HAPPY NEW MONTH AND A THOUSAND APOLOGIES FOR MY SILENCE!!

 happy new month wonderful readers and followers!!!

Its been a long minute since I last wrote and I want to personally apologize to each and every one of you for being away from my blog for so long. I broke a cardinal rule of mine which is to never allow anything get in the way of keeping my readers informed about HR news in Africa, sharing my thoughts, and interacting with my readers. Work has been pretty hectic, in both good and to be honest, not so good ways. A lot of demands have been made on my personal time, and unfortunately my endeavors suffered. However, I’m determined not to let that happen again and this week I’m going to practice what I preach. As much as I have projects ongoing for people, I am going to ensure that my blog, upcoming presentation, and free trainings that I intend to organize get done.

How many of my readers have been facing this challenge in the days, weeks, months, and even years that have passed? How many of us have put what we are were on the back burner, and are now afraid to resume what we love to do or simply feel the opportunity for us has come and gone? I’m here to tell you it hasn’t.  If you are reading this, God has given you life, and he did it for you to fulfill your purpose, never forget that!! Today is a brand new day, in a brand new week to start that blog, open that account, run that free training clinic, start that make up school, attend an event or a seminar

Practical steps I took to ensure this include:  I am connected to the internet 24/7, am leveraging on a number of new media technologies to link my various accounts; and I will be updating my blog, facebook, linkedin, and twitter according to a set timeline. How about you? What are the simple steps you can take to start dust off that project you have that’s grown cold resting on the back burner of YOUR life? Is it just a matter of signing up to twitter, ensuring you update your facebook status on your way to work, or even just network to make new friends and business relationships. I’m here as your personal cheerleader to tell you, YOU CAN DO IT!!! Let’s both start reliving our purpose along side everything else going on. You’ll be happier & content before you know it.

If you have any questions or just want free friendly advice on how to start on a long forgotten project, please do not hesitate to buzz me on insitefulsolutionsconsult@gmail.com

Have a great week everyone!

Regards,

Nikky

GOOD NEWS!! CALABAR STATE LOOKING TO IMPLEMENT SALARY INCREASES FOR IT'S TEACHERS

Special Adviser to the Cross River State Governor on Labour Matters, Sam Mbang Oju, has said that the 12 percent salary increase promised teachers in the state will soon be implemented just as the N17 million arrears of the weigh-in allowance owed members of the Radio, Television and Theatre Workers Union (RATTAWU) and the Nigeria Union of Journalists (NUJ) in the state will be paid soon. Speaking in Calabar yesterday, Oju urged workers and Labour leaders in the state to embark on training and retraining sessions to ensure an effective workforce. He further said that the new low tax regime promised by Governor Liyel Imoke will be fast tracked to provide succour and make the take-home-pay package a living wage.According to him, the dilapidated structure currently housing the NLC secretariat will be renovated to afford the body a conducive environment to co-ordinate the activities of its affiliates.

Culled from The Nigerian Daily Trust Newpaper

...AND EVEN MORE GHOST WORKERS DISCOVERED IN BAUCHI - 5,000!!

The shocking revelation of how much money we as a country are losing because of the payment of non existent employees within our collective FG labour force is still being uncovered as seen in the below excerpt culled from The Nigerian Daily Trust Newspaper

Bauchi state Local Government Service Commission has uncovered the existence of over 5000 ghost workers across the 20 local government councils of the state. The Chairman Local Government Service Commission, Alhaji Ibrahim Musa stated this today while speaking with newsmen in Bauchi. He said the discovery was made by the commission after conducting a screening exercise across the local councils in the state. Musa said part of the revelations of the committee that went round the 20 local government councils in the state was the existence of many staffs that are supposed to have retired since but were still using false ages to remain in service.

AWESOME POINT TO REMEMBER AS AN SME - ETHICS CAN MAKE OR BREAK YOUR BUSINESS

Regarding setting up best practise systems and policies in your offices or even as an individual working in an office, the best advice I ever received is ethics trickles down from leadership. If leadership isn't ethical, workers will not be either. This doesn't matter whether you are an SME employing 1 person or on your way to becoming a large enterprise operating across Nigeria, Africa, and even the world.

Ethics is becoming more and more important with social media and shrinking global borders making it almost impossible for companies not to be transparent and accountable for their actions, systems, and policies. Crafting a sustainable ethical policy in your company is not as hard as you think and for small business owners, it is better to set up on earlier on that is sustainable and implementable in order to ensure you know you are accountable and ultimately responsible for the success or failure of your business.

To read more about this, please click on the below link

http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/06/13/us-management-tip-idUSBRE8480ST20120613

KEBBI LOSES N153 MILLION MONTHLY TO GHOST WORKERS

The Kebbi State government loses a whooping N153 million monthly to 2,800 workers on its payroll, an investigation has found. This was contained in a report by the committee set up by the state government last month on salaries and pensions in the state, which was submitted to the state Governor, Saidu Dakingari, at the Government House, Birnin Kebbi, yesterday. Chairman of the committee, Senator Faruk Bello Bunza who presented the report noted that the revelations were quiet alarming, and added that they were discovered from the data obtained from the pay roll and staff list of ministries, boards and parastatals in the state civil service. Bunza also lamented that the system was full of irregularities and illegalities whereby some retirees were found to be collecting both salary and their pensions, while some were dead but their names still appeared on the pay roll .

Other shocking revelations included fictitious entry of names as well as duplication of names just as a lot of discoveries were also made when the committee undertook the physical payment of pensioners for the month of May.

Culled From The Leadership Newspaper

IS YOUR BUSINESS NOT GROWING? THEN PLEASE READ THIS ARTICLE

Over the years, I have met a lot of entrepreneurs who have been frustrated by low profits, lack of growth, or the stress of the never-ending demands. Many struggle with all three. While every business is different, there are common denominators. In fact, I believe there are 10. The tricky part is that failing to have a handle on just one of these areas can result in mediocre performance, a stressful existence, or ultimate and intimate failure. That is one reason the failure rate for small businesses is so high (here are some others).

This is the checklist I review when I’m not satisfied with my company’s performance.

read more at:

http://boss.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/01/18/how-to-diagnose-whats-wrong-with-your-business/?ref=humanresources

UPDATE - DRAMA SURROUNDING THE SACKING OF 3,000 WORKERS IN OYO STATE

Ibadan — The Oyo State chapter of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, has condemned Oyo State Government for sacking 3,000 of its workers. Mr. Dotun Oyelade, spokesman of PDP Synergy League, said in a statement in Ibadan, yesterday, that the sack "is the fulfilment of a mind-set primed at reducing the workforce by all means." "The sack is not only premeditated but the first step in a long-drawn strategy to prune down the civil service to a manageable level as a result of the deadlock surrounding the minimum wage." ACN's spokesman, Mr Dauda Kolawole, however, described as shameful PDP's defence of workers that the past administration had prepared for sack due to certificate forgery, age falsification and contravention of service rules.

Culled The Nigerian Vanguard Newspaper

OYO STATE GOVERNMENT TO SACK 3,000 WORKING WITH FAKE CERTIFICATES

Ibadan — Oyo State government has sacked 3,000 of its workforce found wanting for various offences ranging from forged certificates and falsified ages, among others. Explaining why it embarked on the sack, government said the exercise was imperative to save the integrity of the service. In a statement issued in Ibadan on Sunday and signed by the Special Adviser, Media, to Governor Abiola Ajimobi, Dr. Festus Adedayo, government explained that those affected were staff identified to have run foul of their rules of engagement. The offences, according to the release, range from falsified age claims, falsified certificates, ghost workers who had no letter of appointment or who were retired but were still on the payroll of government, as well as staff who possessed outstanding disciplinary cases against them. Explaining how government came about the list, the release said that the current administration in the state inherited the staff rationalisation list from the immediate past government which engaged the services of a management consultancy outfit called Captain Consulting, to do a thorough audit of the records of all public and civil servants in the state and their positions. After the audit, said the release, the consultancy outfit came up with the list of workers with deficiencies that violated their rules of engagement to the Oyo State

government public and civil service which it presented to the immediate past government.

According to the government, when the Ajimobi administration came into office, even though it was persuaded that allowing indicted workers to stay in the service would affect the morale of workers with genuine documents and was against the rules of equity and fair-play, as well as constituting a potential pollution in the ranksof workers in the state, government immediately initiated a public service process of giving these workers the rights of fair hearing by setting up a panel to review the consultant's reports.

The government said that, after the exercise of painstakingly verifying the veracity of the claims of the consulting outfit, many of the workers who were exonerated by the panel had their names removed from the list and are not affected by the current cleansing exercise.

culled from the Daily trust newspaper

REINSTATED LAGOS DOCTORS HAVE RESUMED WORK FULLY

Lagos State doctors who were recently recalled by the state government resumed work on Wednesday, upon receiving their letters of recall. A correspondent of the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) who visited some hospitals, such as the Lagos University Teaching Hospital (LASUTH), Ikeja and the Randle General Hospital, Surulere reports that doctors were seen attending to patients. NAN, however, reports that the patients were few as most of them were still unaware of the resumption of the doctors. A doctor in the Family Medicine Department of LASUTH, Dr Oluwajimi Shodipo, told NAN that he was happy to be back at work,and their primary responsibility of saving lives. He, however, hoped that the issues which led to the crises would be resolved once and for all.

Culled from the Nigerian Daily Trust Newspaper

NEW WEEK...NEW THOUGHTS... ARE YOU BUILDING TOWARDS YOUR LEGACY?

Good evening everyone,

I hope you had a fantastic Monday back to work after the weekend. Our hearts go out to friend's and families affected by the recent bombings in Borno and Plateau State. May the hearts of the faithfully departed rest in perfect peace Amen.

The recent spate of bombings has got me thinking about how fragile human life is and how careful one has to be live, work, and prosper in Abuja. It's a reminder to all of us about how precious life is and how important it is to add value to both your life and the lives of those around you. Take time out this week to think of who you can help in terms of reaching goals and crossing milestones. Look beyond yourself at home, in the office, and within your friends to see who you can mentor, advice, or just give a word of comfort and a helping hand when they need it.

One of the easiest things to do in this world is be a critic because sitting outside of a situation, you do tend to see the bigger picture and remain dispassionate. however, it is much harder to give help as and when it is due. So why not dedicate a few hours this week to helping someone else achieve their goals, targets, purpose or even routine jobs that they find daunting. Adding value to the lives around you is the first step in building a legacy that lives beyond you.

Have a great week everyone!!

Regards,

NVEfretei

Nkoyo Efretei

Insiteful Solutions Consult Services