Business News
How to train and retain talented staff as an SME
Executives at the @lsmp69 busines conference gave tips on how SMEs can train and retain talented staff.
The 69th class of the Lagos Business School Senior Management Programme (SMP) recently held a Business Conference titled Making Lemonades: Creating Opportunities in a Challenging Economy.
As part of the conference, there was a panel session made up of Demola Odeyemi, an Executive Director at Guaranty Trust Bank, Imrane Barry MD Total Nigeria Plc, Yusuf Kazaure MD Galaxy Backbone Limited and Olivier Angot, Chief Financial Officer (CFO) IHS Towers.
Members of the Class also seized the opportunity to ask the executives, tips on how to train and retain staff Especially as a small business.
They each gave interesting responses.
Yusuf Kazaure
When you are a small organization, people have to do many things. As you grew bigger, people still must multi-task. They tend to create their own reality. As a leader, you have to create a culture. That culture is defined by your own values and how you approach life. If it’s a good culture, it will be the same essence that will transmit itself through the lifetime of that organization.
He continues
In most cases, the thing that retains high fliers is being involved in something new and novel If there is a project on board that gives them opportunities to acquire skills and knowledge, they won’t have had, they won’t make that move for money. This also translates into the company to do novel and new things.
Demola Odeyemi
Attrition is not that bad in any organization. It depends on who you are losing. If you are losing your top performers, that is when it becomes an issue.
How do you keep people motivated? When you recruit very intelligent people, you must create opportunities for them to learn. Intelligent people have a very short learning curve. They learn and master skills and competencies within a very short period of time. You have to create that opportunity of job rotation. You don’t keep a very intelligent person in a place for too long. They will become frustrated.
He also gave tips for SMEs
For SMEs, the promoters play a lot of roles in that environment. If the promoter or proprietor does not bring to the table, the quality that he elicits, he will not get it. He or she must rise up to be a trainer. It is what you lay down in your organization, that people will follow.
You must look for partnerships and collaborations. You can not do everything. When you see certain things that you want to learn from someone or another organization, go and meet with them. Send one or two of your staff to go and learn. They will learn and come back.
Mistakes SMEs make
The problem I see with a lot of SMEs is that the promoters are always looking for how to hold on to everything. When you do that, that key man risk occours. When you run a small company, make sure the knowledge is dispersed. Empower the younger people. Let them learn. Train them.
Most SME people are too profit oriented. They want to make all the money themselves. When you set up a small company, give shares to those around you. The moment they have a buy in. You will see the way they will work for you. The money they make, its success for everyone.
Imrane Barry
The most difficult part of my career is when I receive a letter of resignation. People never resign for money reasons. Most of the time they resign because of a lack of consideration, or you don’t know you are valued. Even if you see the way resignations are handled in companies, you can tell if that company is taking seriously the retention challenge. If you see a senior manager leaving a company, there is something wrong.
As a leader, you have to give people the room to work with you and not for you. There are some bosses, knowing you will spend 8 to 12 hours a day with them, it’s a motivation.
In Total, we have launched an initiative, One Total: Better Together. It has become mandatory to do three things.
Each and every staff is to become the ACTOR of his career. The position of career manager has been canceled, They are now career advisors. All the positions below the exco level will be advertised, and people will be FREE to compete internally. This applies locally and internationally. IT IS MANDATORY
He continues
Someone from Nigeria, sitting somewhere in Calabar can apply for a position in Egypt.
The second one is to turn managers to be coaches. You are held accountable for the progress of your people. You will be judged and evaluated on that. This is starting immediately.
The next one is turning your place into a great place to be. They went all the way to give budgets for the minimum you should spend on a yearly basis for get-togethers. These are things I had been doing personally.
Olivier advocated for a long term view in hiring
Make sure when you hire, choose the right people that you need. Look at your company in five years time, and people
Corporate Press Releases
Meristem features Nike Okundaye in Campaign titled “The Journey”, highlights the importance for partners
Meristem taps into Okundaye’s creative energy, highlighting the shared story of growth and collaboration.
It has been a long journey for financial services provider, Meristem Nigeria, having started out as a boutique stockbroking firm over 16 years ago and morphing into a capital market conglomerate offering an array of diversified service and product offerings. The tale is similar for the art and culture doyen, Nike Okundaye-Davies whose humble beginning in traditional weaving and dying practice annealed her to the art world and art lovers.
At a graceful age of 70, she has achieved over 102 solo art exhibitions, 36 group art exhibitions, a permanent display of two of her works in the Smithsonian National Museum of African Art, a Harvard recognition and many other global acclaims. With four (4) art galleries spread across the country, and the Lagos center being the biggest art gallery in West Africa, she once told a Forbes journalist that her dreams are driven by careful financial planning as she reinvests at least two-thirds of her income in her business and art centers.
Meristem taps into her creative energy in this campaign, highlighting the shared story of growth and collaboration for both institutions, and the need to onboard the right partners to achieve long term financial goals and investment security.
Meristem, a capital market conglomerate and diversified financial services provider offering stockbroking, wealth management, asset management, trustee services and financial advisory. Over the past 16 years, Meristem has been consistent in value creation and innovation within the capital market space. The Nigerian stock exchange awarded Meristem as the best digital broker of the year. In 2018 also, Meristem became the first Nigerian asset management firm to attain compliance with the Global Investment Performance Standards (GIPS) by the CFA Institute. In 2017, Meristem handled the single largest trade in the history of the Nigerian Stock Exchange.
Around the World
Shell considers relocating its headquarters to the UK
Royal Dutch Shell has consistently pushed for the Dutch Government to stop taxes on dividends.
Oil and gas giant, the Royal Dutch Shell, is considering moving its corporate headquarters from The Netherlands to Britain. This could be a move against the implementation of dividend tax in The Netherlands.
The move was disclosed by the oil company’s Chief Executive Officer, Ben Van Beurden, during an interview with a Dutch newspaper on Saturday, July 4, 2020. According to him, the oil giant is not ruling out relocating its headquarters from the Netherlands to Britain. He said:
“You always need to keep thinking. Nothing is permanent and of course we will look at the business climate. But moving your headquarters is not a trivial measure. You cannot think too lightly about that.”
Further confirming the Chief Executive Officer’s comment, a Shell spokesman told Reuters that the oil giant is looking at ways to simplify its dual structure, as it had been doing for many years.
Royal Dutch Shell has consistently pushed for the Dutch Government to stop the tax on dividend paid to shareholders, as this makes financing dividend, share buy-backs and acquisition a lot more difficult.
An earlier attempt by the Dutch Government to stop the dividend tax as an incentive to convince Unilever to unify its dual structure in Rotterdam, was met with an outcry by the public, who see that as a gift to rich foreigners.
It can be recalled that Shell had announced a few days ago that it might likely write down between $15 billion-$22 billion in post impairment charges for the second quarter of 2020. The impairment, which is its largest since the merger with Shell Transport and Trading Company Ltd in 2005, shows the huge adverse impact that the coronavirus pandemic has had on the oil giant’s businesses.
Also, in a move that shocked investors, Shell for the first time since the Second World War, cut down the dividend that it paid to its shareholders by two-thirds due to the negative impact of the pandemic. The decision came as a surprise to many including shareholders of the oil company which is by far the biggest payer of dividend in the FTSE 100.
Coronavirus
Governor David Umahi of Ebonyi tests positive for COVID-19
Umahi has directed those who worked in the budget review for 2020 to immediately test for COVID-19.
The Governor of Ebonyi State, David Umahi has tested positive for COVID-19, reported on Saturday afternoon.
Umahi’s Special Assistant on Media, Mr. Francis Nwaze, confirmed the news and also revealed that some associates of the governor also tested positive.
He also said that the Governor is not showing any symptoms of the disease, though he has isolated himself in line with the NCDC protocols.
“The governor has directed his Deputy, Dr Kelechi, to coordinate the state’s fight against the disease and appealed to the citizens to take the NCDC protocols seriously.
READ MORE: Governors may push for 42% of federal allocation in new sharing formula
“He will currently be working from ‘home’ and will be conducting all meetings virtually,” Nwaze added.
David Umahi becomes the sixth Nigerian governor to test positive for the disease, Governors of Kaduna, El- Rufai, Bauchi, Bala Mohammed and Oyo, Seyi Makinde have fully recovered while the recent cases have been the Governors of Ondo, Rotimi Akeredolu and Delta, Ifeanyi Okowa.
On Thursday, Governor Umahi announced that the state’s Executive Council was finalizing the budget review required by World Bank and said “most us broke down and are being treated of malaria.”
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He also directed those who worked in the budget review for 2020 to immediately test for COVID-19 and admitted he is expecting a second test result after he initially tested negative in March.
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