Exploring the HR Strategies and Competitive Advantages of Nigeria’s Federal Character Commission

Exploring the HR Strategies and Competitive Advantages of Nigeria’s Federal Character Commission.

By: Okotete Happiness

INTRODUCTION:

       Human Resource Management is a vital strong point in every organization private or public. Human Resource plays an important part in an organization’s financial resources. The Human Resource department is saddled with responsibility to man problems that are staff related at such it effectively affects staff stability and loyalty. The all-important of every business enterprise is to maximise profit, a properly functional HR department should add substantial business value to their organization.

         We are closely going to observe the HR strategies and Competitive advantages of the Federal Character Commission of Nigeria. Federal Character Commission is one of the constitutional government organizations in Nigeria. The Federal Character Commission preaches fairness and equity in sharing of public post and socio-economic infrastructures amidst the many federating units of the Federal Republic of Nigeria. Federal Character Commission as an Executive body is important to maintain fairness in its policies owing to the heterogeneous diversity in Nigeria. The Authority of the Nigerian 1999 constitution in sections 14 and 153 gave the power for the creation of the Federal Character Commission (FCC) in order for it to operate in a system of government that is democratic. Although some Nigerians believe that the Commission has not acted wholly in its principles and mandates of its existence, but we cannot deny that Federal Character Commission has been instrumental in reducing ethno-religious agitations. The establishment act of the Federal Character Commission give the commission the authority to formulate guidelines for other government organizations and MDAs in terms of employment and appointment. The Commission can demand the presence of Managing Directors, Director Generals, Chairmen and other Head of Government organization if they are not adhering to it guidelines and principles.

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Organizational Structure of Federal Character Commission

1. The Chairman:  The Chairman is appointed by the President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria. He or She in charge of the affairs of the Commission. The Chairman can to hire and fire.
2. Commissioners : one person represents each of the States in Nigeria including the Federal Capital Territory (37 states)
3. Secretary to the Commission: the Secretary to the Commission is the administrative head of the commission.
4. Directors: Directors are Public officers on salary grade level 17, which is considered as the career peak for public servants.

The Human Resource management department of the Commission is a very tactful department. It comprises of the;

1. Staff and Training Matters Unit (TC&SM)
2. Establishment Unit
3. Appointment, Promotion & Disciplinary Unit

All units work together to draw a roadmap to elucidate the challenges of the Commission. The Staff and training unit ensures that the persons in the Personnel department (HR) are adequately and frequently trained. The Unit also organize training for staff in other department of the organization. This unit deals with welfare of staffs and related issues. The Establishment Unit takes care of leaves (Maternity, sick, annual, etc.). This Unit also monitors the career progression of staff and recommend when a staff is due for promotion and even retirement from active service. The appointment promotion & disciplinary unit is a very sensitive unit. Staffs in this unit have good people, communication and organizational skill. The unit requires an analytical mind-set that is strategic and also an outgoing personality. The unit responsible is for recruitment, at such they are expected to employ the best candidate when doing so. During recruitment the Appointment, Promotion and Disciplinary unit studies the key strength and abilities of candidates so as to know which department they can function better in. This Unit is in-charge of organizing promotions for Eligible staff. They set promotion exams and score staff according to their performances. The unit set up disciplinary panels and query staffs that have not been compliant to the civil service rules and rules that govern the Federal Character Commission. All units in the Human Resource and Management department have a supervisor that is mostly on salary grade level 16 (Deputy Director). The unit head assign duties to his subordinates and then gives progress reports to the Director of Human Resource and management department.

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Competitive Advantages of Federal Character Commission

The Federal Character Commission is a Public (Government) Organization in the federal Republic of Nigeria. It is an essential and constitutional Executive body. The Commission is answerable to the President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria. At the end of every year an annual report is submitted to the President. The annual report communicates the successes, challenges and achievements of the Commission in the year. The annual reports are printed and kept in public libraries, making the reports available for citizens of the country. Only a few government organizations present reports to the President of the country. These reports are available to the public to show transparency in carrying out its set out mandates. The Federal Character Commission is very crucial in a country that has an estimated 200 million people and almost 400 ethnic groups. Every ethnic group wants to have a feel of belonging. If every ethnic group have this feeling of not being left behind, then unity in the country has been achieved and peace lives where there is Unity. “Nigeria, South Africa and Namibia, all divided societies, have affirmed action programmes aimed at overcoming the profound inequalities between different segments of their populations”. Abdul Raufu Mustapha (2007). Unlike other government organizations, the Federal Character has mandates which are executed transparently. The second mandate of the Federal Character Commission is to ensure that socio-economic amenities are fairly distributed. “Economic Inequalities are another feature of Nigerian national life. For example, in 1986-90, 70% of the registered companies in Nigeria were located in the Southwest, with 16% in the three northern zones and 14% in the two other southern zones “ Hamalai (1994). “Another Index of economic Inequality is the preponderance of Lagos in banking operations. Lagos accounted for 48% of all deposits and 69.96% of all loans in 2006, while the three northern zones combined, accounted for only 10.75% of deposits and 8.5% of loans” Soludo (2007). Several research have shown that “severe inequalities between culturally defined groups, so called horizontal inequalities, have shown to significantly increase the risk of violent group mobilization in diverse societies” Cederman, Weidmann & Gleditsch (2011). The mandates of the Federal Character Commission give it an edge and also competitive advantages over other many other government organizations. The issues that Commission seeks to address are delicate issues of concern. The way the Federal Character Commission handle this given constitutional power is another reason why the organization is way ahead of other government organizations in the country. The organization is known for carrying out monthly monitoring as a strategy of enforcing its Federal Character principles. The Commission visits other government MDAs and request for their nominal rolls which are placed on the character balancing index to show states/geo-political zones/ ethnic groups that are under- represented. Federal Character Commission stands out in its services, owing to the fact that all government organization including military is answerable to the Commission and they must adhere to its Character principles. A few years back a random person notified the Human Resource and Management department about recruitment in Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority on how the process was flawed, after monitoring and going through nominal rolls, the Commission stopped the recruitment process and closely monitored a fresh recruitment strictly adhering to the Federal Character principles. It is evident that the Federal Character Commission is responsive in its services (mandates). Public Servants in Nigeria are known to display poor attitude to work. Sometimes Public workers do not show in their various work places with flimsy or no excuses at all for it. The Human Resource and management department of the Federal Character Commission has installed clocking in and clocking out devices and also do random, daily seat to seat checks to endeavour workers are at work and on their jobs. The Establishment unit of the department is responsible for checking the installed attendance devices to fish out absentees. The responsiveness of the Commission, its good approach towards the mandates it was set out for, transparency, attitude of staff to work are few of the reason why it is miles ahead many other government organizations in Nigeria.

                   Human Resource strategies consist of HR activities that allow employees to work in line with organizational objectives. Efficient Human Resource strategies aid an organization’s productivity and ensure positive organizational overall performance. Human resource strategies and policies can help an organization confirm if it is cooperating with national labour laws. The Human resource department of the Federal Character Commission ensure that the commission works in accordance to the Nigerian Labour laws. Employees are being paid slightly above the national minimum wage per month. The Human resource department of the FCC ensures that newly recruited employees are paid fully even if they are put under a two year probationary period. Under the legislation passed in 2004 Labour Act, every employee is entitled to twenty-one days leave after working for a year (21 days annual leave) and in the case of people under 16 years old, 12 leave days. In this regard, employees of the Federal Character Commission are entitled to thirty working days of leave after working for 12 months (six weeks annual leave). In the beginning of every year, the establishment unit of the Human resource department hands out leave roasters to directors/heads of departments in which Staff in each department register their names on the roaster to alert the Human Resource department on when they will like to go on their annual leave (30 working days). A staff in the Establishment Unit of the Human Resource department confirmed that, the leave roaster is introduced so that two persons who carry out the same schedule of duty, do not go on leave at the same time. So if they fill in the same dates to commence annual leaves this can be modified by the Establishment unit of the Human Resource department. The labour act also provides transportation for employees in situations that they have to travel over 16km (9.9 mi). The Human resource and management department made buses available at very low rates for employees who decide not drive down to work. In the course of my research I found out that employees are entitled to 2 weeks casual leave before or after they have taken their annual leave. The casual leave is for unforeseen or urgent happenings, say the loss of a close relative, urgent medical attention etc. Yamane (1967) did a study that 96 administrator’s participated in. the use of questionnaires was employed as the tool for data collection. The study concludes that leave systems can affect staff performance. The leave system in the Federal Character Commission is a good strategy that Human Resource and management department uses in increasing staff productivity and staff performances.

          The Staff and Training Matters unit of the Human Resource department organizes an award night every year. This Unit notifies the Chairman and secretary of the Commission and even dignitaries from other government MDAs on the set date of the annual award night. The last annual award night was held on the 20th of December, 2022. Awards were presented to staff of different departments based on their performance, punctuality, dressing etc. top officials like directors, supervisors and head of units were rewarded accordingly. Salary use to be the reward for employees that makes them more efficient and hardworking, these days the concept of reward management is been adopted by companies and mostly financial institutions. This well thought out rewards can reshape the workplace, so it is important to add to HR strategy. Armstrong and Stephens (2005) posits that reward strategy is a management pronouncement of intent which expresses what the organization wants to achieve in the longer term. Nwokocha (2016) “reward policies, practices and processes enhances the achievement of business goals and meets the needs of stakeholders”.  Kreitner (2004) posits that reward is the material and psychological payoffs given to an employee as recognition for good contribution in the workplace. The human resource department ensure that staff of the Federal Character Commission is enrolled on the National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS). Staff of the Commission is allowed to put their spouses and four of their children in the health insurance scheme. The enrolment of staff in NHIS has increased staff loyalty to the organization. Staff loyalty is considered to be a good Human Resource strategy. The HR department of the Commission organizes the yearly training for staff on different grade levels (03-17) to develop their key strengths.

      In conclusion, the Human Resource Department of most Nigerian government organizations are almost always understaffed. In some government MDAs you have just a Director of Human Resource Management and not up to ten staff working in the department. The HR department of Federal Character Commission houses 30- 35 staff. I regard this as smart work and good leadership strategy because the best way to get things done as head of HR Department is to get them done through other people, through that, delegation of responsibilities is easy and ideas/suggestions from members of the department are welcomed. In some professional organizations recruitment is housed outside of HR. For example, an accounting organization would involve accountants to recruit new staff. The Human Resource department of the FCC is directly involved in recruitment, retention and engagement of staff.  However, even if the mandates (Objectives) of the Federal Character Commission are clear, it is tough to determine how the Human Resource strategies employed in the HR units can be directly involved in them

References

1. Armstrong, M and Baron, A (2002) Strategic HRM: The route to improved business performance, CIPD London
2. Boxall, P F and Purcell, J (2003) Strategy and Human Resource  Management, Plagrave Macmillan, Basingstoke
3. Dyer, L and Reeves, T (1995) Human resource strategies and firm performance: what do we know and where do we need to go?, The international Journal of Human Resource Management, 6 (3), pp 656-70
4. Delery J, Gupta N (2016) Human resource management practices and organizational effectiveness: “internal fit matters” Journal of Organizational Effectiveness, People and Performance
5. Federal Character Commission, (1996). 1st Annual Report, FCC, Abuja.
6. Federal Character Commission, (1999) the Federal Civil Service: 1999 Manpower Statistics. FCC, Abuja
7. Hamalai, Ladi, (1994) Distribution of Industrial Enterprises in Nigeria and National Unity’, in A Mahadi et al, eds, Nigeria: the State of the Nation and the Way Forward, Arewa House, Kaduna
8. O’Connel, James (1967) Political Integration: The Nigerian Case’, in A, Hazelwood, ed, African Integration and Disintegration, Oxford, Oxford University Press
9. Soludo, Charles (2007). Preserving Stability and Accelerating Growth, Central Bank of Nigeria, Speech by the Governor.

Exploring the HR Strategies and Competitive Advantages of Nigeria’s Federal Character Commission.

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