Employee Training:“It enables employees to learn, relearn and become better version of themselves—–Adebosin, FOBTOB Scribe.” 

 

Comrade Solomon Adebosin is the General Secretary, Food Beverage Tobacco Senior Staff Association (FOBTOB).In this chat with UFOMBA UZUEGBU, he harps on the importance of employee training and posits that it enhances productivity, among other issues. Excerpts:

Many employers are not impressed with the quality of Nigerian graduates. What is your take on this?

Thank you for this question.

Being a graduate is meant to be a stepping stone to something higher, like a preparatory class, and not the end in itself. Back then, a lot of the companies had Training Schools, whereby, irrespective of your qualifications, you would have to go through tutelage on how the company operates and how each individual can fit in. However, this is no longer the case. Most companies want to “reap from where they did not sow”, they want ready-made products, as if they are oblivious to the situation in our educational institutions.

In the past, our parents went to higher institutions and came out with jobs waiting for them. It is no longer so, due to a number of reasons.

1. We have more students graduating than the employment spaces can cope with.
2. The economy has not been encouraging, so many companies have either folded up or relocated to climes where they feel doing business is easier.

iii.    The world is evolving, so the knowledge that was relevant decades back has now become obsolete.

1. Our curriculum has been the same all along, hardly are new courses injected into the system. The old courses are not updated.

My advice to companies would be that they should also invest in the educational sector by providing grants to institutions that would encourage research and ensure that products from those institutions are well-groomed and can successfully compete with their counterparts in other climes.

Furthermore, they should be prepared to pay the kind of remuneration that would attract the desired and highly qualified talents to their organisation. If you pay peanuts, why are you surprised you attract monkeys?

Do you agree that employee training enhances productivity?

If you don’t train them, don’t blame them. I am of the school of thought that everyone is trainable and teachable, except if that individual does not have an interest.

Thus, if you train employees on what you want them to achieve for the organisation, it is in the best interest of the organisation. Such training would brush up the employee and allow him/her to achieve much more for the organisation. That is productivity enhanced. So, I agree that training enhances productivity. Training gives room for employees to learn, unlearn and relearn, and therefore become a better version of themselves.

What, in your view, is the best way to motivate an employee?  

Employee motivation is multifaceted. There is no one size fits all. It is the responsibility of those managing the Learning & Development as well as Compensation and Benefits Department of the organisation work in sync in order to come out with the “best” (notice that the word best is in parentheses) reward system that would motivate the majority of employees.

The idea that what money cannot do, more money would do,  should not be the approach to motivating employees.

Well-structured research in this area would go a long way in assisting organisations interested in truly motivating their employees.

There have been instances where employees left exceptionally well-paying jobs for jobs with lesser pay because they consider the environment toxic and unsafe for their mental health.

So, motivating employees is a whole gamut of variables, and no one size fits all. Some employees would consider the availability of adequate healthcare for the employee and immediate family as a motivating factor. Others look at the opportunity for career growth. There are employees whose core interest is the flexibility of their work schedule. Provision for paid vacations and travel would endear some employees to their organisations. So, it varies from employee to employee.

What is the most important lesson you have learnt as a trade union leader and employee?

As an employee, I have learnt that no one is indispensable. Thus, it is important not to neglect family in the quest to build a strong career. Employers are not emotional when the decision to let go of an employee is to be made. Employees have the tendency to get tied to their organisation at the expense of other things. I am an advocate of being loyal to the organisation, but not to the detriment of one’s well-being. Put in your best, but don’t compromise on being valued as an individual.

As a trade union leader, I see that the issue of solidarity has not been fully ingrained in some trade union members. The trend now is for some trade union members to consider what they stand to gain before embarking on any struggle. The spirit of solidarity is gradually being chipped away, and that, in my opinion, is a sad development. When we say “injury to one is injury to all” it should really be so. The strongest of us should naturally protect and defend the weakest of us without any constraints.

Who is the ideal employee?

Hmmmmmm. This is a tough question. An “ideal employee” is relative, actually. Different qualities are looked for in an employee, and at different levels of authority. Employees are expected to be dutiful and dedicated. Faithfulness and loyalty are another set of qualities. Loyalty must be distinguished from bootlicking though. Loyalty is to the organisation or system; bootlicking, on the other hand, is to an individual or set of individuals for the purpose of currying favour.

An ideal employee should possess the requisite qualifications, skills and experience needed for the position, and must be able to demonstrate the same.

How can organizations fill the various skill gaps in the present workplace?   

I mentioned this earlier. Organisations should invest in the educational sector, and be willing to set up training academies to identify and fill up the skills gap.

Having a good recruitment structure would also go a long way to securing the right talents to fill up the gaps.

What can be done to boost good corporate governance in Nigeria?

The government has a huge role to play in this aspect by avoiding what I call “policy somersault”. This is a situation where the government would put in place policies and later on do things to work against such policies.

For example, the government put in place a policy referred to as the Ease of Doing Business. However, there are a lot of conflicting policies that are working against the government’s plans. The issue of multiple taxations, difficulty in accessing forex, operating multiple foreign exchange systems, and lack of political will to apply sanctions on the elite whenever they commit infractions (the fact that there are little or no consequences for wrongdoing by the elite has made the citizenry lose faith in government’s sincerity).

Once the government decides on the direction to go that would favour the majority of the populace, and monitors the implementation, with adequate and appropriate sanctions applied, irrespective of who is concerned, it would boost the confidence of the citizenry and foreign investors.

The justice system must be improved to pave the way for quick resolution of ambiguity in contractual agreements.

The issue of insecurity is one that would, for as long as it remains unaddressed, negatively affect corporate governance.

I could go on and on to show that good corporate governance is more the responsibility of the government, than the citizens. This is not to absolve the citizens from their roles, but the searchlight is on the government.