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I always cherish some of our years as boys — fantastic, is all I can say! For example, around this time of the year, we always became focused on what Christ-mas would get us, for events generally revolved around gifts at Christmas time.   We would look forward to eating rice and chicken — not the GMO type stuff of today, but real rice and makhaya type chicken!

On the day, we would sit by gogo’s mud hut and ready ourselves for the ricocheting (as one tried to de-flesh a chicken thigh ferociously using incisors & molars), consequently hitting one’s head against the wall and shaking the rafters a bit! 
Hawu, columnist, is that where you hail from, you are tempted to sympathise with me! I was not alone, it’s a generational issue — any one identifying with those good old years, please say yeah! I counted over 500 yeahs in less than five minutes!   That is what we call going down memory lane, the Zimbo way, really.

For me, the best was the plot around a new khaki outfit, around this period.  
When I look back, I think we could have easily made any CEO green with envy, with our strategy and execution of plans.   Being boys ( girls had their own, as well), we would ensure that cattle were dipped proper in the months of November and December.
We also made it a KRA (equivalent to teachers’ key result areas),  that these beasts were always kraaled at night.

Why, why columnist, you will ask? Our                   fathers only listened to our requests upon being told that all was well in the livestock department, as they came from their workplaces in town  to the communal areas at month-ends, to assess family alignment. 
QED (quod  erat  demostrandum), we would shout as we got our new pair of khakis as a result of the above plot. QED  translates  to “quite easily done” — for the benefit of the born frees!  With hindsight, the only blemish with our plot was that it did not cover the whole year — good plans should be sustainable throughout the year.

Why are you taking us through this tortuous makhaya type past, columnist?   Forget it, man, you are tempted to say.   Hayi bo, phela zazikhupha then, I say — anyway.
It is about the plot, dear reader, it has not changed over the years.
It is as old as life itself — the winning formula is always the same. In animal farm, the animals called it “tactics”, comrades. Hands washing each other (reciprocation), type stuff.   However, the present day hybrid of greasing someone’s hands is a sad departure.

How then do you reconcile the aforesaid, with modern day operations at work, columnist?
Most of us will already know that                organisations are about production, productivity and the meeting of targets and achievement of profits.
These organisations are not “non-profit” making entities, by the way. This                      state of affairs calls for a committed workforce, nothing more, nothing less. Where is HR in all this, you will ask? It can choose either to be or not to be there, of course.

However, we will choose a scenario where it decides to be there, for this is the message I got while attending an IPMZ function last week — a well — executed  event, indeed.  Yes, you guessed right, in the city of Queens and Kings — ayoba is all I can say. The spirit that prevailed was that HR should always be in the thick of things, adding value.
Thus, the discerning HR practitioner will therefore, assume his rightful place in this quest for production and productivity, based on his skills, training and general understanding of the scheme of things.

The following are some of the activities he will be engaged in from January to the end of the year, please note the sustainability clause!
He will recruit good workers or at least those with potential, isms will not carry the day for you, dear HR Manager, or line guys, for that matter.
Performance management will be the next area of concern for the HR manager, with a view to upping the production levels and consequently, the profitability of the organisation.

The bottom line is that employees must earn their salary, hence the need for a good performance tracking system.
He will convince his line colleagues to see things for what they are.  He will also introduce                 concepts such as time and motion studies                   which, by the way, are still the best determinants for how long tasks and jobs should take, as far as I can recall!
I know some practitioners will struggle with these concepts, but hey,  these are days of best practices.

I have known situations where employees are only utilised at 30-40 percent levels in a given day. We do not want to compromise issues of production and productivity.
People must work for their sustenance — kuphela zwi. Even the Bible tells us so, about our Patriarch Adam. I cannot remember what it says about the descendants of Eve.
The scope for improving production and productivity within organisations, exists, however, and this can be driven by an HR manager who appreciates value chain management. He appreciates that skills, competencies and attitude are key pillars and  that training and development are the enablers.

He causes those line guys                            meant to spearhead production to go off-site and  attend some good training programmes.
He will do follow-ups to see if training has              added value, measure it, and see how it talks to the bottom line. Guys who have been trained are made to pay for it by being more productive — that’s only fair.

Production, and more production, should be the order of the day,  thereafter, throughout the rest of the year. 
Break records if you wish (it is a must, actually) and celebrate these milestones. Thank you, well done and an occasional drink or afternoon off,  will do  at this stage.

Hard work (throughout the year), and cool conditions of service are complementary as far as I know, applying the common sense methodology. Is this difficult to conceptualise? However, end of year is always a time of reckoning in organisations.
Ordinarily, employees will be saying, oh I worked myself sick this year.  What, with all the strategies alluded to above, nothing can be nearer the truth than this statement from the workers.

Management, on its part, should also be balancing the production and sales figures and saying, yes indeed you have worked well, guys. What should follow are recognitions, in cash and kind, via celebratory parties. Incidentally it all should be happening around this time of the year.
Again, the HR manager will be in the helm, making arrangements for these celebration parties. He ensures that  these parties are befitting and not just ritualistic.

Guys must understand that they are partying because they produced and not because the company owes them anything.  Employees, learn to earn these things, will you?
I have worked hard in life and I am at a stage where I feel I have to own my own company.  I would get nervous ( angry) if I found my employees with a “harvest where one did not sow” type mentality — yes I would.

The above aside, party until the cows come home, good employees, you deserve it! Let us see ama get-downs, ululations and theatrical productions, similar to the ones I saw in this year’s Jikinya festival finals, over the weekend.   School children, you rock, is all I can say. Catch them young, should be the motto, in everything good.

Take home for this week? Yes, I see a lot of overlaps between home and business strategy/tactics. For me, the social strategy is a heritage from my dear parents and the clan, which I will treasure for as long as I live.   I will endeavour to pass it on to future generations, the best way, I know how.

Next week we further explore this link between home and work, in a rather exciting article.
I rest my not so complicated but slippery case.

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