Don’t get tooooo... Comfortable on the Job!

 

 

“Comfort in employment can become the enemy of prosperity.”

Many people pursue employment as an end in itself. This is a gross error of commission, but the fact that you have a salary every month can lull you into a comfortable slumber zone of pretend contentment … Especially if the job pays well and does not require you to do any “extra” work or “gigs” to enjoy the lifestyle you have chosen. When you are in the comfort zone it is very easy to forget the purpose of employment, which is to create wealth for yourself, your family and posterity. If you find yourself telling yourself, “at least I have a job”, I dare say you are in the comfort zone. What you are actually saying is, “tomorrow will take care of itself”. This makes you relax any effort you might have made to create wealth and a measure of prosperity for yourself. Prosperity does not come served on a plate with a salary and employment on the side. Prosperity takes action and initiative to create tangible wealth from the income you earn on the job. Comfort on the job can lead to failure to pay focused attention on how to create personal wealth during employment. Comfort in employment is actually an enemy of prosperity and wealth creation. Comfort in employment implies that you have stopped thinking about your prosperity - and left that job to your employer (who never forgets it!). Your employer however, is not thinking of you, he is thinking for himself and will retain you as long as his interests are met. If your last job came to an end, and you have no wealth to show for it, you were living in the comfort zone. Don’t let it happen again!

Allan Bukusi,  is the author of ; How to Prosper in Employment and writer of the series of articles under the theme; 2026: Year of the African Employee challenging employees to prioritize creating personal wealth early in their careers.

What's your Employee - People Strategy?

 

What’s your Employee - People Strategy?

You have most certainly heard of “business” strategy and “financial” strategy. But you may have to think a little harder to remember if you have heard of a “people” strategy. You are not alone in this space. Many organizations have people, but hardly develop a sustainable people strategy that enables the organization to grow with its people. The people strategy of most business revolves around a “use and dump” procedure. The procedure begins with a) create job description, b) get a suitable person to do the job, and c) if they don’t do the job dump them and try someone else. In the eyes of the company, the person is an item of production rather than a strategic investment. The a,b,c hire and fire procedure does not guarantee the organization a developing future. It leaves an organization stuck in its (old) ways and leaves employees as hapless victims of a vicious use and dump cycle of employers who do not have a people strategy.

Let’s double back and cover some theory here. An effective people strategy begins with a well-crafted, documented, communicated organization strategy articulating the corporate goals of the business. Let’s call it a strategic plan. If the strategic plan sits on the shelf, like it does in many organizations, there can be no hope of an operational people strategy ever coming to light.  The strategic plan serves to dynamic articulate the dynamic roles people play as the organization advances to its goals. This means as the goals advance the people must also advance through training, capacity building to take on new updated challenges. If the people are not ready for advancement the business cannot advance. Indeed, unless the people advance the organization will remain the same. Your people should be driving the strategy not just implementing it. The secret is to put the horse in front of the cart (strategy) and not the cart in front of the horse. A business strategy cannot implement itself, it requires empowered people to drive it.

So what does a good people strategy entail. First is the understanding of business strategy by employees – quite apart from job descriptions and contracts. Second, cascading of roles and responsibilities flowing from the strategy. Third, equipment, empowerment and training of people to execute the activities that advance corporate objectives rather than carry out routine tasks that mark production as opposed to progress. Fourth, implement a people performance alignment process that aligns employees’ contribution to the advancement of corporate goals, strategically prepares people to address environmental change, and keeps the workforce on the cutting edge of strategy execution at all times. The African employee needs more than a job description to spearhead corporate goals. let them know where the business is going and you will be surprised how much more value they can produce. A people strategy will help you turnaround your employee performance, but more importantly, it will help you achieve your corporate goals.

Allan Bukusi,  is the author of ; How to Prosper in Employment and writer of the series of articles under the theme; 2026: Year of the African Employee challenging employees to prioritize creating personal wealth early in their careers.

Introducing - The New African Employee, Gen XMZ!

 

 

 

The New African Employee, Gen XMZ!

        The word “new” has at least two major interpretations. The first can be described as, “something NEW as opposed to the OLD”. This implies that the passage of time has outdated an item, depreciating it and making it of little use or application in future. It comes with the attendant mischievous whisper that “old is bad” and “new is good”. Then there is the second interpretation of NEW meaning; innovative, enhanced, advancing in additives, form, components and capability. There is a sense in which the old generation of African employee, born at the advent of the Television set, is being put on the shelf as a local limited production model. The new employee is globally connected, socially mobilized, attends weekends at Old Trafford and Arsenal, has seen more of Dubai than their ancestral village of origin, speaks several AI generated languages, and has more access to information technology than all other generation on earth combined (from the beginning of time). However, a fusion of the old and the new can also qualify as NEW.

        Interestingly, the generation X, Millennials M and generation Z find themselves in the same workspace by heritage more than out of design or intent. The key word here is tolerance. And that is a very good place to begin. The new African employee has three shades when tackling the responsibilities of getting work done. Somehow these shades do not communicate very well, but they all have extra ordinary strengths that make the new African employee a powerful prototype for the world ahead. This new African employee draws on the stability of Gen X, and the alternative resourcefulness of Gen M, and the dynamic flexibility of the entrant Gen Z capacity for short term engagement. Gen X know HOW it is done, Gen M ask WHY it needs to be done and Z knows the fastest way to get whatever needs to be done – done!   

        Imagine the power of three generations in one. Thus creating; the new African employee XMZ. The new African employee (Gen XMZ), first; knows how to get the work done this makes them powerfully entrepreneurial, second they also know why it needs to be done which makes them very efficient with minimal wastage of energy, and third, the New African employee is exploring, innovative and extremely adaptive and versatile. Today’s employers need to make a lot of changes in the workplace in terms of workspace, job design, goal setting, role integration, productivity mapping, work process planning and performance management metrics to accommodate and harness the global power of the New African employee. Everyone, please put your hands together to welcome the new employee, Gen XMZ, in the workplace.

Allan Bukusi,  is the author of ; How to Prosper in Employment and writer of the series of articles under the theme; 2026: Year of the African Employee challenging employees to prioritize creating personal wealth early in their careers.