The Association of Professional Women Bankers has partnered experts in the banking and human capital management sector to find sustainable solutions to the problem of brain drain in the sector.
The Chairman, APWB, Mrs Funke Ladimeji, while speaking at a symposium recently, said the programme sought to address several objectives of the group’s plan to build capacity and empower women.
According to Ladimeji, the theme of the symposium is designed to capture the ongoing disruptions in talent markets, and the need for new leadership.
She said, “Very importantly, we live in a highly connected world. As a result, APWB decided to bring industry stakeholders together – to rub minds on the topic, to share perspectives, to enhance our common understanding, explore and fashion sustainable solutions to the talent market disruptions”
Earlier, the Managing-Director, First City Monument Bank, Yemisi Edun, had said that quality leadership was needed in corporate organisations.
She added that if the developing situation was not quickly nipped in the bud, the already disrupted banking industry would be challenged more than other sectors of the economy.
She said, “The topic is so relevant now that if we don’t address it and if we are not careful, our industry, amongst others, would be much challenged. Banking has been disrupted more than any others. Leadership is all about innovating, thinking about how you do things better.’
She added, “A decade ago, migrants from Nigeria were less than a million, 990,000, according to statistics. But now, they are recording 1.7m per annum. That means, a decade ago, we were losing about one million Nigerians to other continents, but now, we are losing almost double of that to the other continents. With United Kingdom, workers visas increased by 11,854 from December 2019 to June 2022. That was a massive increase for workers moving to UK. It gets worse with students visas for UK: we have seen about 223percent increase year-on-year.”
On the way forward, she said, “Corporations today need leaders who can think differently about how they work with their teams, how do they engage their teams, how do they know their problems, how do they solve their problems. We need leaders today in our corporations that can communicate and bond with customers. We need to connect with internal and external customers. We need leaders that know how to develop talents, we need leaders that plan for change any time and know how to measure success. Leaders of today must imbibe empathy; that is the age that we are at this time. People are going through a lot; how do we resolve issues for them as leaders? It’s part of the now of work”
Earlier, the President/Chairman of Council of the Chartered Institute of Bankers of Nigeria, Dr Ken Opara noted that the theme encapsulated the challenge confronting human capital managers in organisations especially the banking industry.
He said, “As we have noticed in the recent past, the culture of work is being redefined by events after the pandemic, the impact of cross-border migration, the new orientation of the Gen Z and the millennial, together with changing economic realities of the day; these are creating new dynamics in the labour market. The value proposition offered by organisations must as such adapt to this changing reality. Today’s workplace is becoming more diverse than ever. Funds must be made available to train, retrain and retool the workforce. Organisations that do not make the effort to attract and engage the changing workforce may risk losing their workers, and in the process, the opportunity for growth is a true reflection of the reality out today”
The Regional Head, People and Culture Nigeria and West Africa for Standard Bank Group, Funke Amobi, stated five factors to mediate between workforce behaviour and an organisation’s management.
She informed the symposium that leadership had shifted from managing talent to managing digital talent.
