Diversifying The Enterprise Digital Workforce

CIO East Africa will on Tuesday 26th May 2020, host a webinar on diversifying the enterprise workforce.

Slated at 3.00  PM EAT, the free-to-attend webinar invites Bitange Ndemo, Professor of Business at the University of Nairobi, and Martin Mirero, the Chief Information Officer at Huduma Kenya to speak.

Prof Ndemo teaches Entrepreneurship at the University of Nairobi’s Business School and is the Chairman of Kenya’s Distributed Ledgers and Artificial Intelligence Taskforce that will develop a roadmap for the country’s digital transformation. He conducts researches on the link between ICTs and small and medium enterprises with an emphasis on how ICTs influence economic development in Africa.

The Open Data/Big Data evangelist has been a Permanent Secretary of the Ministry of Information and Communication in Kenya, where he was credited with facilitating many transformative ICT projects. He is a Senior Advisor to the UN’s Global Pulse (Big Data initiatives) and the UNCDF’s Better than Cash Alliance and is dedicated to simplification (visualization) of data for ordinary citizens’ consumption.

The second speaker, Mirero, has sound exposure on IT Governance through COBIT2019 and CGEIT training and in Enterprise Architecture using the industry-leading TOGAF 9.1 and is privileged to have worked with both Multinational Companies (MNCs) and local and regional outfits, traversing the public and private sectors alike. He has richly sampled diverse cultures, living and/or working in Kenya, UK, Ghana, Nigeria, South Africa, Ethiopia, the Philippines, and Zimbabwe thus his conversance with diversity at work.

Register here.

When enterprises are engaging in business diversification and transformation plans primed to maximize efficiency throughout the business, the question of significance begs. Believed to quicken the digital transformation journey, diversification is primarily aimed at transforming skillsets as a way of staying competitive.

Mirero says, “The digital workforce is inextricably linked to the theme of digital transformation. At the core, digital transformation is more about people (and processes) than it is about digital technology.” Adding; “It requires organizational changes that are customer-centric, backed by leadership and driven by radical challenges to organizational culture, and the leveraging of technologies that empower and enable employees and partners.”

In an interview with the Smart Industry, Jeff Sorensen, PwC’s Industrial Products Leader notes that digital technologies are creating new opportunities for the businesses but equally pose the challenges of trying to fill in the workforce with highly technical and skilled personnel.

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He says; “Today’s workforce is changing, and if you don’t adapt you won’t be able to remain competitive. Employers need to diversify their approaches to recruiting, retaining, and promoting their workforce.”

He further avers that some manufacturers have realized that one way to achieve diversification is to expand diversity and inclusion programs, having different perspectives and voices to lead to a more effective solution.

Traditionally, D&I was a top-to-bottom directive, coming from the C-suite and the HR department, a narrative that has since changed, thanks to the rise of ERGs. This high-level session targets the IT Enterprise leadership community in East Africa and will explore the status, gaps, and opportunities of empowering and diversifying the enterprise workforce in a digital era.

Register here.

In conclusion, Mirero notes that at a more “macro” level, businesses might be casting more inquiry on re-engineering current compensation and incentive frameworks to adapt better to digitalized work; ensuring equality and equitable availability, access, and compensation for digitalized work.

Professor Ndemo, on a blog on the Daily Nation, dated 25th May 2020 and titled ‘How Do We Remain Relevant In The Work Place’, reiterates that good quality work is rare but demand for it is abundant.

He says; “Future jobs will be plenty but the distinctive differentiator will be the ability to do “good work” that meets the customer’s expectations. As the Fourth Industrial Revolution becomes a reality, lack of adaptability will exacerbate unemployment among the youth.”

He further elaborates on the mismatch between skills and qualification as being more pronounced in Kenya where a number of youths trained through the apprenticeship system lack recognizable certification.

Catch more of this discussion here.