Confident about Nigeria getting out of recession soon, Yinka Olugbodi, Managing Consultant Team Building International, TBI , an organization charged with the responsibility of boosting morale of a global workforce, in this interview, stresses the need for government organizations to engage in collective motivation of the workforce in 2017 as a way out of the recession, among other issues.
What is Team Building all about and how do you describe the motivational level of the Nigerian workforce in 2016?
One of the profound pillars of Team Building is collective team motivation . Majorly, what team building does is to create an avenue where people are highly motivated, especially in the beginning and end of the year .
However, the motivational level of Nigerians in 2016 was collectively low and is a factor in any recession because recession naturally brings down the morale of everybody. So, collective motivation of the Nigerian workforce is of importance in 2017. Meanwhile, 2016 was a good year for us because most international organizations knew that the best thing to do in recession is to motivate the staffs and members of the communities. So they engaged their staff in most of our morale boosting programs.
In your estimation, do you think government has done enough to motivate the nation’s workforce?
In term of motivation, states and federal government agencies have not done enough to deserve commendation in 2016. An average government worker believes the highest level of motivation is basic salary and, once that is affected, his morale will be entirely down. The challenge is that the Nigerian government rarely engages the services of professionals in team motivation.
How then can the workforce be motivated when salaries are delayed or unpaid?
It is very difficult because the basic form of motivation in Nigeria is salary. Average Nigerians are motivated when they receive bank alerts. What government or the employer needs to do is to communicate effectively reasons salaries are being delayed. Effective communication is the watchword in this regard. Some state governments and employers of labour are already doing it. But we gathered that one of the reasons the federal, state and local governments delayed workers payments in 2016 was due to the discovery of 40% ghost workforce. Government has to get rid of these ghosts. Effective communication is the best way to motivate the staff when there is no salary. Also engaging the workforce in team building programs will keep them more focused. This has been discovered to be a good remedy to the recession.
What then should be the government focus in this regard in 2017?
Before things get well in 2017, things are definitely going to get tough and that is the time we need to focus more on team building. It’s not really about money because Nigerians have collective understanding that things are bad, but it won’t be bad forever. What government needs do is to fill the vacuum by engaging the workforce in Team motivation activities to boost their morale until we get out of the recession.
Why is the recession biting hard on the citizenry?
The reason for the recession is oil price that crashed because there is more supply than demand in the global market. Moreso,Nigeria used to be a mono-economy nation where we depend on crude oil. But now that we are delving into other economic boosters like agriculture and manufacturing, we are sure of getting out soon . However in most developed nations, salary alone this not motivate the workforce; environment created by government and employers are also sources of motivation .
Do you intend leveraging with government in form of CSR?
In 2016, most International organizations observed that the remedy for recession is collective motivation. So they partnered with us. In 2017, we are involving in nation-building by supporting government in training over 1,000 youths on small and medium entrepreneurial skills nationwide. We plan to organize five SMEs conferences across Nigeria. – Culled from Vanguard.
