MENTORING is now a Reality!

Mr. Raza Abbas, Director Student Affairs, Ziauddin University and Pioneer of Professional Career Counseling and Mentoring in Pakistan presented his new research paper on: "The Institutionalized Career Mentoring Model of a Private University in Pakistan” at The University of Waikato in Hamilton, New Zealand at the Inaugural Transforming Together: Coaching and Mentoring Conference April 8-10, 2015. 

MENTORING IS NOW A REALITY

What do the world greatest leaders have in common? "They all had mentors". Virtually everyone who has become successful, achieved distinction in their field, or made a significant contribution to society can recall someone who helped them along the way. That's one reason why mentoring has becoming so popular in the business world, in educational settings: schools, colleges and universities. 

As Rey Carr - CEO of Peer Resources, an organization globally known for Mentoring shares:

“Mentoring is an inexpensive, yet powerful influence process where one person typically provides support, encouragement, and wisdom to another. Most people can recall someone in their life that was there for them at the right moment and provided the boost and juice to make a transition, deal with a difficult situation, solve a problem, or think through a plan for the future. And it's not unusual for a person going through or dealing with a life issue or challenge to seek out someone who has had a similar experience to act as a guide and coach. Either way the value of these informal relationships along with research on their impact has prompted thousands of organizations to implement more formalized mentoring programs or services.

In the only study of its kind in North America, over 70 percent of the most productive businesses in Canada reported some type of deliberate mentoring activities as part of their strategic planning. Many of these businesses have implemented formal mentoring programs to improve retention of employees, aid employees in career development, attend to leadership succession planning, and contribute positively to diversity and equity issues.”

Distinguished Scholars and Practitioners from across the globe recently congregated at The University of Waikato in Hamilton, New Zealand at the Inaugural Transforming Together Coaching and Mentoring Conference. 

Mr. Raza Abbas Pioneer of Professional Career Counseling and Mentoring in Pakistan presented his new research on “The Institutionalized Career Mentoring Model of a Private University in Pakistan." His paper was peer reviewed and unanimously approved by the Scientific Committee. He shared the conceptualization of a pioneering mentoring model for university students at a private university in Pakistan. 

An Excerpt from his paper:

A pioneering institutionalized career mentoring model of a private university in Pakistan has been strategically and contextually developed keeping in view the socio-economic challenges of our youth. The institutionalized career mentoring model is an initiative which has been established with an aim of creating high quality mentoring programs for teachers and youth based on carefully researched needs of youth in the service sector.

Institutionalized career mentoring model highlights the key competencies of mentoring: initiate and foster relationships, establish a climate of peer support, model reflective teaching practices, apply and share effective classroom management strategies, encourage and nurture an appreciation of diversity, maintaining effective communication, fostering independence, promoting professional development and instilling hope all integrated in its mentoring programs.According to research studies on career mentoring in public and private education institutions in Pakistan, mentoring is taught at a very introductory level to faculty. It does not impart the requisite skill set to become an effective and trained career mentor.Moreover, there are hardly any educational institutions in Pakistan where career mentoring is practiced as part of policy. However, it is worthy to note that career mentoring is evolving slowly in developing countries (UNESCO). 

Qualitative case study method has been adopted in this paper. Individual and focus group interviews with the research participants were conducted as well. Difficulties were found with the lack of career mentoring knowledge to direct youth. Furthermore, teachers and career mentors are facing increasing demands; they need to identify the hidden competencies of the youth in order to consistently provide a support system of mentoring. 

By offering a holistic model and by educating and developing competent career mentors we are instilling and creating hope amongst the teacher and youth community. The institutionalized model caters to keen stakeholders in universities and has a sustainable impact on the educational institutions to instill hope amongst the youth. Career mentoring is providing the youth with the competitive edge in the Asian region.

He stated that mentoring is no longer a myth for students in Pakistan it has now become a necessity for them to thrive in the global economy. By having an institutionalized mentoring model it will bridge the gap between industry and academia and employers will receive skilled human resource which is currently a gap. Some of the key finding of the research was as follows: To strengthen the supply side of mentoring and employability practices by facilitating institutionalized career counseling and mentoring training for teachers at educational institutions. To improve the demand side by supporting students at all levels in making educated and informed career decisions. He further said that the corporate sector organizations should come forward and establish endowment chairs and allocate budgets for corporate social responsibility for institutionalized mentoring programs at educational institutions and initiate employee advising learning programs for their employees at their respective organizations. 

“I started off the mentoring session with a very demoralized mindset; currently my mindset is really very different and positive” reported one of several highly enthusiastic mentees in the study.

Another mentee reported: “I feel happy now I can save my career; I got a job in a Multi-National Organization!”

Like the car sticker that was popular a few years ago: "If you can read this, thank a teacher" the same sentiment is true for many of our accomplishments in life that came about as a result of mentoring. Find time to celebrate your current or past mentor, consider how you can or do mentor others, and make it possible for others to benefit from professional mentoring.

Mr. Raza may be reached at RazaAbbas.HR-at-Gmail.com

Training & Organizational Development in Pakistan

Training & Organizational Development in Pakistan
By Mohammad Muneeb Kidwai
Post 2008 global collapse scenario saw a typical reaction by organizations in Pakistan. While some opted for bold and risky approach of launching new products, entering into business ventures and developing organizational capability, others followed the typical KNEE-JERK response including business consolidation, downsizing and of course, the Marketing/Training budget slash.

This did not necessarily mean that the Training and Organizational Development was completely discontinued. The emphasis and investment in employee development varied from industry and organizations. The relatively strong and growing sectors of Oil & Gas, Telecom, Banking and Foods Industry chose to SUSTAIN people investment.

Training professionals also observed a major and somewhat logical shift in organizational approach to building capability. Most companies opted to develop in-house trainers to achieve employee skill development which has its own PROS & CONS. While it allows organizations to have higher control at lower costs with more insightful and customized solutions, achievement of such benefits are subject to availability of relevant training management/delivery skills, business knowledge and creative approach in training personnel.

Top goals in these competitive times remain achieving organizational capability with business alignment, operational efficiency and sustained growth through innovation. While Re-engineering, TQM, Kaizen and Six Sigma have proven to be tried and tested methods to achieve effectiveness and efficiency, it is the innovation part that at times remains elusive.

Only those organizations are able to achieve permanent change in behavioral skills when the interventions are process based aimed at bringing a paradigm shift - a prerequisite for the much needed OUT-OF-THE-BOX thinking. This is a huge challenge. Difficult but not impossible. As behavioral experts claim that people face a paradoxical dilemma of wanting to grow without changing themselves. Since people follow what they see not what they hear, the interventions rarely achieve their goals.

Unless the key talent (if not everyone) of the organization is conditioned with a process-based mental training supported by a learning culture, the results will remain both artificial and short-lived.

As the CEO of Motorola was once asked "How does your management support training?" He responded by saying "By attending the training ourselves first". It's time to walk the talk.
 
About the Author: Muneeb, an IBA Graduate with over 20 years of professional experience, was an Independent Trainer, Teacher, Coach at The Change Agency (www.thechangeagency.com.pk) and the author of "The Power of Visualization: A Mental Technique for Goal Achievement" when this article was first published in the 10th issue of the TimeTrax HR Professionals Newsbeat. He is now a Corporate Trainer at Mobilink.

The above write-up was also published in the special print edition of the TimeTrax HR Professionals Newsbeat.

HR Policy Making in Pakistani Organizations.

In the last decade or so HR practices in Pakistan have undergone some major transformations mainly due to advent in technology, arrivals of foreign companies, induction of business graduates into businesses and competition among firms. But the spread of INTERNATIONAL standard HR practices & concepts still has not penetrated to all business sectors and a lot of work is required by HR professionals to strengthen this field.

In addition, it has been seen that STANDARDIZATION of HR practices within many companies is often neglected even though it is a known fact that well drafted standardized HR policies & procedures save the company hours of management time. The CONSISTENT use and interpretation of such policies, in an evenhanded manner, reduces management's concern on legal issues becoming legal problems.

A vast of majority of Pakistani HR professionals lack the fundamental knowledge of HR Policy making. Its not surprising , the company management teams DO NOT TRUST the ability of their HR department to deliver an HR policy manual and resort to hiring a consultant to do the job. A common MISCONCEPTION is that HR policies manual are developed only to streamline administrative tasks. Hence, it is considered a non-strategic activity which does not require much deliberation from the top management and copy-paste arrangements are considered sufficient.

As an HR practitioner I believe that the onus is on the Head of Human Resources department to ensure that HR team is well versed at developing HR Policy Manual, and educate the top management on how an HR policy manual will help the company achieve its strategic objectives.

There are other issues associated with the drafting of HR policy manual that can be observed across various companies within Pakistan. Most HR policies are constructed based on the Best Practices methodology WITHOUT considering the relevancy to the industry in which the company operates or the life cycle (inception, growth, maturity, decline) in which the company is going through. HR policies are seldom revised whenever there is a change in business strategy. Furthermore there is HARDLY ANY effort made by the HR department to monitor the impact of HR policies on business and on employee satisfaction.

In some companies HR Policy manual is not made available to employees and concept of employee handbooks is still considered a far-fetched idea.

Since most HR department heads are not treated as strategic business partners, they become so complacent with the status-quo that they RARELY proceed with a change in policy out of the fear that it might trigger lengthy discussions and difference of opinions within the board of directors NO MATTER how important the HR policy changes maybe.

The idea behind developing HR Policy manuals is to help staff and management teams run the organization in a consistent manner. In BEST use situations, policies play a strategic role in an organization. If they are developed in light of the mission and objectives of the company, they become the MEDIUM through which management plans, rules and business processes become documented and communicated to all staff. It's a win-win situation for both employees and the management.

About the Author: Muhammad Usman was working as Senior Consultant HCM for Abacus Consulting, with over seven years of diversified experience in the field of HR, Business Intelligence & Sales Operations at the time of first publication of this article in the 9th TimeTrax HR Professionals NewsBeat in November 2011 and is currently the Job Evaluation Analyst at ZADCO, United Arab Emirates.

Including Home-Grown Technology in the (Graduate & Post-Graduate) University Curriculum

The average – and not so average – institute around the globe would have the likes of SAP, Oracle and Microsoft applications, besides others, as part of the curriculum for Human Resource, Enterprise Resource Planning and Supply Chain disciplines to help students better understand the business processes in light of the software applications that are helping millions of organizations across the globe manage and monitor their processes.

This is an excellent step – equipping the students with the practical tools while exposing them to the theories and principals that have been kept in mind while developing these very applications. The flexibility these solutions offer the organizations is tremendous and are so generic in nature that an organization of virtually any size, maturity and industry can – almost always – customize them to their specific needs.

While the utility of inclusion of off-the-shelf software as part of curriculum has been in practice for decades and as such cannot be questioned for it truly has delivered a platform for fresh graduates to be recognized by their prospective employers as having a highly useful skill, the question does arrive though; ‘Why pay millions for licensing of expensive software, when just as good locally developed software solutions/products are available in the market?’. The question was posed to lecturers and professors at some of the leading universities in Pakistan and the response though skewed in favor of the original premise, was varied and some snippets are reproduced here:

The For:

"In an increasingly diversified and challenging business landscape, technology is playing vital role be it research, business positioning and promotion, corporate-academia linkages, distant learning programs etc.

IT market and more specifically customized solution providers in Pakistan have established themselves amongst the global giants. It is therefore expensive and unnecessary to buy off-the-shelf, orthodox solution from international sellers rather it is imperative that local solution providers who have grip over the challenges and can meet customization requirements of the institutions, with all global standards justified, are far better. Additionally software accommodations are easier and one on one interaction enhances the chance of continuous improvement. Hence it’s mutually beneficial to acquire systems and software solutions (like TimeTrax HCMS) domestically if available."

And…

“Any automation/system implementation process needs to match the organisation culture, the indigenous business practices of the industry and process maturity of the implementing organisation. In the end system implementation should prove its worth in terms of the benefits it provides to catapult the organisation/workflow to the next level. The advantage of using localized/customized software (like BizzTrax ERP) over imported systems is that it is easier to customize to local demands and culture and so from a change management perspective- easier to gain acceptability. When one implements imported software, the software is built on assumptions of foreign regulations and culture. International software implementations fail in local environment because their systems pre-assumptions do not match local expectations and hence implementing the system workflow becomes difficult and often is shelved.”

The Against:

“The role of universities has changed in today’s age of information revolution. It is no longer transfer of knowledge from old professors to the young generation. Universities today must produce entrepreneurs and nurture creativity. Training them to use software that someone else has produced limits their potential. The students must be taught to create new software and found new software enterprises that can compete with the best in the world and consequently add to the national growth.”

The Conclusion (if you will):

While conflicting views would exist to any issue, it would be important to register the idea behind introduction either of the two solution sets into the curriculum and the underlying objective:

As part of the MIS curriculum to help students build an understanding of Information Systems. As part of the HR curriculum to give students exposure of an HRIS/HCMS application for performing operations, defining workflows and affects of various available policy options in their industry. As part of the Supply Chain curriculum to give students hands-on exposure of how demand planning translates into the production plan through BOM explosion and also how secondary sales visibility assists with procurement planning, and so on.


Note: The brand-names SAP, TimeTrax, Microsoft, BizzTrax and Oracle are registered trademarks of their respective organizations.