 Welcome back to Y254 TV. This is why in the morning, hashtag past the wives. And in case you just get into joining the Skalribu Sena, we have been having quite an interesting segment with Val. Sorry if you missed that but here we are to do a spot on tech. This week's spot on tech, we get to do digital skills in today's work place and we have Nelson Oguda to take us through that discussion. He is a human resource translator of the year. Karibu Sena Nelson. Thank you very much Grace. A very good morning to you. Good morning and good morning to all of you as well. Kwa nja baludi wakata, geti yeki dogo. Numana lo, it's a bit chilly. I don't think much and because I'm in a coat, so I'm warm enough. Yes. So Karibu Sena, thank you for making time to come. We are talking about digital skills in the work place and especially we are in that season where everyone is moving digital and this year's actually the government has been so big on you see moving digital, installing internet in various parts of the countries and the conversation going around is digital space moving from the old ways of doing things. We've seen the government move to paper lists. You know there are so many diverse ways of describing digital skills and I want us to start this conversation from this point. What is digital skills? Like you know someone might be thinking they understand what digital skills mean so how would you define digital skills? Okay so it's true that everything is getting digital and actually if we refer to maybe some 10 years ago we used to have and these guys would say that to me talk analog heading to digital and we're still talking about it to date and we'll continue talking about it as we move forward and in digital skills is the abilities and attributes that we have to that we get to acquire so that we can operate the machines that are there technologically and again it is not much different when it comes to digital literacy we're saying that once you acquire the skills to use technology then if you use this technology very well in terms of your workplay in the workplace then now we are saying that you are digitally literate because you are able to convert your skills into now in the working place so that you can deliver results you can work with team members so then you are saying that now you're digitally literate yes so that's the line why do we need place skills in the work place that is? yes now it is what is happening in that now machines have come in someone has to operate the machines transformation has taken place so we need these skills to adapt into the changing environment and these skills will help us manage the machines and that's why we are saying that now we already have we didn't before we didn't have computers then computers came in so how will you work with computers in our workplace then you mean that we need to acquire the skills that we can actually operate the machine so as technology as as transformation coming with innovation then this also need to up skill and upgrade yes and that's why we are saying that either way because human interventions are coming in place we also need to up skill ourselves as human beings to be able to catch up with the inventions there's something we had just attached about as we began the conversation that I'd wanted to just dive right into so that you get to tell us in depth and expansively digital literacy what we were discussing about digital literacy and um was it digital literacy and digital skills are the difference the difference yes yes the difference between digital skills and digital literacy okay now I will I will I want to use an example on that just to bring it out clearly now all of us you know how to use tiktok and you know that tiktok exists that is digital skill you know that we are aware that that that there is existence of whatsapp or tiktok now I am in human resource or I am in marketing I know that that tiktok exists exists so I I am in my workplace how will I bring my human resource activities or marketing activities into tiktok to ensure that our brand awareness or how will I attract Gen Z who are in the tiktok who are in tiktok 24-7 tell them about our company so me being able to convert the knowledge that I have the ability to use tiktok in my phone to install to upload video to now convert it into brand awareness tool that will help my company grow will help me as a person build my own brand then that will think that now I'm coming from the skill to a literacy so being able to operate or to manage the machines or the automation to get results is now where we say that we are drawing the line now between the skill and the literacy so a literate person will will get results out of it but the person with digital skills you only know that tiktok exists and I can upload a video they are like and all that yes so that's how we bring in the the the thin difference between a skill and now the digital literacy that we need to work with yes that's that's quite interesting it didn't it didn't you know we are out here we're using this apps and we're doing this thing and we um we don't know what there's actually a difference because me I will say I have a skill kumbe have yes you have a skill but but illiterate how to use it yes yeah so um how do you feel companies have embraced the literacy parts I think now companies are even accelerating it faster than it than we had thought before because you see now and again the literacy bit comes in and that's why we are now actually data becoming a key thing so when now we combine our digital skills and adding data then the literacy becomes comes out automatically so in moska says if you look at in terms of digital skills we have got the the websites that were there previously which were just you go there read something and then it is there you go and it someone uploads but today what happened is that I can go to Facebook create a post delete it so meaning I also have control of Facebook of what is posted there so meaning that companies are also coming in the companies now do their websites they are allowing other people to come in deposit their CVs there yeah uh companies are now uh becoming open to criticism because now they are saying okay now let us go out so once your company is in LinkedIn in Facebook in Tik Tok they are coming they are saying that okay let's go out let's expose ourselves so being that they are exposing themselves people get to understand what their companies do and how they can interact with it and they are people say that contact us or leave us a comment chat with us then now they are doing that other ways that we are also having the chatbots where you don't need to uh like currently if you if you make a phone call to any of the service providers phone the cell phone providers they will tell you that for for this dial one for this dial two so until you you end the process you ask your information whatever you wanted has been given to you meaning you've gotten a solution without speaking to any human being so when that companies are now embracing it in a way that we we need to feel the human touch within it but not actually getting to speak to the human themselves so companies have have embraced in various ways yes to enable us uh get the services that that we require don't you think um they moving to that direction is as much as it's nice it poses a risk to employment not really employment is there really like um we've seen a lot of let me speak about the media because i'm in the media but we've seen a lot of massive layoffs of people because of what people of the aspect of people moving to digital spaces so we've seen a lot of media houses or a lot of media spaces let go of their employees doesn't digital uh digitalization pose a risk to employment because assuming that something that someone was able to do now it's being done by you know a machine or something what what do you think uh i think now if we go with the media and we've been seeing this uh this photo of uh it has been going out out more of a meme kind of where we had a got a helicopter with a cameraman shooting some video outside then on the side we have the the drone yeah coming in so people will say that that the that the drone actually has replaced the helicopter pilot the photographer in that and all those other people but really i don't think so because if if you analyze what they were doing by then and what the drone is doing drone doesn't go out by itself right so drone has someone controlling the drone so there is still a pilot for the drone on the other side seated there's someone will still edit the video so video editor is still there but now using more advanced tools or softwares than there before and uh if you look at the drone itself it has been done by someone who thought about it so there is the maker of the drone still in the process the manufacturer of the drone there is someone when the drone is destroyed will still repair it so what we're saying that if we see layoff layoff is not about jobs have gone is because the skill that is now required you don't have it so we will remove you then get someone else to be in that's what i was saying that the technology is is moving ahead we are getting the skills we know very well that the drone is coming but literacy literacy will tell you that the drone is here let me learn how to use the drone for the business performance then now you acquire the skill on how to use a drone so that whenever now the camera people will be say let go you will be remaining to operate the drone so the layoffs in most cases is not about jobs not being there but jobs getting transformed yes so now we are getting the jobs that are there in a different way i've been in HR for now seven years and i used to do filing on uh with a paperwork opening a file opening a opening my the the cabinets putting in papers but today we applaud them on the cloud so if someone doesn't know how to use uh the new cloud computing in HR it will be difficult for them to do the job yes so is it um now that you've brought that up is it the employer's role to educate the employees especially if you're moving digital or is it the employer's role to go out and educate themselves yeah it's a 50 50 so who is your employer because as you mean yes we have been doing things this way to assure us that we we sweep or let's just say that that let me just use the example you've given us of filing you're really used to you file you put magnetising in the file and you put them in the uh in the in the cabinets but now here comes uploading into cloud now it's your employer who's supposed to cater for your training to understand how to use the cloud or do you as an employee have to take initiative to learn it's a collective role yeah how do you and uh yes if if employee initiates a change then the employee they they will be need for employee to be trained and that's why we always have a learning development uh part of HR to upskill employees now it will be easier when employee already have the mindset the things have changed and i'm ready for that change so that even when the employee is coming out to train to talk about it you as employee already ready you are ready for the change that is uh when employer now comes the training or they don't do the training they just bring the system then you they find you ready so employers will always try to do their best to train the employees and even when they want to bring in a drone they will not just bring a drone or just bring a system and don't train you they'll train you but now the literacy of the employee being trained are you are you aware of whatever we're happening yeah so change management that's where the assistance will come in from the employees i don't want to change because i've been doing filing and we've been doing it very well so why do you bring why do you want me to start learning a new skill so that uh against that and because people fear change they know very well that now the filing is coming i i i used to do filing alone for two hours now i'm going to do it for 30 minutes meaning i might not be needed here so that fear of losing a job will actually sometimes make people not want to learn as they should have so it is advisable and that we as the employees first always be ready because employers will try their their best to train the employees and they always do okay yes so what are some of these digital skills okay so i will group them into into two general and job specific so job specific i will do it faster because it's job specific so you are in the media and now you have the producer so you have to know how to set the cameras on so the camera is a machine has got the digital aspect of it so you are all requested to understand how to use a camera so do you know how to use a camera even before going for that interview before getting to that place i am a hr the hr systems that i need to understand how to use them do i actually know how to use that hr system i am a i am a video editor do i know how to use cup cut and other things yeah i am a graphic designer do i know how to do how to use adobe photoshop and uh and and all other system then now there's now this that we call about now general skill that we need to have that when you have them it gives you an added advantage number one the general computer normal computer so you have a computer you don't know whether it's running under windows 10 windows 11 some of us we ask them which what is your current operating system they don't know ask me i don't know yes so meaning you won't even know where they connect what connection is why do i connect wi-fi from these windows yeah so where will i find my drive my document within this computer so a normal computer how do i how do i set the alarm within the computer if you wanted to do that so do you have that skill a general skill how do i print from my computer do i wait for someone i take person to come in to set that for me i should be knowing how to do it then now number two is video conferencing people working from home most times last year i worked from home for the whole year it was very amazing now do you know how to use zoom do you know how to use google meet do you know how to use microsoft teams that video conferencing is thing that now we need to understand how should i position myself where is mute in this how do i share files how do i make sure that my that during the video conferencing everybody's understanding me yeah then now we also have other skills like now the social media has come up now i'm not a marketer i'm a hr but i need to understand the search engine optimization search engine marketing and all that so that whenever i want to do my advert i know very well that my advert targets this age group so when i'm going to have this to the marketing team or anyone who is responsible for our website to post that job advert i'll be able to actually internalize that my advert should reach this kind of people at this given time so i need those kind of skills so that easily to get me done through my job and just to add on which not be very much is also on the graphic design skills not not not all of us are graphic designers but you need it sometimes even for your own posting you need to have those skills yeah so that you can do your own good posters and all that so you don't need to be boring every now and then you take a photo and you don't even edit you have it there so you don't need to be boring yes so that we need the graphic designing skills some of this actually it's it's good you've said you've shared because some of these things i also didn't know that they are skills you know that they become skills that people need to acquire because 2020 actually did a lot uh covid played a really huge part in propelling people into the digital space that is into um zoom google meet and all that now is when i'm understanding as you're sharing that these are actually digital skills that now everyone needs to have and most people are rather most companies are ignorant what will you say um is the importance of having these skills now and in the future we are living in future even as today yeah uh because if we wait for future then uh i don't think so so we we already in the future in itself look at what is happening today we are having chat gtp i don't know you've heard about it what is chat gtp yes i've heard about it around the corridors but i don't know what just chat gtp yeah it's a it's a machine that things like a human being so sometimes i tell my friends that don't don't take anything to your boss without passing it through chat gtp oh yeah it will give you an insight because one one that happens with the that's when our machines are important to our lives not that we are doof but because of a machine it's able to do so many things that then you can do then they help you a big deal so like a long time used to go to the library i read so many books and then craft something but now you can just actually go and ask that give me sets of books that i can actually go and read to about this topic so chat gtp is an AI that is a actually intelligence tool that is based on data analysis and deep learning which combines all information that that is available for 2021 back then so it's a large language model so having so many content so much content so if you ask a question it checks all those contents put it together and then gives you a summarized result so now it is good that we get to learn these skills today as i was saying that your job will not we will not go out your job will be transformed and it is transformed it should be ready if you're not ready you'd be told to go out then someone will come in with a different title not that not not that you're not replaced you're replaced but in a good way you're replaced because you didn't have that skill so they bring in someone else like before we used to have HR administrators so administrator someone will go do filing and all that but nowadays you can be taken out as administrator then they bring in someone and say system HR system administrator so just the same same person but not dealing with cabinets but dealing with now uploading so we need to have this skill today because as things now transform we just getting to get to the next step it is easier for you now if you learn about about HGP today if they they roll out a new model you you you can easily catch up with it yeah if something else come in new you can easily catch up with it and i find that people someone say you you send a link to someone say may i tell you that i can't see it in the sms kindly send me on my email so that i can open a computer but even them just so they can copy it and paste in their email and still have it in the in their own computer so it's good that when you have them you can actually stop being boring stop being cumbersome disturbing others because you can actually think very fast and get to the solutions so it is good for companies as well as the employees are working so that when we are using this technology even the production goes higher with the lower cost meaning more profits that's what people in IT field are paid more than other fields wow yeah the IT the salaries are good yeah we need to go there and yeah so we need to get the skills i will be there with them they are earning good money so um where do you think even with kenya's plan to go digital kenya has um this plan let me just get it kenya's digital master plan um where there's been whistle being blown that you know we are all moving where do you see the trajectory of kenya's digital space in the future okay in East Africa we are head and in Africa i think after Nigeria and South Africa we are just within the space so in kenya i would say that most of us we have the digital skills because today i don't even read my normal sms unless i want to check where someone sent me and then pass because we are on the other side we are WhatsApp i want to get i want to get quick news i go to tweet i want to get professional news i go to LinkedIn and i'll find millions of people there right so we are ready there what what now is happening that we are now looking into how do we make money out of it the digital literacy that is coming in and that's where again we are i find ourselves going there uh into transforming our skills into uh into now being able to produce uh bring in the production aspect so like that's what the government is also trying to do is that the area that uh we can actually use digital skills to to ensure that government services are are are easily accessible to anyone to everyone so in kenya i believe we are almost there and this plan that we are having in the government i think once everybody is given access to internet and phones have also been given out almost nowadays if you look at any other we have the basic smartphone what will be challenge for us is now the internet we the government is rolling out so once again is rolled and then we are taught about some of these few skills then i believe we are at a better place yes as a as a country and its citizens uh because you because you also have in schools we also now having a computer being taught to people in primary i touched computer in in high school but then it was left for people who came from Nairobi and Kisumu because they are in a village school so then we could not touch it yeah and you could not select it as as a as a subject because we feared it it was supposed to be for guys who have been using it from the word go so as coming to know about it was later but now people are coming behind us already started learning that aspect yes so it will accelerate the the the the digital literacy that i think kenya's plan to keep to install a wi-fi all over the country accessible wi-fi all over the country will move us to that to that space where we are getting successful or we are doing what needs to be done or we are using the rather we are using the internet for the right purposes because of course that internet in as much as it's it's going to be accessible to everyone as per the government plan so do you think we are doing more harm than good or we are actually getting somewhere in terms of developing the country the harm side is always there is how harmful do you want to be because even without internet we are still harmful to people so and to look into the the the harmful part of it is that we already have a a law on cyber crime which is still trying to regulate the same thing then number two internet we share that it's based on that so whatever i have on myself what i can get information if i wanted to and all that so words of the data protection act which was which came into effect on in may or may but much last year or much or may last year so you see now these are these are how we say that already measures have been put in place that we are able to contain the use of internet and the use of data that we generate out of it but the other side in terms of how good it is it is very nice having internet to help you to do your thing because there's so many things that currently are everywhere now what you what i find that we need to do is they get the also as much as we are giving out internet and all that and we are giving smartphones at cheap alone and all that is the next thing is that we need to look into now the adaptability skills is now is now what we need between a digital skill that you already know that what's up is there can use tiktok can use the facebook adaptability skills come in that you're able to learn how to use the skill to be literate so that that bit in there is what now we need to look into and be sure that now we know that we have facebook so apart from us being to the facebook it's not bad what are the benefits of Facebook are we ready now to be told these are these how you can make money on facebook nobody tells us those is some guy that tells us how to make money on facebook who has never made money out of it so now if you have a good platform where now we can teach the adaptability skills on what are the benefits of the digital skill that you already have you already know that there is this so are you using it in the best way so that part of now learning on the beneficial aspects only because don't people always know the don'ts the harmful side but the benefit side is always hidden that is the trick that also the rich guy is used against because you know how to be rich then not everybody will never require you so if you're open enough to train ourselves on how to use the skills properly and then be the adaptability skill meaning that you are ready to learn so you've seen that today we are having uh you just heard that something is coming up like now we're seeing that digital cars are coming up and they are there in uh by tesla they are there but in kenya we still don't have courses in that so meaning when the digital cars come in kenya we're not ready for it we work with generators so now how fast are we also adapting to changes worldwide and being a global village today we need to be atpavib every other person so um let me personalize this a bit and talk about you um your title uh your title i am really i'm really curious to know uh um the story behind the title the HR trendset that is um digital um human resource trendset of the year want to tell us a bit about that okay uh now the title i'm working with is uh is a recognition as the HR trendset of the year so last year i was awarded by iHRM as the HR trendset so when kovili came in i had a skill that i was a bit hiding so when in 2020 already planned to be someone else in my life meaning to come up and speak about what i know what i believed could change the HR space that was HR analytics using data to transform how we look at things we don't want just to look at you as grace working here so grace has got emotions how will emotions affect her performance how are these how is her performance affecting her supervisor how will this everything that's around you that can collect data about it about you how do we use it to make you function well in a workplace so i came out trained and then in the midst of it i realized that then for you to do analysis then you cannot do it in a vacuum you need also a system to bring come in so i've also been holding HR tech talks where we train as HR we discuss about the technology that has come in and how is it helping us to do a work better so that today i'll be i'll be hosting HR tech talking the evening at eight he's always from eight pm to nine pm on zoom where we come together as HRs and learn the skills of how do we use technology to to transform our HR practice so that's how the HR trendset came in but where work have held positions of human business partner which is now how is HR becoming a business partner not just to do paperwork and do employees here and there but how are we also seeing the the objectives of the company in five years time so if i were to plan now for for grace in a company or want to look at grace in five years time that's where the location that you had that you had asked earlier is that do employers also participate in training employees on the new skill so as a hrbp i should be able to say okay we want to achieve that in five years time so what do we need to do to grace today tomorrow and in two years so that we can achieve our dream so if it's about letting you go then we'll say the okay in five years she will be redundant has he not been needed so i should now start talking to you telling that now grace you need these skills to be able to be with us in the next five years because without that then you need to be here yeah so that's how the title came about hr transit of the here i tell that i'm holding and i think by being here is also just one aspect to show that i'm leaving the title of hr transit yes yeah um as we approach towards the end of this conversation i want you to share any other thing you feel like is necessary to share about digital space yeah okay digital space is transforming everything and uh we are the other day i think i didn't have a phone for two days it was a good time to also understand who are those that were looking for me because i when i got a new phone after two days i could see those who sent sms who are asking whether i'm okay because it's no it's not always that i'll be off online so just to know who are those that care over the weekend where and also it was a best way of just just uh rethinking where you need a phone to leave but then amazingly you find that so many things are interconnected we talk about a lot of things where everything is in one place okay i could still access my phone on the laptop but still need it so the skill that we are having the the machine that we are having around us are forming part of our lives and we need to embrace it so the same way i'll embrace my friend who is closer to me the same way i can actually embrace someone who is far away from me because of the digital skills yeah because uh now being that we have got uh telling someone that now when when comes to networking currently i can decide today that i want to talk to the CEO of kbc or y254 i know if i go to reception i will be asked whether i had an appointment but i can just decide to go and search for that person for the CEO in the LinkedIn if he's there and i drop sms and he will answer or someone will answer so it's it's it's opening up everything so we need to embrace it so once you've gotten the skill able to know what is happening where we need to have the skill then how does it bring me money how do we bring how do we make change with it and that's why people are winning awards on how to use digital skills that they already learned to bring change in the environment to bring change at workplace to bring change even in their families bring change in the healthcare and all that so and i've also developed an application for our HRs to be using yeah to calculate their metrics when we do our reports nowadays we do numbers in our reports so i believe when your HR here does numbers we don't just talk about stories now we also quantify our HR we can quantify you today and now say that in five years you might live or you might not live you can be poached we can say that five percent you are going to be poached two percent you look for a job 99 percent will retain you because you cannot go anywhere so we are doing that and we have an app called HR metrics analytics app in the play store for the android users so and yeah we are embracing technology and government is doing it so meaning everybody should be atpa yes that's quite a lot i i feel like i am in class i feel like i've actually i've actually learned quite a lot thank you so much i didn't know didn't know digital literacy i didn't know chart gtp chart that one and there are so many i didn't know i didn't there's so many things i have done thank you so much for the insight now i want you to give us your parting shot because i understand that time is not on our side yeah so now i have seen transformation in my career because of embracing digital skills that i that i that i have i'm always curious to know the to just understand what is the new thing and if i be given a chance i could be doing all careers yeah because with the digital skills you get to learn so many things you get to understand so many things within a very short time so i would say that for all of us at whichever level that you are in we need the skill and once you gotten the skill we need the adaptability aspect so that you can translate it now into uh into literacy for now the benefits of the workplace and even for ourselves yes so knowing that linkedin is available you're not using it for job such a personal branding is lack of adaptability they they need to learn the new thing need to go at the next step so we know whatever is there all of us know that this thing is there it has been mentioned but need to be but need to be very curious with technology need to be curious to uh to embrace it so we all need to embrace digital skills and uh as we are living we're living the future and things are transforming so learn the new skill use it in your workplace to change the workplace using yourself to change who you are and then we'd be ahead thank you thank you that was quite that was quite comprehensive who i'm still trying to internalize and think about it thank you for making time thank you for coming it means a lot and for sharing your insights on digital skills in the workplace that was the discussion we were having this morning that is digital skills in the workplace oh my god i have learnt quite a lot and i hope so i hope that was nelson ukuda uh the um human resource translator of yeah but don't touch that down while he's coming back with more