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Advocate Jacob Mudenda

Leonard Ncube, Victoria Falls Reporter
BOARDS of directors and human resource managers should contribute value to companies by coming up with solutions that speak to problems affecting the economy and increase productivity, the Speaker of Parliament, Advocate Jacob Mudenda, has said.

Speaking at the 2016 Institute of People Management of Zimbabwe (IPMZ) conference that ended here on Saturday, Adv Mudenda said some company directors and human resource managers were “redundant” as evidenced by their failure to embrace innovation and creativity that could take companies forward.

“Human resources managers must exercise innovation and creativity, which must cascade to all levels of industry. Boards of directors must also prove they are a human resource and contribute towards the industry’s vision and mission through clear and unambiguous policy direction,” said Adv Mudenda.

He said it was sad that in most cases boards craft missions and visions but they don’t cascade to the human resources.

As a result, the mission, vision and core values remain a mere decoration on the wall.

The Speaker of Parliament, who was the guest of honour, challenged human resources practitioners to be open to creativity, transform and create an uncontested market space for companies through competitive market advantage.

“When you walk around, people should see in you a creation of new ideas in the factory. One of the abilities we Zimbabweans have is to produce copies of documents which we don’t implement and as human resources officers you should be part of the implementation process,” he said.

Adv Mudenda also stressed the importance of Information Communication Technology (ICT) usage in companies as a transformation agent to business efficiency.

“What I’m encouraging is that as human resources managers you should be involved in economic activities and embrace ICT as well.

“Some say where will the money come from? Money is there anywhere provided you have marketable ideas. The challenge with Zimbabwean industry is that those who started businesses are holding onto them and cocooned without allowing joint ventures with outsiders hence the businesses fail,” added Adv Mudenda.

Meanwhile, IPMZ president Dr Ushe Madume bemoaned the decline in membership, which he attributed to the economic challenges.

“The convention was a success in terms of attendance as it attracted big numbers since 2009. It was a success as well in terms of presentations as the speakers were conversant with what we asked them to present,” said Dr Madume.

“We are a member driven organisation and our biggest challenge at the moment is membership, which has been going down as most members can’t afford to pay subscriptions. In 2015 we had 1, 900 and the number has gone down by 300 as we now have 1,600 paid up members.

“We are, however, targeting to end the year with 2,500 members as we are trying to build a base through a number of strategies, this convention being one of them because this is what inspires people”.

Members pay $120 subscription per individual annually.

Dr Madume said IPMZ contributes to the country’s development through skills development to grow a labour base needed in Zim-Asset.

“From here our next step is to see what change we can bring for our companies and nation. There was talk about innovation, creativity and use of ICT among other few issues raised and we expect all HR practitioners to go back and be contributing members to their organisations,” he said.

The conference was attended by 250 members and ran under the theme:

“Igniting HR in the changing Environs-Evolve, Transform, Add Value.”