West Africa - Small gains leading to Success

Bringing three cultures into one

Having being privileged to have been operating within Africa and specifically Western Africa, I have noticed that there is a huge need for dedicated and competent Human Resource specialists and practitioners in countries where mining and industrial houses operate. In the end the primary focus of all mining and industrial operations that extract resources from Africa is to develop these countries and resources (i.e.) the people of the land and leave behind a legacy of sustainable economies and operations.

Although it is understood that operations has this obligation, it is also true and reality that the cost of implementing and developing HR and Training systems in 3^rd world and under developed countries is extremely expensive and in most cases makes the sustainability of operations in these countries questionable.

African countries is introducing stringent legislation and developmental requirements in order to ensure that the natural resources within these countries does not get extracted and sold off to the developing world at the expense of the people and economies of the country. It is also a fact that the companies that infiltrate Africa in search of the natural resource riches are not always sensitive to the cultures of Africa and its people.

In previous writings and publications, the project challenges associated with West Africa was mentioned and the fact that the main challenge is associated with bringing Western Culture and Eastern cultures together is an African context. This meant developing a singular culture out of three very different and diverse views of life, work and thinking. Human Resource Management and Training Development are an integral part and driver of the change management program that is implemented to drive the change in culture and the alignment processes required.

Knoskat (Pty) Ltd is proud to say that there is a small but significant movement in the process of consolidating these cultures and methodologies in one singularity, i.e. one mine culture and that Knoskat (Pty) Ltd was and is part of the solution to drive this integration process.

The recent approval and acquisition of training material that is customized for the environment and the approval of the restructuring of the Training and Development Department within several operations, bringing the Training back to a centralized, controlled and coordinated function is a step in the right direction. New material has been sourced and specifically developed for the operations by Knoskat (Pty) Ltd and contains programs for Supervisory and Management Development for the African context. Taking into account that the educational profile and literacy statistics within the environment is not conducive for theoretical based education, the initiation and energizing of ABET programs, in conjunction with Supervisory Training (entry as well as intermediate level) and the Management suite, is sending a message to the local population and workforce that mining management based training and development is not out of the reach of those that has in the past only been perceived as the hands of operations, and not necessarily the potential future management.

These programs are targeted at developing local indigenous people who forms part of operations due to the need for labour on the onset of operations, but has developed into Localisation and Nationalisation programs initiated and enforced by Governments.

The HR systems development and alignment is also poised to make a difference due to that fact that all localized Legislation and processes is used as the baseline for the development of policies, procedures and standards that is aligned with operational requirements but also align itself with the countries legislative framework.

South Africa as the leading entity with regards to mining and resource extraction on the African continent has set the tone and the benchmark which is being used and implemented within the African continent. Several operations within Africa is using the South African models with regards to Training and Development as well as Human Resource Management and the SABPP HR Standards is being used and the framework which Knoskat (Pty) Ltd use to develop the training and Human Resource systems in these countries. I am sure that it would be only a matter of time before the qualifications framework will also be rolled out to the rest of Africa as there is already a drive and requirement that all Training and Development and Human Resource interventions can and would be recognized on the broader African continent and thus would be transferable between mining operations in different countries and recognised as a value adding component of each operation and the countries in which it gets implemented.

On a regular basis the developments in the African Human Resource and Training and Development with emphasis in localisation and naturalisation processes will be explored and discussed and the findings and progress shared with the broader African Human Resource fraternity.