Akhona Qengqe, general manager at KFC Africa, has called on leaders to expand their conception of what HR is and what it can be. She highlighted this while speaking about her journey as the keynote speaker at CHRO Day held in Johannesburg recently.
Akhona’s corporate journey is a testament to why flexibility within an organisation is so important. She joined KFC as a development director who was responsible for managing the property portfolios within the organisation. Her transition into HR was never something she planned, but rather something that happened organically. Akhona reached a point in her career where she was itching for change and almost resigned from the company.
Yet, she was thrown a lifeline and given the opportunity to move to the HR department to become the director of transformation. For the two years that Akhona was in this position, she not only facilitated transformation through her organisation but experienced a deep and personal journey of inner-transformation.
“The transformation I went through was really incredible. It just set me up for the role I do today. I learnt that HR was more than just creating policies and making employees feel valued. HR was the one of the biggest parts of fuelling the business,” Akhona said.
She shared three valuable reflections from her time in HR.
HR as asset management
Akhona stressed an important point: If people are an organisation’s greatest assets then the role of HR is asset management. Reframing the role of HR as asset management is a significant shift that can help HR break away from the limits it faces. It can also facilitate an internal change for HR staff to think differently about the role they play within an organisation.
This framework can bring a more comprehensive approach to managing an organisation where the objective becomes how HR can maximise the value of the ‘assets’ in order to achieve business objectives. Practically, this means maximising people’s value, placing people where they are best deployed and making the best of their skills.
Holistic HR
Though HR plays a vital role in fostering workplace culture, it is necessary to understand HR as integral to an organisation’s business model.
“HR seems to be boxed in,” Akhona noted. “And the HR leader is often the last to be brought into the conversation.”
Organisations need to strike a balance between HR as a facilitator of culture and as an irreplaceable part of the business. Akhona warns that neither of these things should be sacrificed for the other: “Achieving business results should not be at the expense of culture”.
It is important that the workplace still prioritises creating a healthy and holistic culture that takes care of an employee's full personhood.
The future has already happened elsewhere
“We talk about the future as if it is so distant but in reality, that future we are talking about has already happened in a different place,” Akhona explained.
In an age where technological advancements, such as AI, are unavoidable – HR plays a pivotal role in facilitating this change within the workplace. Many workers feel anxious about the rapidly changing technologies and fear that innovations like AI will replace their labour.
As an antidote, HR can ensure that employees are best equipped and educated about the tools of the future. Akhona provided an anecdote about how KFC enrolled their global leadership team into an AI course and later made an option available for employees to do AI courses to upskill themselves. This is an example of how thoughtful engagement with technology and AI can happen.
Additionally, we must realise that the future is happening all around us. HR leaders must be vigilant and take care in observing trends in order to give their employees a sense of relevance.
Akhona credits her successes in her current role as general manager to the time spent in HR leadership. “HR teaches you the ability to hear what is not being said. HR taught me the ability to read the room. The ability to say ‘let’s take a break’. The HR role allowed me to spot patterns and connect dots.”
