Yemí Fáșeun

Gentle Reminder.

Dear Employers/Hiring Managers/Recruiters,

Hire candidates as Interns whilst they are still in school or are yet to be qualified, but employ them as Graduate Trainees/Analysts for entry level roles, once they are done.

First degree plus an MBA, as requirements in an internship role, is an anomaly. If you are looking for volunteers to pay stipends, just be upfront. That’s valid. And yes, you can have post-graduate interns too.

“An internship is a professional learning experience that offers meaningful, practical work related to a student's field of study or career interest. An internship gives a student the opportunity for career exploration and development, and to learn new skills.” This may help, going forward.

Regards
(RTS)

Thank God it’s another Monday! Let’s go win…

#healthisbae
Hallmark HMO

Dear Manager/Business Leader,

Employees become disengaged long before they resign their appointment. The disconnection from the line manager and/or the organisation happens usually like a year earlier. That is when they kickstart the process or a plan to exit.

Resignation is usually a reaction to a chain of actions and events. Counter-offers at the point of exit are mere orientation of short-termism; great leaders are more strategic. This is stylishly preaching the sermon of cause and effect. Let’s go back to the basics.

Intelligent leaders practice stay interviews; exit interviews are already in the mud. They often yield minimal results. Deal with attrition by periodically interviewing for retention. Be present in their moments. Stay with them to retain them.

An exit interview sounds like medicine after death, a mere tick of the box.

And if they must eventually go (for various valid reasons), retain them as buddies and make brand ambassadors out of them, not enemies.

Leadership is a burden; its success lies more in the little things.

Thank God it’s another Monday! Let’s go win…

YF Talent Partners

Of Reels and Reality.

We cannot work so hard to be popular on social media but be socially disconnected in real life. Number of connections/followers may not equate with quality of connectedness.

Build quality networks.

We cannot be online advocates of great workplaces but be a zone of toxicity at work as employees. Our real selves are revealed through daily offline interactions, not through daily posts and comments on social media.

Be real. Be authentic.

I am delighted to have been awarded by the Go platform as one of the “Top 30 HR Professionals Influencers in Africa on LinkedIn. This recognition is a testament to the amazing HR community we have in Africa. I am grateful for this initiative and appreciate the support of the HR field and colleagues across the beautiful continent of Africa.

A big thank you to everyone who has engaged with my posts. Your support means the world. Together, we grow and thrive.

Thank God it’s Monday! Cheers to another ah-mazing week 🥂

#GOplatform #TOP30HR #HRAfrica

YF Talent Partners

Multigenerational Workforce: a short story.

Digital natives vs digital migrants
Productivity vs presence management
Instant feedback vs year-end appraisal
Work with me vs manage me
Apps vs forms
Work-on-the-go vs clock-in-clock-out
Let’s meet vs let’s chat
Side hustle vs no private gig
Meaning vs money
Purpose vs promotion
Sanity vs salary

But with adapt-agility, synergy of the generations is guaranteed.

Adapt or adieu. Extend or extinct. Choices always.

Thank God it’s Monday! Let’s go win…

Higher Purpose.

A few days ago, I shared my thoughts with the Board members of a group of companies on the burning issues of retention and japa.

Amongst other things, I left them with 3 uncomfortable truths; one the retention challenges of the moment will not go away in a hurry (may even get worse before it gets better), two is let’s NOT focus our attention on those who are leaving. They left (quiet quitting) a long time ago before actual resignation. And three, employees are not looking for employment contracts any more, they are looking for experience contracts.

The responsibility for making this happen rests on leaders who must mirror a great culture for the organisation. I mean leadership across all levels.

To lend credence to this, I was a guest of Nexford University recent graduation ceremonies and about 50 employees of Sterling Bank Plc graduated from the school, supported with funding by the Bank. I had a stage-side moment with the MD of the Bank and he said, “In terms of training and developing our employees, we don’t bind them to a contract, we bind them to a higher purpose.” Deep and profound!

My thoughts: talent conversations should move from retention to talent contribution. If we contribute quality talent to the glocal (local and global) pool, then we retain the right to draw quality talent from same.

By the way, organisational leadership cannot be daily releasing toxins and be expecting low attrition rate, a high trust index and positive employee experience indicators.

We can’t build a superstructure on a faulty foundation. Leadership first.

Thank God it’s another Monday! Let’s go win…

NB
This is not a paid advert for Sterling Bank, I just admire the leadership style that Abubakar Suleiman represents….

6+6: Review Plus Preview.

The first half of 2024 ended yesterday as we start to embrace the second half today. Let me quickly put us on notice not to put ourselves under undue pressure.

There will be many posts and speeches berating us for not achieving the goals we have written down for the year. Some will call us lazy, others will say we were not focused and some may say we were not consistent enough with affirmations and actions. When you see such posts and comments, press ctrl+alt+del.

Breathe. Please breathe. Do a personal review of the last 6 months to see what worked and what didn’t work. See your areas of great strength that brought results and areas of opportunities to do better and to try differently. That we did not achieve all goals, some goals or no goal at all is not enough to go into depression.

You are not alone. I belong to that category too. Some of the things I thought I would have achieved by now have not even surfaced yet on the horizon. The greatest news is that we are alive to try again, to give things a shot again.

Re-evaluate your goals, going forward, consider the external variables, check within to see what we should do differently. Don’t just try harder, try differently. Fall or stay in love (with yourself), open your gifts, engage uncommon sense, trust Unseen Forces, focus on personal growth, be unusual, focus on ends but enjoy the journey, make your move with agility, try a different set of risks, run away from comfort zones and suspend disbelief.

You are doing well. Living, surviving and thriving in some parts of the world should require a medal already. Remember to celebrate your small wins.

You can do more. It is possible. May the rest of 2024 bring you joy and fulfillment.

Thank God it’s Monday! Have an ah-mazing new week and a new month.

YF Talent Partners

Career Transition.

Humbled and privileged to have been invited last Saturday to hold career conversations with the MMBA and EMBA students of the Lagos Business School.

Focus was on career transition and one of the questions, as always, was around the time to move on from one organisation to another, or from one role to another. I had transitioned a few times in my career journey and it was time to share experiences.

Below are a few talking points for mid-career and senior professionals:

Transition starts from where we are. We ‘ve got to be doing today’s job very well before we can successfully transit to another. Seeking a career change is not an excuse for poor performance in current role.

We must be on top of our game and be game changers within the present ecosystem. Conversations about us will extend beyond our current organisation. Our stellar performance should speak for us when we are not in the room. Someone somewhere is always looking for an MVP. We have to be ready.

Building quality professional and social networks is a must, given the the current ‘mood’ of the world. Quality networks work. We all are looking for dream jobs but dream jobs tend to look for those who are ready. Great to seek opportunities online but even better to be in circles where we can easily be referred or recommended for roles.

Recommendations give some comfort to recruiters and hiring managers. When the right opportunities knock on the door, we should be at home.

Money is good. Take home should take us home but I have found out that money chases value. So, seek ye first value and all other career perks shall be added unto you.

The grass is green where it is watered. We can never over-emphasise the need to nurture and grow ourselves, and for those in managerial and/or leadership positions, nurture and grow others. Rather than long for the green grass on the other side, be the green grass for others. It will pay off in the long-term.

Take risks. The key elements for growth are vision, sacrifices and risks. No one has it all figured out, we are all learning as we go but fortune favours risk lovers. Before making that move, do your home work, research the new place, consider the risks and be ready with mitigants.

But remember, though the elements won’t always be favourable, we ‘ve still got to sail.

At times, the way up is sideways. Lateral career movements make ultimate sense. Pick up transferable skills along the way. Do something new and different. Get involved in projects. These all add up towards the journey to the top.

Lastly, let’s build personal brands. We must avoid the sin of proclaiming who we are not on social media. If we can’t defend it, we shouldn’t append it. Avoid profile pressure. We can’t measure our success by the progress of others. We don’t have the full view of their journeys.

When it’s time to transition to a new place, leave with value and leave value behind.

Thank God it’s another Monday! Let’s go win...

Candidate Experience.

I recently had a conversation with a friend, who argued that the best way to take candidates through interview sessions was to put them under pressure. According to him, if they crack under pressure during interviews, it’s an indication they will not be able to cope under pressure at work.

Nothing I said convinced him otherwise. Interview experiences should be the designed in ways to bring the best out of candidates.

Luckily, a friend shared a video clip from Mercedes-Benz AG, where the CEO interviewed some Developers. I sent the same video to my friend and asked how he would have performed as a candidate under such circumstances. I am yet to get a response from him.

In the past, winning CVs had captions such as:
“I work under pressure.”
“I thrive under challenging conditions”.
“I can hit the ground running with little or no supervision.”
But millennials and Gen Zees have since left that chat room.

Employee experience starts at the gate; an excellent candidate experience (sincerely executed) is an indication of culture in the Now of Work.

It’s another Monday!