HR defines Jongwe

consultant of Global Workforce Solutions (Pvt) Ltd, an HR firm that delivers an array of workforce management solutions.
He says his role in developing the human resources industry was to ensure the adoption of the latest and most effective solutions in HR management.
“My experience as a consultant has taught me that the world is not short of the latest fads in management from Harvard but is short of people who can connect the dots in a manner that can be easily understood within the known business context,” he said.
“Executives want to be convinced on rate of return from workforce management initiatives if they are to hold HR as a trusted business partner.”
Sadly, this is not easy, as the HR profession remains stubbornly embedded in old paradigms and discourses, which are no longer relevant to the requirements of the 21st century.
As an example, he said the use of technology is one area in which HR seems to be caught in a time warp, not only in Zimbabwe but even is some of the developed countries.
“HR needs to embrace modern technologies such as Cloud Computing in its craft if it is to deliver timely and seamless metrics to business,” he said.
These are the core professional principles of Mr Jongwe.
He was born some 42 years ago in Chikomba District and spent the greater part of his childhood years in Zvimba where he attended primary education at
Matoranhembe Primary School until 1982.
He proceeded to secondary schooling at Gandami Secondary School (then called an Upper Top) in Chikomba District between 1984 and 1987.
His high school days tell a story of pure ambition to overcome tough obstacles.
“It was tough because I used to walk 16 km a day to and from school for those four years but it was necessary training for the more grueling tracks of life that always lie ahead.
“My academic achievements can be illus-
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trated by the fact that I was the best student at Cambridge O-Level at St Francis of Assisi.
“I later on also pioneered the first Advanced Level class in the same district at St Francis of Assisi. I was among its first ever students to go to university,” he added.
At the University of Zimbabwe, he studied Politics and Administration between 1990 and 1992, where his favourite subject, he says, was “A survey of political ideas.”
During that time he was taught by some leading academics such as Professor Jonathan Moyo and the late Professor Masipula Sithole.
He rubbed shoulders with some of the pre-eminent student leaders at the time such as Deputy Prime Minister Professor Arthur Mutambara.
Despite all these apparent political leanings, Mr Jongwe never took up student activism.
“Coming from a largely rural and small-scale farming background in the Wiltshire area of Chikomba District and a pervasive Catholic school tradition from St Francis of Assisi, I was never actively involved in student politics during my university days.
“However, I must confess that those were the times of extreme student activism,” he said.
“I do not do politics” is one phrase you will surely hear in conversations with him.
The time that he spent at UZ was, however, not all about books.
“I was a member of Aisec (the world’s largest student organisation), which used to be ‘a must’ student club on campus. I learnt a lot through Aisec especially critical life-skills like assertiveness, etiquette and financial literacy.
“Again on reflection, I think that these are important skills which should be taught early enough to all students as most people often fail to make it life not because they lack the requisite intelligent quotient (IQ) but because they lack the subliminal emotional quotient (EQ),” said Mr Jongwe.
After graduating in 1992, he tried his hand at several jobs such as temporary teaching in Murehwa where he taught Commerce, Guidance and Counseling and Shona.
He was also involved in consultancy at an early stage through his first-ever company Tony Jay (Pvt) Ltd that he founded in 1997.
The company was primarily involved in immigration advisory services and worked with individuals and corporates in addressing immigration issues relating to visas, work and residence permits as well as student permits.
In late 1999, he took up a post that had arisen at the University of Zimbabwe in the Faculty of Agriculture.
“This in essence marked the beginning of a career spanning training management, human resources management, and student affairs administration culminating in generalist consulting,” he said.
After working for less than two years in the Faculty of Agriculture, he was promoted to Assistant Registrar in the Human Resources Department of the university in 2001.
Mr Jongwe received further promotion to the position of Senior Assistant Registrar in the same department in 2003.
This is when his path to the HR profession began to take form.
“On reflection I think the University of Zimbabwe did manage, through focused teamwork involving the executive and the human resources department, to keep a core group of academic, technical, and administrative staff which ensured that it continued to deliver on its mandate.
“I therefore look back with pride that I played my own small part in this scheme of things by ensuring that the university weathered the onslaught it was experiencing in the form of brain drain,” he said.
After leaving the human resources department, Mr Jongwe also had the chance to work in the University’s Student Affairs Division as Deputy Dean of Students.
Having obtained his Masters of Business Administration degree at the University of Zimbabwe in 2007, he resigned in the same year to pursue a career as a human resources consultant under his new company Global Workforce Solutions (Pvt) Ltd, which he founded in October 2006.
“Leveraging on my professional background in human resources and training and development, the company works with individuals and corporates alike in establishing a clear line of sight between workforce management strategies or interventions on organisational performance.
“This actually represents the value proposition of our client engagement mandate. This is an area that I understand greatly and was subject of my MBA dissertation,” he says.
He has held several leadership positions in his career and the notable ones (according to him) include: Founder and current secretary general of the Zimbabwe Masters of Business Administration Association, – former secretary general of the University of Zimbabwe Administrators Association, and former treasurer of the University of Zimbabwe Alumni Association.
He is also secretary general of the Management Express Steering Committee which delivers the popular monthly Management Express Forums or thought leadership events on management and leadership debates, and was recently appointed to the Human Resource Committee of the SME Association of Zimbabwe.
Mr Jongwe is married and is a father of four children (three boys and a girl).
He says he is a born-again Christian who has tremendous faith in the ever-abiding mercies and righteousness of our Heavenly Father.
Among his more non-academic extra-curricula activities, Mr Jongwe loves farming.
“I am currently looking for a piece of land to embark on serious farming since it runs in my veins having grown up on a typical farming area of Chikomba. I did all the chores expected of a man such as doing contours, ploughing using an ox-drawn plough; weeding using the culvert and hoe; herding cattle in the paddocks and gardening among others.
“I am actually very proficient in these areas,” he said.