Louis Ntanda, a human resource and management expert based in Enugu, in this interview with Ibrahim Apekhade Yusuf notes that companies stand the risk of litigation if they lay off workers over COVID-19. Excerpts:
A lot of organisations adopted work-at-home schedules in line with the forced lockdown caused by COVID-19. Based on the modest success achieved thus far, most of the companies want to sustain this tempo and this has great implications for job security. What is your take?
With the COVID: 19 situation and work from home being adopted by some organisations, we can’t really say there is success so far as there have been challenges such as power supply, new work environment not being as conducive as the normal work space and the reality of not being able to supervise the job being done as being accurate.
Yes, some organisation say have a moderate success so far, however it’s left to see if it can be sustained depending on the business the organisation is into. As for job security, be rest assured that it will not be a threat to current jobs and will definitely bring about more jobs as organisations will have to employ more staff to work from home albeit at a less pay compared to the usual office staff.
Expectedly, some staff of the OPS have expressed fears that their management is considering wholesale changes to work schedules and possibly cut jobs as a result. What’s your take on this?
The OPS maybe considering this but it’s rather too early to take such decisions as we can’t say there is moderate success. A lot of face-to-face contacts need to be done in areas that actually generate cash flow for the sector. Marketing and sales are not easily done in Nigeria via the net as strategies are not yet fine-tuned for video calls, video conferences, etc. A good example is a video call from someone wanting to sell a product to you. Our reaction is usually to not pick because we don’t know the caller or tell the caller to call back.
What needs to be done by companies as a face-saving measure to mitigate the fallouts of the job crisis?
Most organisations are not looking at cutting jobs now as it’s actually not in most organisations staff handbooks on how to handle the current situation. What most of them are trying to work on now is having a kind of discussion with staff on paying a certain percent of their salary for the time being and looking at the staff handbook to see if the stay at home can be converted into their leave for the year.
It’s actually a position that ties the hand of the HR in all organisations as the Labour law and their various handbooks does not provide for such. We may be faced with lots of litigations after the lockdown if the various organisations and mostly HR do not handle the current situation well.
As a HR expert, what are the jobs most likely to be affected in terms of layoffs because that’s inevitable?
To me the administrative jobs and all the jobs that do not directly bring income to organisations will be most hit. The numbers will be cut down considerably to allow more employment opportunities for staff with ICT skills set. Of course, departments like marketing and sales may not be affected as much. In the long run, it’s actually going to be more employment and business for the hardware, software and those in ICT sector in general.
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