By Patience Nyange and Esther Kiragu
In our segment of the Kenya Women Series, we feature, Jane Mutinda. She has over ten years of experience as a Human Resource (HR) specialist working with international NGO’s including BBC Media Action, Practical Action International, and International Medical Corps.
Jane is the founder and Managing Director at Career Management Centre - A HR Advisory and Consulting firm based in Nairobi, Kenya.
I first met Jane Mutinda in 2012. She was the Human Resource Manager as I signed my employment contract to join the British Broadcasting Corporation, Media Action as a Broadcast Mentor. She struck me as a friendly and amiable person. Well, she wasn’t the typical HR type. There was completely no distance between her and the rest of us. In fact, her office operated on an open-door policy, with no prior appointments.
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Nine years later, Jane is one of my best friends and I am glad that our paths crossed at the BBC offices in Longonot Place, Nairobi. Once in a while, I host my mentees for a sleepover but I also make sure there is someone coming to talk to them about life matters. Jane has met them and spoken to them about career growth, CV writing, preparing for interviews, etc.
She has gone ahead to forge personal relationships with each one of them and they too know they can reach out to Jane, at any time. One of them recommended Jane’s services when her dad was preparing for an interview. She then texted me to say,
“Thank you so much for introducing us to Jane Mutinda. She has been preparing my dad for an interview and guess what, he got the job” Fantastic feedback.
Jane Mutinda defines herself as a Career Coach, Women Empowerment Enthusiast, and a Human Resource Specialist. She’s the founder and Managing Director at Career Management Centre - A HR Advisory and Consulting firm based in Nairobi, Kenya http://www.careermanagementcentre.com. They will be celebrating their 5thAnniversary in March 2021.
Jane is passionate about supporting professionals in finding their next big thing and job seekers in navigating through the talent market, making them employable by equipping them with life skills that are rarely taught in most schools.
As an HR Specialist, she has 10 plus years of experience working with international NGO’s including BBC Media Action, Practical Action International, and International Medical Corps with one mission, to change how people view HR by endeavoring to create happy workplaces where employees are engaged and motivated to stay and contribute to their organisations strategic goals.
1. Jane, briefly talk to us about your career journey working with International organizations, transitioning to your consultancy, and highlight what you consider as your major career achievements and events around them?
I majored in Biochemistry and Chemistry and graduated with a 2nd Class Upper Division, Bachelor of Science Degree from the University of Nairobi. During my internship in a Microbiology Lab, I realized this wasn’t for me. I was not going to spend my entire life in a lab looking at reagents. It was a lonely space for me. I was cocksure that was the end of me and sciences.
I was privileged to have experienced other departments during my career – I was either going to pursue Marketing or Human Resources Management. I chose HR and have enjoyed every moment thirteen years down the line. My last formal employment was as the HR and Administration Manager for Eastern Africa Regional Office for a UK based NGO.
I decided to set up Career Management Centre - A HR Advisory and Consulting firm in March 2016. We have two main departments – a job seekers department and an Organizations/Employers department. For organizations, we provide the whole range of HR services either as an outsourced service or as a standalone assignment. We also provide training in HR and leadership with a signature program on the Managers Tool Kit, a program that focuses on ‘Skills that every manager must-have’
Our job seekers wing has many exciting products/services including.
Executive and Board CV writing – your CV is your ambassador and the most important career tool you will ever have, it knocks and opens career doors for you.
Interview coaching - interviewing is a strategy, the best interviewee gets the job, not necessarily the most qualified candidate. Most of us are not that good in interviews even though we are very qualified.
HR Mentorship and Coaching Programs –We support upcoming HR professionals to jumpstart their careers. Our mentorship program simulates the HR office, it complements experience for those with limited HR experience and Exposure
Strategic HR Mentorship – we provide this to transition operational HR professionals to the strategic place.
File Image of Jane Mutinda
2. You are passionate about empowering managers with leadership and people management skills so that they perform well at work. Please tell us about this, some programs you offer to individuals and organizations respective of their size, for their career and business development, respectively.
I believe that every manager is an HR Advocate and should be equipped with people management and HR management skills because employees deserve a happy workplace. There is a famous quote that “majority of the employees don’t leave companies; they leave managers”. We a run a program dubbed “The managers' tool Kit” which trains on several skills that every manager must endeavor to excel in – from Career Planning, Team Motivation, drawing the Team Charter, Conflict Management, having difficult conversations, managing poor performance, Delegation, Budgets, etc We also have HR Management for Non – HR.
My biggest achievement careerwise was the decision to walk out of formal employment and start Career Management Center Limited. I have worked with thousands of job seekers helping them to transition to their next big thing, I have worked with organizations especially SMEs ensuring regardless of their size they manage their Human Resources with dignity and within the Law. My most recent achievement is around supporting women with maternity/Motherhood reacted career gaps pick up their careers. The majority are discriminated by employers for such gaps, qualified women are leaking in the career pipeline every second to take care of the social development agenda and we are not giving them second chances. It will be my biggest job to see such mums come back without having to explain in paragraphs about the gaps.
4. You are the Vice President of Women in Africa. What does this role mean for you and other younger women who look up to you?
At Women in Africa, we are currently implementing a project on Turning Girls into breadwinners. This involves the search for a Female President a.k.a leader in whichever sector. Our mindset surgery project is about demystifying all the limiting beliefs that stop women from dreaming big, the myth that men have a higher capacity to lead compared to women.
Breaking the myth that the man must earn more and take care of the ladies. Women believing that they can only make it in life by marrying well off men. The idea that men should take the lead in breadwinning and women in caring for children and the home still affects men and women today. Surprisingly the violation of this norm makes some couples uncomfortable with their arrangement.
Educated women are having to pay a happiness penalty for their success and economic independence. Educated women having to forgo their dreams to fit in. Some women even have problems earning more than their husbands, have problems with being more educated in the modern days. etc. It’s a tradition that is still very common in our society. The few women who make it should never forget the millions that are still suffering from this mental slavery.
Therefore; We must do the little that each and every one of us can to lift women and young girls. It all starts with the mindset, and if liberated all women should spare time to mentor young girls especially girls from remote and informal settlement areas. In most of these areas, women are stay home moms, hence it would go a long way in letting the girl child know that she too, has the freedom to chase after her dreams.
We still have women who fancy rich boys even when they come with poor character and the majority still believe their breakthrough can only come through sexual offerings. It’s a new dawn for the Kenyan woman. We are living in very good times, the environment provides for equal opportunity, therefore, women should dive in and go to the table with confidence. Let’s not wait to be called, affirmative action is good but it still leaves you feeling inadequate – it has a negative effect of making one feel like they are not enough. Women should not wait to go to leadership under affirmative action only, they should desire, dream big, and put work towards that.
5. In many organizations HR personnel are viewed as the enemy of employees. Please talk to us about this and some ways employees can cultivate a positive relationship with human resource personnel in their organization for their career development?
This must be a very unfortunate misunderstanding. I guess it stems from the disciplinary and firing role tasked with HR professionals. Some people hate HR because HR will have information that might affect them (employees) negatively and will continue smiling with them. What we forget is that HR is bound by confidentiality and must play the delicate balance between the employer and employee interests.
Some of the perceptions come from employees not understanding how some HR decisions e.g. promotion, termination, etc. are made or when they feel the HR is unresponsive to their needs. Truth is, the HR department exists to support employee welfare in the organization. HR exists and is paid by the business to care and ensure you are happy at the workplace. No HR professional would be happy to be referred to as an enemy of the employees. A HR professional should do everything to create happy workplaces where they are seen as an employee advocate and not enemy. Employees should also not expect HR to babysit them. As an employee do your work, don’t be the 3% of bad employees who are always causing toxicity in the workplace, and of course, don’t break the policies – HR will summon you to explain why your employment should not be terminated.
7. From your experience as an HR Practitioner working with people to help them plan, strategize and grow their careers, what do you find to be the three most common mistakes people make that sabotage their careers and what advice would you give them to avert this?
1. For students and recent graduates – not building experience while in college through internships and volunteers is the biggest mistake. You graduate with a CV that has nothing apart from your school grades and your year of birth - competing becomes very hard.
During internships, some students also do the minimum, they sit waiting for assignments for the supervisor. If you choose to do an internship or volunteer work, have a plan to learn all aspects of your work. You must have some personal objectives that you want to achieve at the end of the internship.
Speak with people, get JDS of assistants, use it to guide your discussions with your supervisor, understand how they do the staff you will both see. For starters sake, take that internship, get experience and money will follow.
2. Confusing a job with a career and basically lack of career management – most people get a job, and they get comfortable, they forget that a job is a short term goal while a career is a long term goal. Career Management means you are deliberate and intentional about helping yourself to advance in pay and responsibility.
3. Failure to prioritize personal development - Many individuals stop learning the day they get their current job, yet complain that the employer does not value training and development. Your current employer is okay with your skills as they are, but you will struggle to move or change jobs if you are not up-to-date with the skills required in the industry currently. Make your personal development and career growth your business, this you can’t delegate.
4. Failure to network – Networking means getting to know and letting people know you and your work is key for personal and career growth. Believing that your exemplary work will talk for itself, is a huge mistake. People grow because of referrals and recommendations, that promotion will not come because you are so good.
5. The serial latecomer - People come late for meetings and are the first to leave. This is common with women than men. At the same time, women tend to volunteer for non-strategic committees/ extra duties at work eg visiting a colleague who recently a baby and fail to show up for the strategic ones eg the automation change committee.
9. If you were to choose two values that are most important to you that you live by and that shape the way you work, live, and run your organization; what would they be and why?
Quality is our number one value – we want our customers to see value for money, we go all out to ensure we deliver products/services in a way that people are happy to send us new clients.
Relationship oriented as a culture – We save all our customers by name, and always go out of my way to deliver with a personal relationship. It should never be transactional.
10. We asked people to describe Jane and they had interesting things to say.
Jane is a champion of diversity and inclusivity in the workplace. She is unapologetic about pulling down barriers that hinder women from scaling heights of leadership. She is also an optimistic leader, very knowledgeable in her field, focused, ready to help others. Also, very passionate about women issues.
Well, I know her as a bubbly lady with an infectious smile! So passionate about HR contribution to business bottom line! Very committed to empowering and mentoring the younger HR generation.
11. Finally, if you had a chance to create a totally new world of work for young people, what would you wish for in their new world?
I wish for a world that’s results-driven with less control, hoping that young people will exercise strong work ethics and behave like fully informed individuals who understand why they come to work every day. Otherwise, they should be at home sleeping.
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