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Is
Enhanced HR Your Solution?
The
future implications of ICT convergence on public and private
sector entities
Back to ... Workinfo.com Human Resources Magazine Volume 1 Issue 2, 2007
The sheer rate of technological innovation across all business sectors
over the last few years has reinforced the need for increased
investment in human resources, both in regard to time, effort and
money. The industry
where this need has been felt most strongly - and where it will
continue for some time - is the ICT sector.
If technology is driving change, then without competent and
dedicated people steering that change process, government
ministries, regulatory agencies, commercial ICT companies and
other sector stakeholder organisations, will be unable to cope and
will suffer. Indeed in
an industry where technology is a focal point, it is the quality
of human resources that continues to be the key determinant of
expected outcomes.
The Commonwealth Telecommunications Organisation (CTO) has been aware of
the pace of technological development and the implications for
human resource management for the greater part of its 100-year-
history. Indeed,
within our Programme for Development & Training, we have, for
the past 20 years, been meeting the challenge of helping our
member ICT institutions use their human resources to adapt to the
rapid changes in the telecoms landscape.
We have witnessed, and are continuing to observe, the
changing nature of the annual training requirements of our
members. Although we do not pretend to have all of the answers, we
recognize the importance of an enhanced role for the human
resources management function in the modern ICT organisation.
The CTO is a unique multistakeholder partnership. The institutions that
make up our membership are from both the public and private
sectors. They include governments, regulatory authorities,
incumbent telecommunication companies, mobile cellular operators,
national ICT implementation agencies, infrastructure providers,
corporations, and such global manufacturing giants as Nokia.
I would like to discuss the challenges facing the HR
function in public sector institutions before moving into the
issues that may be peculiar to the private sector.
One of their major concerns for public sector organisations in today’s
competitive environment is that of staff retention. As
the telecommunication sector has developed in many Commonwealth
countries and elsewhere, senior management of public sector
companies have seen their staff “poached” by new market
entrants. This cannot be seen as surprising, as the only
institutional knowledge of the telecom sector in most countries in
the era prior to liberalisation resided in the state-owned
“Telco”. Additionally,
private sector conditions of service are generally more
attractive. Equally importantly, is the perception of a more
exciting non-politicised career path in the private world.
This trend within countries has been exacerbated by
the globalisation of telecommunications, with international
players entering into new national markets and recruiting local
‘experts’, who with their knowledge of the ‘on-the-ground’
situation offer an attractive knowledge pool.
In some cases, local talent has become internationalised
through this process, as competent nationals then get transferred
to other regional countries where their skills may be in higher
demand. In responding
to the raids from the private sector, state-owned enterprises have
tried to find appropriate solutions: an improvement in benefits
has taken place, although most Telcos cannot compete financially
with the private sector on a sustainable basis. So
the most important effort has been through programmes in personal
development. Through
continual staff education and the creation of a programme of
education and development, a public sector body is keen to be seen
to be not only supporting its workforce, but vitally improving it,
and therefore the institution itself.
If this cannot be achieved, then the well publicised skills
shortage in countries, eloquently labelled as ‘brain drain’,
is a problem that will have a lasting effect on a nation’s
economy. It is my
belief that for too long Africa, for example, has lost a large
percentage of its skilled workforce, potentially the next
generation of leaders and teachers, to the ‘cherry-picking’ by
private sector organisations.
By increasing the emphasis on a culture of improvement and
staff education, especially through networking the brains of all
staff members and mobilising even non-staff ideas from the
Diaspora, an ICT entity can experience a ‘brain
gain’.
This need for a culture of development and education is also put into
sharp relief when one considers the pressure that convergence is
placing on all organisations.
With technology developing on an almost daily basis, it is
absolutely critical that staff are kept up-to-date so that they
can do their work effectively and on an informed basis; this is
especially so within regulatory authorities where mistakes can
prove costly not only to the organisation, but also to the ICT
development in that country.
During the life span of an incumbent telecommunications
operator, the single biggest challenge that they and their
workforce are likely to face is the privatisation of the
enterprise. This
is a process that we, at the CTO, are only too aware of, and of
the stresses and strains that it can place on staff in our member
institutions. The
transformation from state-run to private company operating in a
competitive market requires a sizeable shift in employee mindset.
It is a change that needs to be led from the front and
therefore the need for exceptional HR practices is unquestionably
one of the single most important factors in the process.
Achieving efficiencies (often through consolidation and
retrenchment), enhancing the staff’s ability to understand and
react more quickly to market forces, and developing a culture of
continuous improvement led by the need to make healthy profits,
are without doubt three of the biggest requirements of
corporate HR strategy in the privatisation process.
I have also witnessed with interest in my time at the CTO,
and in my previous roles at the International Finance Corporation,
as Minister of Communications in Ghana and chairman of the national regulator, the utilisation of
Employee Share Ownership Programmes, and the effectiveness of such
motivational initiatives. Not
only do they embrace the workforce as part of the company’s
future, but they also help develop the commercial mindset required
and reward the employees for their time, money and energy
investment – thereby creating a win-win situation.
Indeed, schemes such as these also help to pacify unions, a
group whose potency is known to all experienced HR practitioners.
Of course, on the other side of the coin, we cannot
disregard the effect that convergence is also having on private
sector ICT companies. The
convergence of technology, almost by definition, means the
consolidation of national and global markets.
As fixed operators join forces with mobile operators and
Internet service providers, and furthermore as this group of
companies continue to converge with the entertainment industry,
there is no question that the ability to develop the competitive
edge of one’s workforce’s
has become even
more paramount. This
also flags up the need to implement a programme of change
management. For years,
companies have been geared towards a service-centric mindset, but
we are now witnessing in the developed markets the need for this
to change to a more market- and customer-centric mindset.
With so much competition between companies, customers
are becoming ever more consumer savvy and therefore levelling out
prices. It is at this
point, that a company’s workforce needs to be prepared to react
to the needs of their own customers, to the customers of their
competitors, as well as to shifts in consumer behaviour and to
overall market trends. If
sufficient account is not taken of these factors, then over a
period of time market share and revenue will suffer.
So, what
conclusions can we draw from this?
Firstly, that for the HR practitioner, the ICT revolution
has pointed up a number of areas for workforce improvement and
cultural change. In my
opinion, the clearest examples of these are in the ICT sector
itself. As the market
place becomes truly global and the convergence of technology gains
pace, then strong, dynamic, resourceful and creative leadership
becomes ever more critical.
Solid corporate leadership can support the HR role,
not just in regard to staff retention, motivation, education and
other ‘universal’ HR functions, but also in creating a culture
of teamwork, adaptability to change, and innovation.
Telcos, in particular, need to look more closely at these
qualities, in regard to acquisitions, and in relation to
incentivisation and retention of staff who demonstrate the
greatest potential.
At the CTO, we are committed to continuing to assist our
members as best as we possibly can to address these challenges.
Indeed, the organisation of relevant conferences, such as
the one on HR4ICT in Mauritius at the end of February, are
all designed to create an atmosphere of best practice,
knowledge-sharing and networking - I hope that you and your
associates can join us for that event in our common drive to place
human beings at the heart of the ICT revolution and in the process
of building Knowledge Economies.
Events details:
Name: HR4ICT Forum
Dates:
26th
& 27th February 2007
Venue:
Le
Meridien Ile Maurice,
Pointe aux Piments, Mauritius
Contact:
Matthew Dawes
m.dawes@cto.int
+44
207 024 7602
For
more information on the HR4ICT Forum, click
here.
Short
description
If technology is driving change, then without competent and
dedicated people steering that change process, government
ministries, regulatory agencies, commercial ICT companies and
other sector stakeholder organisations, will be unable to cope and
will suffer. Indeed in
an industry where technology is a focal point, it is the quality
of human resources that continues to be the key determinant of
expected outcomes.
Keywords
and relevant phrases
Benefits, brain drain, brain gain, culture, corporate leadership,
development, education, globalisation, ICT, learning, personal
development, privatisation, public sector, staff retention, skills
shortage, telecommunication, transformation, workforce
improvement.
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2007
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