Jelda Veninga, HR development adviser, Namibia
VSO has developed a long-term strategic partnership with the Randstad Group to help it meet its corporate social responsibilities. Randstad offers its employees the opportunity to share their skills and help make a difference. Randstad volunteer Jelda Veninga worked as an HR adviser with the Ministry of Education in Runda, Namibia. Here she describes the rewards and challenges of her work.
The Ministry is located in the Kavango region. This region is quite large and has the highest poverty rate as well as the highest percentage of people living with HIV. The ministry is characterised by a hierarchical structure, a lack of resources and a lot of paperwork. The HR department is responsible for the administration of 3,500 teachers and my 10 colleagues work hard to manage this. Do you remember how frustrating it can be to fill out tax forms? My colleagues do this type of work for retirement, resignation, cases of misconduct, new vacancies, promotions, transfers, etc for all teachers.
Saving time and increasing efficiency
Two Randstad volunteers had worked in the Ministry’s HR department before I did. They did a great job of coming up with ideas on how to work more effectively as planning and organising is a big challenge here. I continue the process they started and am working on the main plan they introduced – starting a digital HR database.
At the moment we have finished entering all the information from the employee files into the computer system. It was a lot of work but the impact is high; my colleagues no longer have to go through the paper files manually when headquarters asks for statistics. It saves a lot of time! I am now looking at how we can ensure the HR database stays up to date and is used in the daily work process.
Self-reflection
As an HR adviser I advise and coach my colleagues at the Ministry to help them find their own way in working more effectively. This means that I help them plan, evaluate and prioritise their tasks. It’s a real challenge to teach my colleagues to think on their own. My strategy is to ask a lot of questions; through reflection of their own work they will be more empowered. My placement is all about group dynamics, processes and motivating and coaching people. I’ve never done this before so I use common sense, creativity, political sensitivity and persistence. Every day is a new challenge as we have different cultural understandings so we’re often lost in translation. That’s why you have to be creative and look for solutions in different ways. If something is not working you’ll have to come up with plan B. This can be frustrating sometimes, but most of the time we have lots of fun.
Team spirit
My colleagues are very nice; they tell me a lot and share their lives with me. I can see that the work of VSO contributes towards a better team spirit among my HR colleagues and that really motivates me. Additionally I’ve learned a lot from the experiences of other VSO volunteers. Having ‘sundowners’ with a view over the Kavango river while discussing the cultural differences we’ve come across in our work – I really fit into this world! As a volunteer I also have the opportunity to travel; I’ve just come back from a trip across the country and have seen a lot of beautiful Namibia. It’s a country full of natural wonders and unbelievably nice people!”
