Employers Convene to Rethink Strategic Workforce and Leadership

Key industry leaders have convened to commit to future-proofing human capital across Uganda at an Executive Roundtable themed Strategic Workforce Shaping.

The event brought together more than 140 senior executives, CHROs, and C-suite leaders from Uganda’s foremost organisations to address the critical challenges of talent scarcity, technological integration, and the necessity of organisational agility within the local and regional market.

The Roundtable served as a crucial platform for high-level dialogue, transcending traditional HR discussions to focus on proactive and predictive talent models. The collective insights focused on moving from reactive workforce management to a strategic, data-driven approach that aligns talent capabilities with long-term business objectives.

“One of the gaps, employees are seeking people who have the experience. We need leaders to give chances to people who don’t have experience so that they can grow,” Xenia Wachira.  said.

She added, “Uganda’s workforce is very young, it could be an opportunity or destruction, what are we doing with the young people to prepare them for the coming times. Are we thinking about tomorrow?”

Emily Aneno Byaruhanga,  Chairperson of the NGO HR Network, said, “We need leaders to come to these meetings, for us to make a greater impact, we need to have these conversations from supervisory  to managerial levels.”

She added, “We are looking at youth vulnerability. How are we going to look out for the young people?”

Eve Zalwango, General Manager of AmCham Uganda, presented on “How business leaders secure Uganda’s Economic Future through Proactive Talent Investment.”

This also set the stage for the Executive Panel with leaders like Joanita Mukasa Menya (MD, VIVO Energy), Henry Tumusiime (Human Capital Director, ABSA Bank), and Susan Mataka (Head of Human Resources, Kakira Sugar Limited). The panel explored innovative strategies for identifying crucial skill adjacencies and building agile internal talent marketplaces.

The event culminated in the establishment of a forward-looking roadmap emphasising the necessity of cross-functional collaboration between HR, Finance, and Operations departments.

The consensus reinforced that strategic workforce shaping is not an HR initiative, but a core business mandate crucial for sustained growth and resilience.

BrighterMonday Uganda, FUE, and HRMAU plan to leverage the outcomes of the Strategic Workforce Shaping Roundtable to inform forthcoming white papers and industry benchmarks.