ENGAGE with staff consistently.

This was the advice of BSP Life managing director Michael Nacola to more than 300 HR practitioners who attended the 2023 BSP Life FHRI Convention at the Sofitel Resort and Spa in Denarau.

“It has to be something that you do because it is important,” he said.

“It is just as important as your board meetings and your management meetings.

“You have to engage your staff so that they understand why you are doing things in a particular way, what the purpose of the organization is and what the strategy is and how each of their roles is connected to the outcomes you are looking for.

“These face to face engagements is where we discuss less about the financial outlook but more about the drivers of what is getting us the outcomes and the importance of connectedness between everyone so that we are all heading at the same direction and at the same pace.” He said HR must demand time for workers from their CEOs.

“For us BSP Life, our HR team demands my time. “And you as a HR practitioner, you have to demand that time for your workers.

“As the people’s champion, you have to be in their ear and demand them to be in front of their people. “You have to remember that the CEO has so many things on their mind.

“They are worried about profits, shareholder expectations and clients. There’s a plethora of things on their table.

“So you need to be in their ear and tell them that we need to conduct this with our people.

“If you wait for them to come up with it on their own then sometimes it will become an afterthought and you will have another thing coming.

“When you are consistently connected to your people, then you will get an engagement that is authentic and if people are hearing directly from the leader then you will get better alignment of your responsibilities.”