When Mwenda qualified as the supply chain director, it came with the enormous responsibility of ensuring that the firm met the required volumes in form and shape evacuated to the endpoints of the supply chain in the right quality and quantity, with every piece and pallet informed by different service level agreements and a factor for reverse logistics for another round from the factory to the last miles.
With the continued increase in demand laced with shifting consumer behaviour, informed by interventions around Covid-19 that saw a large number of employees transacting from home and priorities pointing to a need to cure worries around finances, health, and even job security.
Mwenda thought about how psychological safety at the workplace could turn things around.
The moment required thinking on their toes and even playing out of the book to ensure sustainability. For most leaders like him, the weight of production and that of people rested on his shoulders with the deep uncertainty of how tomorrow will be but he had to produce at the moment and constantly check the speed and behaviour of waves.
And as every intervention came with success, there was a bigger need to embed reasoning in the heat of the moment, applying good judgment and allowing for experimentation to aid innovation.
Employees had to try different shift formats, and different ways of working, succeeding and failing in some instances but with no one waiting with the rod to land a whipping.
The indices pointed to a workforce that needed to stand but with thoughts on what can happen, when, and where.
Facing Covid, on one hand, and thinking about how the situation might affect the company to a point of downsizing, on the other hand, thoughts racing to scenarios around financial obligations and sudden loss of income that extends to medical benefits and what could that mean to their livelihoods going forward.
The mental health impact saw several employees, skipping meetings, forgetting the deadlines and a feasible size placed under anti-depressants as many were having sick people around them and their circles.
This had a toll on their performance, which ended up affecting their business performance.
I met several employees in a recent seminar and most of them shared that part of the reasons they will stay longer at their company.
It was largely informed by how the firm handled them during Covid. They saw the duty to care in action and that strengthen the mental and physical connection to the company.
As we close the year and plan for a more agile 2023, let’s refocus on a need to see every talent holistically, that there are personal items affecting the employee that ends up affecting their ability to deliver for the company, that as a person they are faced with personal objectives that must be cured for an employee to focus and deliver at the workplace.
When I call out medical benefits, I am trying to see an employee that can face life with no worries about what to do in case he or she falls sick or in a situation any of their kin is hospitalised and struggling to balance resources to offer care.
When we provide superior pension benefits, we should see an employee who is confidently facing the future, curing the moment and knowing that in old age they will be in a position to still frequent the joints, visit friends and get a daily newspaper to feel the vibe across the country.
Such an employee will focus on the moment, motivated and so it will reflect in the performance.
The current items that are talking directly about the attraction and retention of premium talents are the quality and quantity of our value proposition. They want to know what it means to work with you and how that relationship will cure both current and future needs.
Mr Kibet is a Group HR Manager, - Shared Services.
