Ways Firms Can Optimise Human Capital—PwC Nigeria

By Modupe Gbadeyanka

Organisations that will thrive in a constantly disrupted and divergent world will require adaptability, rethinking their employer value proposition and leveraging organisational data more effectively.

Human Resources department needs to take a more prominent role in enabling their organisations build these capabilities.

This was the overriding consensus that emerged at a breakfast meeting hosted by PwC’s People & Organisation (P& O) team on the theme Disruption in HR: Revving your game with strategic reward which recently held in Lagos.

The firm says that the current environmental realities present an opportunity for discerning HR leaders to deliver greater value.

The options open to HR leaders looking to achieve better results from their workforce and sustain employee engagement formed the crux of discussions at the breakfast meeting, which was well attended by HR leaders across industries.

Dr Bert Odiaka, PwC Nigeria Partner and Advisory leader, in his opening remarks at the event clearly illustrated the changing landscape when he noted: “The average tenure on a job for Millennials who will constitute 75% of the workforce in 2025 is now about five years. This is a major departure from the employment for life philosophy of older generations.”

The breakfast meeting featured presentations from various subject matter specialists drawn from across the firm. The discussions also addressed questions around how HR can be more innovative and flexible with rewarding and engaging employees in the face of shrinking budgets while also helping them increase their pay-outs through tax efficient reward.

Esiri Agbeyi, PwC Nigeria Partner and P & O Tax unit leader, commenting on the tax presentation made during the event highlighted that:

“HR leaders must help their organisations achieve a strategic balance between rewarding employees and costs to other relevant stakeholders. They can achieve this by adopting a multi-competency approach that considers the entire business and core strategic values.

“As an example, paying attention to tax advantages or leakages in determining a reward policy is critical to mitigating extra costs to both employees and employer, more so when such employees are internationally mobile and can pick up more costs in the host countries due to difference in tax treatments or the absence of a double tax treaty.

“We typically find this with long term incentive schemes such as share schemes where the cost consequences of accounting, tax and even foreign exchange implications should not be overlooked.”

Ibironke Tolu-Ogunpolu, PwC Nigeria P& O Advisory Competency Leader comments: “Drawing on our research on disruptive developments across various sectors and the future of work, we’ve identified key priorities for optimising talent – or human capital – today, while building for the future. Some of these include developing dynamic models for the workforce of the future, maximising the potential of digital talent exchange, digitising the work place to fuel productivity and integrating data analytics for decision making support. It is also important to redesign jobs and compensation models to reward contribution to business value.”

During the session, other presenters, Seyi Onasanya and Ade Ogunsanya, Senior Manager and Manager respectively of the P & O team also announced PwC’s upcoming 2016 REMbenefit and REMChannel Policies Survey. The survey which seeks to explore how benefit policies and practices compare between employers in Nigeria, will be published early 2017 and is now open for participation.

Speaking on the reward survey, Seyi explained that one way organisations around the globe retain talent is through robust and value adding benefit structures. Benefits form one of the key elements of any value proposition and it is essential for organisations to understand the landscape of current and future benefit trends in Nigeria and globally. PwC aims to achieve this through the survey findings, which will be published as a report and serve as a guide for Nigerian employers in decision making.

The breakfast meeting ended on a positive high with many participants welcoming the opportunity to share experiences, and discuss various trends that impact their contributions as HR professionals with subject matter specialists from PwC. They also welcomed the insights shared on best practice and ways they can better align their people strategy to help their organisations remain competitive today and in the future.