Terrorism has become very real in Kenya and the subject of issuing of guns to private security guards has become a subject of discussion, and as a HR practitioner, I wish to weigh in on this very controversial subject.

Last week, the Central Organization of Trade Unions (COTU) Secretary General together with his Kenya National Private Security Workers Union (KNPSWU) counterpart addressed a press conference pushing for the arming of private security guards. From my experience with the private security industry, this is my argument:

There is a very high turnover of guards in the private security industry, mostly because of poor pay. Employers don’t know where 80% of these guards reside and tracing them become a problem. The minimum wage for a night security guard (I’m using the higher amount since the day guard rate is different) as from 1st May, 2018 is Kshs. 15,142 in Mombasa, Nairobi and Kisumu, Kshs. 14,038 in Municipalities and Town Councils and Kshs. 8,636 in other areas. The above pay has a direct impact on the living conditions of the guards, as most of them reside in slums.

Then there are very many small private security companies now operating in Kenya, most of which are not members of the Kenya Security Industry Association (KSIA) and are not paying the above minimum wage. It is a fact that government offices, including Parastatals do not pay private security companies enough to enable them pay the employees working in their premises the minimum wage. Yet, it is the same government that expects these companies to adhere to the Wages Order.

The other thing is about the minimum qualifications of a guard and the kind of training the guards undergo before deployment. Due to the high turnover, most guards do not undergo a training for more than two weeks before they are assigned to the various assignments. It is very rare to find a company hiring guards with diplomas, most are either form four leavers or lower. Combine poor training, very low qualifications and lack of proper supervision, that’s a recipe for disaster.

Guns are not toys. Placing a gun in the hands of a civilian, putting into consideration all the above will not make this country more secure. Infact, this will give birth to local terrorists. The government needs to be able to control this situation by hiring more of its security personnel, training them properly, arming them and placing them all across the country. To argue that the private companies will establish which assignments need to have their guards armed is a joke. What criteria will they use? Is it a client’s ability to pay for this service or what?

No life is more important that another. If it is a matter of security, every individual and establishment needs to be secured properly. And so, in my opinion, private security guards should not be given firearms.

This is going to be my final article this year on this blog. The following are my major take homes from this year:

#1: Put God first in anything and everything you do. Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not in your own understanding.

#2: Believe and have faith in yourself and your capabilities. Not many people will believe in you, but the confidence you have in yourself will propel you to greater heights. Keep pushing.

#3: Humility is a very important virtue in this life. You are more than your job title and your colleagues and staff are more than the name tags they wear across their chests. Respect each person for the human being they are and not the various positions they hold.

#4: Stop telling yourself and people that you don’t have enough time to do this and that. There will never be enough time in one lifetime to do everything you want to do. So create the time.

#5: Have a life outside of your work. Find yourself a hobby, hang out with your friends, have fun. You only have one life, live them.

#6: Not every door that is closed is locked, push it because it might just open. When people tell you ‘NO’ or close the door on your face, use it as an inspiration to aim even higher. Fight for your dreams.

#7: Reporting to work early and leaving very late does not make you the most productive employee. Answering ‘yes sir/madam’ to your boss all the time even though you know it is wrong does not make you the most loyal employee either. There is a very huge difference between loyalty and ass kissing.

#8: Take responsibility for your actions. When you are wrong, admit it without trying to pin the blame on other people. Stop making excuses for your failures and incompetence, instead, learn from them and improve.

#9: Be a man/woman of your word. When you say ‘Yes’, let it be a yes and when you say ‘No’, let it be exactly that. Your word is your brand.

#10: To those that much is given, much is expected. Do not wait to share only in the glory, without wanting to be part of the story. The more responsibilities, the higher the expectations, so live up to the expectations of your position.

#11: Leadership is not about titles and positions, but how much you can influence others to follow your dream. A good leader leads by example, so be the example you want your subordinates to emulate.

#12: You are only useful to yourself and family when you are alive. Take care of your health. Find time to work out, learn to eat healthy and most importantly, wear your greatest assets: a smile and confidence.

Merry Christmas to you all and let’s meet again in 2019! God bless you.

Yours Truly, AW.

It is often said that, ‘always remember that what you are currently taking for granted was once something you prayed for desperately’.

Recently, my boss took me to a motivational talk, where he was requested to speak to a group of young people about his experiences as a businessman and lessons learnt. It was a great session, I personally learnt so much. So when he was done, he said to the crowd while pointing at me, ‘…and there is my HR, in case you have any work related inquiries, see her after this.’ Unlike my boss, I’m very shy with crowds, actually, I refer to myself as ‘socially challenged’, I prefer to sit quietly in background, most of the time. So after the session, several people came up to me. Most of them were looking for employment and so I guided them through the process. Then I started to think, would all these people have the same commitment to their jobs as they have now, that they don’t have it?

Often times, when employees land their dream job, after a while, they begin to loose the passion they once had when they were looking for it. They get comfortable, they settle into a routine and then turn into supermarket attendants (I say this respectfully). The reality is, not everyday in your workplace will be exciting; there are fast days and very slow days and then there are good days and  days where everything that was supposed to go wrong goes wrong.

I have noted, in the younger generation, that most of them like the idea of having a job and getting paid at the end of the month, but not so much what it takes to have that job. They would like their peers to know they are employed somewhere, but when it comes to actual delivery, there is a disconnect. Soon after they land the job, certain unprecedented behaviors start to come out and as a recruiter, you are left wondering what really happened. You even begin to question whether the decision you made about them was the correct one.

Work requires commitment, hard work, dedication, sacrifice. Sometimes you’ll need to put in extra hours. In this day and age, it is no longer 8-5 like we know it. There is nothing good in life that comes easy, and when it is too easy, you need to ‘open your third eye’. As an employee, it is important that you not only give the bare minimum. Always yearn to give your very best, to go the extra mile. When you know in your heart that you have done the best you can, there is a certain level of fulfillment that comes with it.

However, when you report to your work place and start to behave like your employer owes you a favor, it is time to pack and go. Ofcourse some work places are not the greatest to work at, but, I am a very strong believer in making the best out of what you have. When you finally decide to leave, let it be on your own terms, knowing fully well that you have your all. Always remember to try and perform your duties with the same passion everyday as you did the very first time you arrived there.

In recent times, finding a job even after graduating from the university has become a huge challenge facing most job seekers.

As a recruiter, one of the most important advise I give to job seekers is to be aggressive and reach out to as many potential employers as possible. At the same time, I advise against applying for every single job vacancy that you come across. Not all  job openings out there are for you, so you don’t need to apply for every single one of them. It is one thing to find a job, it’s another to love what you do and the latter is extremely important. You therefore need to be very strategic in sending out your applications.

Job search is hard and draining. It sometimes turns into a full time job in itself and it is very easy to get very frustrated especially when there is no response at all from the places you have sent out your applications to. With that said, as a job seeker, you must first establish what exactly you want to do. Which area are you looking to work in? For instance, human resource, front office, procurement etc. What are you really passionate about? Your area of passion may not necessarily be the area you have trained in, e.g. you may have a degree in human resource management, but your passion is in fashion and design. You will therefore enjoy working in the fashion industry as opposed to a HR department. When you are passionate about something, you don’t need to be pushed, supervised or threatened to deliver.

Seek quality, not quantity. It is not about how many CVs you have sent out, but the potential in the areas you have sent those CVs to. Sometimes, it will take longer for what you are seeking to come along, so you must learn to exercise patience. Just don’t be a jerk of all trades, because in the end, you become a master of none. Learn to give time some time.

Avoid trying to climb the tree from the top too. That you hold a Bachelors degree certificate in HRM does not make you a master in HR practice. You need to acquire some practical experience, and this takes time. Start from the bottom, earn the ropes, observe how things are done and build up your experience. When you try to apply for a Human Resource Manager position in a multinational company with just a bachelors degree certificate and zero prior work experience in the same field is making a joke out of yourself. I remember being offered a Procurement Manager position by a certain potential employer and I had to turn down the offer because I know nothing about procurement. Infact, I have zero interest in working in that field. Not that I do not appreciate on the job training, but I believe that having some basic knowledge about the area goes a long way. I took up a HRO position with a much much lower pay and had to gradually work my way up.

Finally, do not wait for companies to advertise for jobs so you can apply for them. There is a saying that goes, ‘if the mountain does not go to Mohamed, Mohamed must go to the mountain‘ (this is my version). There are companies with job openings in the area you seeking and the don’t even know they need someone to fill, or they know, but are just buying time. It is your duty to remind them that that position needs to be filled. When I lost my job a while back, I remember dropping off my CV at a random company I saw on my way to church. Coincidentally, they had a vacancy for HR but had not been keen on filling it up. The manner in which I aggressively followed up on it left them with no other choice but to hire me. The gentleman turned out to be one of my biggest mentors.

Not every door that is closed is actually locked. You need to push it a little bit, it might just open.

I haven’t sat in many interview panels as an interviewer or interviewee. In fact, the thought of sitting in makes me a lot uncomfortable. As an interviewer, there is always a chance that you may let your feelings cloud your objectivity among other risks. As an interviewee, I have always preferred more of a “discussion” than the traditional interview. The latter focuses more on standard questions that have been asked over the years. In fact, most of the interview tips in the internet have listed these questions and proposed answers.

I often find myself debating whether it is better to advertise jobs and go through the normal application process or go out and seek referrals. Both methods work to various degrees of success. However, certain critical roles especially at a slightly senior level require a mix, if not outright referrals. At an executive level, recruiters have always opted for head-hunting, even when they put adverts of the same jobs on newspapers and other recruitment sites.

So, why is this so? A few reasons come into mind:

1. Some roles are very critical to the organization and employers do not want to take any chances. As a matter of fact, there’s no learning curve and one is expected to hit the ground running from the word go. Results are expected almost instantly. As an accountant, I realized most companies employ accountants when they (company) are already in crisis. Such a task needs a tried, tested and confirmed hand
2. Many job-seekers have mastered the art of writing CVs and answering interview questions. In fact, it is not uncommon to see companies inviting job-seekers to be “taught” on how to “prepare a job-winning CV” or answer interview questions. Very little is mentioned on the individual’s capacity to actually do the job. Recruiting on the basis of a “perfect CV” or “best interview answers” has proven fatal to many employers
3. Instances of fraud and other misdemeanors have also necessitated having a “known” person in your team. It helps a big deal to not worry that your employee will engage in such. Should that happen, you also have the comfort that you can trace the person to the original referee.

It is important to note that not all referrals go according to plan. An advise I give both parties is to always do their own checks even if the candidate is referred. As a job-seeker, check out the potential employer to ensure they fit your desires. To the employer, it is critical that you do the necessary reviews to avoid embracing everything just because the candidate was referred. At the end of the day, referral is not an endorsement!

In my career, I’ve had a very rare opportunity of changing someone’s life for the better. Every few months or so, I get to sit in a panel (sometimes single handedly) and decide on who gets the job and who doesn’t. This might sound like a very easy thing. Well, it’s not. During these instances though, I have picked up afew pointers:

#1: There is nothing like a perfect candidate: Initially, I’d conduct my interviews with a checklist. Then I realised that after a very long and tiring day of ticking off my list, there would be no one that fitted perfectly. These days, I engage the candidate in a conversation as I listen and observe them carefully in the view of trying to understand the person better and their fit for the job. I also pay attention to any inconsistencies that may arise in their responses.

#2: Trust your gut feeling: There are instances where I have interviewed someone and even though they did not ‘fit’, I get this nagging feeling that I need to give them a chance. 99% of the time, my gut feeling has always worked in my favor. Learn to take a chance on someone.

#3: Integrity is everything. There are thousands of job seekers out here who are willing and ready to pay money so they can get the job. The only question is, what is your price? Always remember that anyone who buys a job will never be able to perform to the expectations. After all, they bought it. As a recruiter, if your integrity can be bought with money, you are useless to your employer and a disgrace to your profession. At the same time, any candidate who presents to you fake documents is a No! No! The same way they have lied their way into the interview is the same way they will lie their way at work. Any decent person will tell you the truth and leave the decision to or not to hire them to you.

#4: Nothing is always as it seems. Some people are talented in telling lies. You need to be smart enough to sift facts from stories. It’s human to be emotional, just don’t confuse a candidate’s tears for their ability and real desire to get hired. Some are real actors/actresses. Empathise but don’t let your judgement to be clouded by tears.

#5: The CV does not do the job. A perfect CV does not usually amount to a suitable candidate. There are people who are good at writing great CVs but know nothing about doing the real job. Focus on the person sitting in front of you, he/she will be the one doing the job, not their CVs. This is not an excuse for presenting a bad CV to a potential employer though.

Learning is a process and even as time goes by, I believe there will be more opportunities to learn something new.

Exiting employment is hard, whether it’s under good circumstances or not so good terms.

In any normal organization, you will find that everyone will attempt to come up with their own explanation of the circumstances surrounding their colleague’s exist. There will be accusations, some of it, completely absurd. Unfortunately, the most scandalous version usually carries the day. It is all human nature.

As a junior officer some years back, I once heard that my reason for exiting this particular company was because I was romantically involved with a top level senior Manager and there was even a sex tape to prove it. At first, I was very hurt and furious about that story. I even contemplated storming back into that place and publicly refuting all those allegations. Then I thought about it some more and decided to focus that energy on something that would actually add value to my life, so I let it go. When I think back at this experience, I find it hilarious and simply put, stupid. I was once so broke though, that I thought about going back to demand for that infamous sex tape so I could pull a Kim K on everyone.

People will always have something negative to say about you, whether you spend all your time trying to do good to them or not. Unfortunately also, this is usually that time when even those colleagues you considered friends distance themselves from you, lest your unemployment rubs onto them. What really counts however, is your truth. No one knows you better than yourself. When you know that your conscience is clear and you can sleep well at night, then you are good. All the negative talk simply turn into distant noise.

The end of one employment, whether voluntary or otherwise is never the end of the world, though sometimes it may feel like that. It is simply the beginning of a new life. Always look at a closed door as an opportunity for the opening of a new and better one. Do not stare at that closed door for too long though, lest you miss the opportunity to enter a new one. It is also very important that you do not listen to gossip either. Stay away from those frenemies whose life ambition is to bring you the latest gist about you at your former employment.

This us the time to focus on yourself, in getting your mojo back and then, later, looking at how to get back on your feet. Do not let the opinions of people bring you down and sink you into depression. Instead, make it your lifelong goal to do everything in your power to get back up, and to a better and higher level. Trust me, all those who were badmouthing you will soon be calling to ask if you could refer them for employment at your current place of work.

When you are at your lowest, trust yourself, in your God given strength and most importantly, trust in the Lord with all your heart.

Today, I wasn’t able to honor a friend’s invite to a suicide prevention forum but even from where I sit, I know that this is a very important subject matter, especially in recent times.

Where I come from, commiting suicide is considered a taboo. It’s a subject no one wants to discuss publicly, neither is it important to the people to establish the real reasons why someone would choose to take away their lives. Truth is, cases of suicide have been on the rise lately.

As a Christian and a Roman Catholic for that matter, I believe that taking away your life is a sin. I also know that life can sometimes be very hard and not all of us are wired with the strength and grace to withstand these pressures. A very close person to me once confessed that they had unsuccessfully attempted suicide twice. I felt sad and guilty about it and that’s because I never thought they had gotten to that point. I would see this person occasionally and they looked just fine, so the suicidal confession was a shock to me.

Depression is a real disease that’s killing many people. Not many are bold enough to open up and seek help. The other fact is that depressed people are not the gloomy ones, the ones who wear goth makeup and walk around with sad demeanors. Some of those happy and smiley people are very depressed. Publicly they look just fine, but in private, they are at war with demons the size of the titanic. They don’t speak about it because they feel ashamed of themselves, they fear the judgement and condemnation.

As a friend or family member, when someone reaches out to you regarding depression or that they are having suicidal thoughts , do not ignore, judge or laugh at them. They could actually be at the end of their rope and now hanging on by a thread. Be supportive, counsel, help them seek professional help.

And for those crying for help so loudly on the inside but cannot speak up, know this, you are not alone. That situation you think you can’t overcome, you actually can and will. Look back at every other time you thought you’d never get back up. You are still here. Though not as strong as you want to be, but you are still standing. Do not choose suicide. Choose life!

Talk to Befrienders Kenya on +254722178177 and get the help you need.

My former secondary school motto read, ‘Discipline is the road to success‘. I wore a shirt daily for four years with a badge having this writing on it and not once did I ever stop to think what it really meant.

Several years later, I look back and I understand exactly what the proprietors of this great school meant when they coined this motto. But what, exactly is discipline? It is the art of self control and self reliance that enables someone to be able to make themselves do the right thing, and what is expected of them without being supervised, in order for them to achieve the set objective.

Whenever you are trying to stay on a diet, that’s the time your friends will be inviting you out for drinks and ‘nyama choma’ in turns. For a drug addict, the moment you decide to stay clean is when opportunities to to start using present themselves without you even trying to go out in search for them. As Christians, we encounter temptations constantly but when you make a decision to follow the right path, that’s when the devil shows up with the all his relatives in order to try and get you to backslide.

Discipline is what gets you out of bed on a cold chilly morning so you can get to the gym and work out even though thirty more minutes of sleep sounds like a great idea. It is what makes you say ‘NO’ to that bribe that a job seeker is offering you so they can get hired, even though you know you really need that money at that time. It is the ability to walk past that nice pair of shoes that you desire so much without impulsively buying because you know you cannot afford it at the time.

No matter how talented you are, if you lack discipline, you will never succeed. Success requires hard work, determination, consistency, the grace of God and DISCIPLINE. Ask any successful athlete around what their secret is and they will tell you a lot of things. But one consistent thing that stands out in all of them is the discipline they have especially when it comes to training. Learn to talk yourself out of quitting when you know quitting is the most comfortable option. Start small, and build up from there. Having self discipline is not as obvious as you’d imagine and it doesn’t come easy, it is something you must teach yourself daily.

Most, if not all employment contracts have the confidentiality clause that requires every employee to keep all company information as confidential as possible.

For a Human Resource Manager/Practitioner, this clause usually is on another level. You are the only person in the company that is not only entrusted with company information but also the employees’ personal information, which are expected to be handled very discretely. You are like a confidant to the employees and that’s the reason why in order for any HRM to be effective, they must be able to build trust and rapport with their staff.

In my circle of HR friends, we joke that a HRM is everything; a therapist, a pastor, counselor, police, friend, mother/father etc and you must be able to transform into any of the above when need arises, on very short notice. There are some instances where you receive reports or complaints from staff that knock you off your seat but you must remain calm and objective. And this is what makes the job exciting because just when you think you have heard/seen the worst, someone comes with a new thing.

One of the biggest mistakes a HRM can make is be a loud mouth or gossip or use the very confidential information a staff has trusted them with to embarrass or humiliate an employee publicly. Discussing this kind of information during lunch hour with your click of friends is unethical. There are certain information about your staff that must be handled on a ‘need to know’ basis. They are only shared with other parties, mostly senior staff, only when they must be shared.

In addition to that, when an employee reports a case to you, it’s vital that you listen without judging, investigate and get back to the staff. Laughing at an employee when they are pouring their heart out to you is not only wrong but very unprofessional.

As a HRM, I do not expect my employees to like me, neither should you. But they should be able to trust me, with their information and problems; both work related and personal. They should trust me to listen, address them and make a decision. Sometimes, the decisions I make will favor them, sometimes, not so much……but that’s the job.