Nigeria’s largest electricity distribution company, Ikeja Electric (IE), has employed 603 staff between January 2015 and February 2016, in keeping with its commitment to drive service excellence through robust human capital profiling and development.
The company’s Head of Corporate Communications, Mr. Felix Ofuluealso pointed out that 74others were promoted across different functions of the businessas part of the company’s drive to ensure that it has a pool of competent and capable resources to manage modern trends in efficient power distribution and seamless service delivery.
According to him,there was an
ongoing recruitment of young engineering graduates to enhance sustainability of
the business, whilst creating a platform for grooming future leaders of the
sector.
He said:“The
promotions and additions are part of the company’s drive to ensure that it has
a pool of competent and capable resources to manage the legacy challenges the
company is currently facing and also to position it as the provider of choice
wherever energy is consumed. At Ikeja Electric, we place a high premium on
human capital development as a vital component of driving its commitment to
providing the best possible service to customers within its network.
Ofuluerevealed
that 229
employees of the company were affected in the disengagement exercise after they
failed to meet the required parameters for the company’s performance
assessments and were deemed to be performing below mandatory performance
objectives. He reiterated that the exercise was part of the strategic steps
aimed at repositioning and it was focused on aligning the company’s structure
with its operating model and optimizing human capital capacity for better
efficiency.
This figure clarifies recent
reports in which the Nigerian
Union of Electricity Employees (NUEE) and Senior Staff Association of
Electricity and Allied Matters (SSAEAM)had alleged the company disengaged 400 employeesinappropriately.
“We
will like to state that the number of employees that were disengaged was 229
and not 400 as earlier reported. In accordance with best practice, employees in
the organization went through a thorough, transparent and objective performance
assessment exercise and those that were deemed to be performing below the
required performance objectives were exited from the organization. This is also
to ensure that Ikeja Electric maintains an assemblage of the right staff in the
right roles that are equipped to perform optimally’,he said.
He
noted that Ikeja Electric will continue to implement robust human capital
optimization policies that are geared towards promoting efficiency and service
excellence”.
As
part of the company plans for careerprogression of its employees,herevealed
that specific and generic learning and development programmes, which hitherto
were unavailable prior to the company’s privatization in 2013 are ongoing and
mandatory for all categories of employees.
In2015,
over 245 unique learning and development interventions were conducted with over
2000 staff benefitting from the training programmes. A job regrading exercise
was also conducted to flatten the previous 17 career levels to only 9 career
levels thus allowing for accelerated growth.
Ofuluecalled
on the industry stakeholders to lend their support to the organization as part
of their contribution towards the company’s commitment and desire to tackle the
challenges in the sector. “As a responsible company, we remain unflinching in
our resolve to “light up” lives, homes and businesses of all our customers. We
also acknowledge and appreciate the feedback of our esteemed customers and
remain committed to ensuring equitable, reliable and transparent distribution
of power within our network” he said.
It will be recalled that in
the last few months, Ikeja Electric has scaled up their metering programme to
meet the expectations of its customers and further reduce the agitation against
estimated billing.
The
Electric distribution company is currently deploying smart meters and
implementing a customer enumeration and technical audit project that will
culminate in a seamless network that supports transparency in billing and
reliability in power distribution.
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