HR as a discipline
HR procedures exist and cover the basics. The real problem was application. The hospital group had no HR department or HR officer. All decision-making went straight to the senior management team, in collective session: all disciplinaries, all changes to pay, all larger staff-training issues. Little was dealt with directly by senior managers.
Job descriptions and person specifications
Job descriptions were understood, but remain largely unused. Person specifications (PSs) are not understood and do not exist. Yet when it comes to recruitment, an implicit PS comes into play. Formal qualifications are paramount. When I wanted to recruit someone with a degree but no experience for a position understood as being for a diploma-, not degree-, holder, people were not happy. Yet the applicant was willing to settle for the pay for the grade, for the sake of getting some real experience.
Appraisal
Appraisals are known of but not used. The prospect of reflective self-assessment, followed by a discussion and possible assessment/scoring by the line manager appalls both appraiser and appraisee. Indeed, there is no tradition of active management of staff, of local goal-setting, receiving feedback, nor of active team-building. This is not as silly as it sounds. Group identity emerges organically though kinship and friendship, not though departmental or organisational identity.
Pay
The hospital group has a fairly well laid out salary structure. However, supplementary allowances have grown over the years to give overwhelming complexity. Some of this is not documented, but resides in the memories of a small number of longer serving senior staff. Of course, these salary scales should be drastically simplified and made transparent. But as at present we do not have the money, the Heath Robinson system will have to creak on.
Sickness, leave, days-off
The hospital really is 24/7. Unlike in the UK, people will willingly work 20 days or more without a single day off and then take a long break. Many staff members have family and family farms at a distance and so use the longer breaks to go to them. In itself, this is a sensible response to quite different lifestyle constraints than in Europe. Sick absences are not like in the UK. Many staff members have chronic conditions (diabetes, ulcers, Aids) or reoccurring conditions (for example, malaria) and are more willing to attend work when unwell than we are, leading to a curious sort of presenteeism. They would rather be at work with friends than lie lonely on their sickbed.
Knowing where you’re going: management information
We have computers, servers and internet connections to the outside world. But no HR-MIS, no turnover statistics, no sickness absence data, no dates of entry, contact details, nearest of kin, length of service, gender or age information. In the past, so much HR work has been done on a highly personalised basis by senior staff acting as matriarchs or patriarchs. Managers’ powers of recall are amazing. But as the hospital grows in size, what was manageable for 100 staff is no longer possible now we have more than 300.
Finally
So much needs to change, but force-feeding managers with CIPD guidelines is the lazy recommendation. It is said, and with some justification, that Africans are experts in human relations. The best of the Ugandan personalised approach has to be combined with a rigorous implementation of existing basic procedures. It means moving from the family-business mindset to practices already to be found in bigger businesses existing in Uganda.
