Turning on the HR light

Today is the morning after Tuesday’s all-day training center with 10 Bpeace women Associates at a conference center in Kilgali. In the 3 years these entrepreneurs have been under Bpeace's wing, they have received training in finance, marketing and customer service training. There are many other support services Bpeace volunteers provide to the women as well, traveling abroad for 2 weeks to a month, for example, to help a woman with her landscaping business.

Yesterday morning we spent on interviewing skills, starting with the purpose of the job description and how you devise one. The women were able to see that the job description begins to set the expectations for work performance if the candidate is hired. We went through an exercise where we looked at jobs they had and really broke them down into responsibilities of the job, skills, and qualifications required for the job. This was a real eye opener for the group. They truly got the fact that no one really likes writing a job description, but how it makes you think what skill you really need for the job. They each wrote a description for a job they had open. One of the translators will translate it into English and when we have the one-on-one with her, we will review her job description.

Now imagine doing this training, stopping every 3-4 sentences so the translator can translate the English into Kinyarwanda, the local language. Everything takes twice as long so I had to cut out a few sections during the day which I will follow up with each Associate in our one-to-one meetings over the course of the 2 weeks. Did I mention the conference room was dimly lit with maybe a 60 watt bulb hanging from the ceiling? Totally unlike myself, I went with the flow.

We did a role play so the group could see whether the interviewer was conducting the interview according to the guidelines.

The feedback on the morning part of the session was that they learned to interview in a private room or spot, to treat a candidate respectfully even if you have no intention of hiring him or her, go through the resume, or what they call a c.v. thoroughly, finding out the likes and dislikes of each job, reasons for moving to a new job, and strengths and areas for improvement as perveived from previous bosses. The afternoon we spent mainly on setting expectations and objectives, coaching, giving feedback, solving performance problems and summarizing the year’s performance with a performance appraisal – giving them a real performance management model. Solving performance problems were there greatest concern and we spent quite a bit of time laying out a structure on how to handle professionally. I believed that was well received.

Craig Baker is here in Rwanda the same time I am. One of our Associates, Languida, owns a funeral home, and Bpeace wanted to find a business mentor for her. Bpeace put a notice in a national funeral home newsletter asking for a volunteer, and Craig Baker from a rural part of Pennsylvania replied. Craig is spending every day with Languida reviewing her practices, visiting the morgues and cemetaries, and is introducing new ways of handling bodies, keeping to Rwandan customs, introducing marketing materials, like mourning cards, and training her in family-oriented grief procedures. They’re also exploring ways to expand the business since Languida is the only funeral home in town.

In the photo above, Craig is on the right, with Languida (left) and Richard, Bpeace's program manager in Kigail. Craig played center in college but says that in today’s college basketball games, considering the new physiques and the physicality of the game, he would be more a small guard. He’s about 6’6”.

I was pretty tired at the end of the day and just hung out at the hotel afterwards after preparing for the next day with the Rwanda Bpeace staff. But the night before Craig and I went to one of the highly rated restaurants in Kigali, called Republika. Solange opened the restaurant after she returned to the country after the Genocide. The restaurant is exactly what you’d expect a beautiful African restaurant to look like, and the owner, Solange, doesn’t disappoint either with her hospitality and charm.

I’m off to Slyvie’s amusement park. Will report back tomorrow. I’m not really lonely. The days are very, very busy and at night I’m preparing for the next day and skyping with my family.