Turning on the HR light in Rwanda

Bpeacer and HR pro Phyllis Rosen (above right) is spending two weeks with our Rwanda Associates combining both classroom and one-on-one onsite work.

There are very few HR professionals in Rwanda and there is a long way to go to integrate professional practices in the public and private sector. In fact, Phyllis said there is so little HR infrastructure in the country that each and every dismissal must be approved by the government Labor Inspector so that fairness to employees will be guaranteed. Phyllis would like to link the fledgling HR community international associations.

Phyllis' training sessions are covering interviewing, job descriptions, motivating your staff and providing coaching and feedback. She brought along a performance management model.

Here's is some classroom feedback. "We went through an exercise where we looked at jobs they had and really broke them down into responsibilities of the job, skills, and qualifications. This was a real eye opener for the group. They truly got the fact that no one may like writing a job description, but it's critical to identifying the skill you really need for the job. They also learned to interview in a private room or spot, to treat a candidate respectfully even if you have no intention of hiring him or her, go through the cv, etc."

"The conversation about the pros and cons of hiring relatives to work for you was pretty funny and spirited--basically, two of the Associates said close relatives stole from them. But outside of stealing, it’s hard to fire a relative. So why hire them unless they have the perfect skill set you need?"