We match graduates with SMEs

By Anino Aganbi

Vivien Ochee Bamgboye is C.E.O, Oye dynamics. Called to bar in 1989, she worked in public law in the U.K. She then took up work with a non-profit organization as their pioneer C.O.O. Having an over sight of all their programs and HR; she later moved to another leading indigenous Human Resources consulting firm in Nigeria where she had complete over sight of their learning and development. She tells more.

What is Oye Dynamics about?

Oye is a Yoruba word for insight or knowledge. We focus on research, strategy and project management. We decided to narrow our work in such a way that we are able to offer bespoke solutions to companies.

If you go to a large consulting firm, they might not have the time and focus to work with you and give you the bespoke solution that you require for your own needs, they might give you a generic solution which might not really capture the little issues that are specific to your organization. Our strategy consulting solution is streamlined to organizational development, talent management and CSR.

How does learning and development come into play in the Nigerian market?

Learning and development can be divided into three main areas: formal education, skills and character education.

All of these three things come together to determine performance in the work place and apart from the three areas, primary education is what you get in schools, skills can be on the job learning, it could be social learning and character education.

What you find out is that some people have lost out at the early stage of education, so by the time they are coming into the work place they lack the basic employability skills. Even though people over look soft skills, the real challenges lie there.

Some people might have the best qualifications but they do not have the basic communication skills, they do not have learner agility and then they are unable to grow in the work place. Things like self motivation, perseverance, and tenacity are lacked.

We also have the other issue; the culture, which is as a result of the way the country, has evolved. There is a very poor social contract between the employer and employee and most employees are used to fending for themselves. Retention becomes a problem.

There are some things that matter. Am I proud to work in a place like yours? Is the salary enough for me? What is the growth path for me in your organization? Organizations need to design learning and development products that will be suitable for their own staff. Instead of buying off the shelf training or looking at what company A is doing. People are most motivated if what they are doing is something they believe in.

Can you tell us more about policy and advocacy? How can you link it to your business?

In other countries, we have the rights to housing, shelter and some level of welfare. You also have excluded groups. These are people who are not within the mainstream of society and are the most at risk.

We work with companies that are losing their staff and we advise them on the labour laws especially companies that are coming into Nigeria to start up. How many hours a week should somebody work? What kind of insurance policies are available for them? What is the workman’s compensation benefit?

My experience as an advocate helps me negotiate good contracts for people. We also develop products which are our corporate social responsibility to the country and one of those products is called Job Red.

A lot of young people graduate from the university and are caught in a bottle neck of graduate employment. Job Red is a platform we use in pushing people who have potential because the recruitment pattern in Nigeria is that nobody hires for potentials. Most people hire for aptitude or experience.

There are several SMEs that have HR problems. At the same time, there are thousands of fresh graduates looking for a place to work. We want to match these people with SME’s.

Does the economic situation in Nigeria give room for business to grow?

The biggest problem we have is for government to create an enabling environment for small business to grow.

The main reason why we supposedly have economic issues is because government policies have not been well placed to grow our businesses. When you see the relationship between government and small businesses, small businesses are almost like victims.

There is multiple taxation , huge tax regimes. There are hardly any rebates available for small businesses. There is the threat of direct foreign investment which throttles small business. Banks tend not to give loans to small business, meanwhile the large business gets the overdraft. The whole economic situation in Nigeria is self inflicted.

Growth over the years?

We are deliberately small. We operate a lean environment. Initially, people did not understand the value of HR, most just assumed that HR in an organization is one of the most unimportant aspects. A lot of people are ready to pay to improve their HR.

What steps are being put in place to create awareness for the job red initiative?

We try to capture graduates that are just coming out of the institutions, those about to start NYSC and those just finishing NYSC. We do not want people to think it is job creation initiative- it is actually a Bridging initiative.

The government is doing so much on the liability side such as the graduate internship scheme. Even if the government produces the job, a youth who comes looking for employment should be able to speak well and convince the employer of their worth, the government cannot force the organization to hire them.

There are certain universities that employers do not want to hire from because from the history of the recruitment process, they have realized they are just wasting their time. We are working with those types of universities.

If we put the information out there we might not be able to cope with the interest we will get. We are trying to make sure we use a methodical process because it is something that will get very huge.

We already have some SME’s that have shown interest to say if you have a pool of people that are well trained and waiting to be placed, we will take them from you. The graduates cannot afford to pay for any training, so we work out a scheme that works for every body.

Advise to youths?

The Nigerian youths have been socialized in a particular process that has been authoritarian. The youths should not be discouraged by what they see before them, they should be courageous enough to take up the challenge, be self motivated and look at life in such a way that they can do something about their situation. Nigeria is no longer about whom your parents know, it’s now about what you can deliver. Instead of having twenty certificates they should pick one and be very good at it.

- Culled from: http://www.vanguardngr.com