to bring solutions to issues that can affect productivity in workplace that leads to more productivity.

“Instead of taking workers out of job, it is important that employers help their employees to upskill. There are many courses online that the employee can explore. You cannot stop learning.

“Employers of labour must learn new ways and see what they can take back to their workplace to help them design solutions that will enable their workers to be happier.

“This is because happy people make good employees and we have exhibitors that are available to help you design policies in this regard.

“This is the seventh year we are organising this event even in the face of the COVID-19 we had it virtually so it didn’t stop us from organising the programme”, she said.

Coker said there were 17 exhibitors ranging from HMO consultants, bus shuttle service firm, health insurance, among others.

Companies that participated were the Federal Housing Authority, Bastion HMO, Vetifly, Cadana, D-Brown Consult, Digital Marketing Skill Institute, Sure Group, Leadway Health, KeraPay, Legal Blitz, Hygeia, Wagefit, Event Architect, Avon HMO, Tekadia Institute, Doheney Services Limited.

One of the Speakers, Dolapo Agbede, CEO, Lead Consultant, WillWay Paradigm, and diversity, equity consulting outfit in her reaction disclosed that persons with disability have talents and can work if they are given the opportunity.

“With better information, HR informs the management of the advantage of having persons with disabilities at work.
Through the circle of activities, more persons with disabilities can qualify to work because the HR community has better awareness and understanding”, she opined.

On how the organization are preparing persons with disabilities to face the digital challenges at the workplace, she said, “Anyone who is interested in the digitalization, must know that there are organizations who specialize in up-skilling them.

“We have partners in this kind of space. Our organization can connect people who are ready to learn to those who are ready to teach. With the connection after they have learnt, we can connect them to where they can work.

“We are a network of social engineering. We are changing the way people see persons with disabilities and technology because that is where we are going to work in the future. And they can make an income with dignity”, she said.

Also speaking, Mr Dare Dairo, General Manager, Lagos State Office of Disability Affairs commended the initiator of the programme.

He said: “This is a fantastic initiative because HR is the heart of work and productivity is the essence of the humanity of the people in a workplace.

“It is important we keep abreast of the salient issues in the workplace as a country, people and as we strive to meet up with the rest of the world.”

Dairo added that this was in terms of social development, technological advancement and growth of productivity generally.

Also, the Chief Talent Officer, YF Talent Partners, Mr Yemi Fasheun, said the programme was to wrap up all the areas of people management around technology.

Fasheun said they cannot run away from the fact that technology had presently driven everything and the HR department cannot be Isolated from the current reality.

“In the last two years, technology has totally changed our world, like we do things right now, even what we are doing today, some people are watching virtually. Remember this event is also happening in other two countries.

“This is because technology has allowed us to do so many things. In the area of people management, how else can we leverage technology to improve and reward people and promote our culture.”

Dairo said the world cannot go back to pre-2019 but embrace technology to improve its daily activities.

Some of the topics that were discussed by the facilitators are Technology and the Future of Learning and Development in Workplace and Digital Transformation: How can we redesign the way we work in the post-pandemic era?

Another is Digital Transformation: How can we redesign the way we work in the post-pandemic era? among others.