Jane Mutinda describes herself as a Human Resource Specialist, career coach and women empowerment enthusiast.
Mutinda is the founder and Managing Director at Career Management Centre - A HR Advisory and Consulting firm based in Nairobi, Kenya (http://www.careermanagementcentre.com).
The company will be celebrating its 5th Anniversary in March 2021.
She is passionate about supporting professionals in landing their next big job and in making job seekers employable by equipping them with life skills that are rarely taught in most schools.
As a HR Specialist, Mutinda has 10 plus years of experience working with international NGOs, including BBC Media Action, Practical Action International and International Medical Corps.
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Her mission has been one: to change how people view HR by creating happy workplaces where employees are engaged and motivated to stay and contribute to their organisations’ strategic goals.
She majored in Biochemistry and Chemistry and graduated with a 2nd Class Upper Division, Bachelor of Science Degree from the University of Nairobi but something else itched inside.
“During my internship in a Microbiology Lab, I realised this wasn’t for me. I was not going to spend my entire life in a lab looking at reagents. It was a lonely space for me. I was cock sure that was the end of me and sciences,” she said.
She was either going to pursue Marketing or Human Resources Management. She chose HR and has not regretted that decision thirteen years later.
Her last formal employment was as the HR and Administration Manager for Eastern Africa Regional Office for a UK Based NGO.
“I decided to set up Career Management Centre - A HR Advisory and Consulting firm in March 2016. We have two main departments; a job seekers department and an Organisations/ Employers department.
“For organisations we provide the whole range of HR services either as an outsourced service or as a standalone assignment. We also provide trainings in HR and leadership with signature program on the Managers Tool Kit, a program that focuses on ‘Skills that every manager must have’”.
The company’s job seekers’ wing has many exciting products and services including;
• Executive and Board CV writing – your CV is your ambassador and the most important career tool you will ever have, it knocks and opens career doors for you.
• Interview coaching - interviewing is a strategy, the best interviewee gets the job, not necessary the most qualified candidate. Most of us are not that good in interviews even though we are very qualified.
• HR Mentorship and Coaching Programs –We support upcoming HR professionals to jumpstart their careers. Our mentorship program simulates the HR office, it complements experience for those with limited HR experience and Exposure
• Strategic HR Mentorship – we provide this to transition operational HR professionals to the strategic place.
Jane Mutinda believes every manager is a HR advocate and should be equipped with people management and HR management skills because employees deserve a happy workplace.
There is a famous quote that “majority of the employees don’t leave companies; they leave managers”.
“We a run a program dubbed ‘The managers tool Kit’ which trains on several skills that every manager must endeavor to excel in – from Career Planning, Team Motivation, drawing the Team Charter, Conflict Management, having difficult conversations, Managing poor performance, Delegation, Budgets etc We also have HR Management for Non – HR.”
Her biggest achievement career-wise, was the decision to walk out of formal employment and start Career Management Center Limited, she says.
“I have worked with thousands of job seekers helping them to transition to their next big thing, I have worked with organisations, especially SMEs ensuring regardless of their size they manage their Human Resources with dignity and within the Law.”
Her most recent achievement focused on supporting women with maternity/Motherhood reacted career gaps to pick up their careers.
Many women are discriminated against by employers for such gaps, qualified women leak in the career pipeline each second to take care of the social development agenda and they are not being giving second chances.
“It will be my biggest job to see such mums come back without having to explain in paragraphs about the gaps.”
Mutinda is the Vice President of Women in Africa. So, what does Women in Africa do?
“We are currently implementing a project on Turning Girls into Breadwinners. This involves the search for a female president aka leader in whichever sector. Our mindset surgery project is about demystifying all the limiting beliefs that stop women from dreaming big, the myth that men have a higher capacity to lead compared to women.”
The organisation seeks to break the myth that the man must earn more and take care of the women and that women can only make it in life by marrying well off men.
The notion that men should lead in breadwinning and women in caring for children and the home still affects men and women today making some uncomfortable with this arrangement.
“We must do the little that each and every one of us can to lift women and young girls. It all starts with the mindset, and if liberated all women should spare time to mentor young girls especially girls from remote and informal settlement areas.
“In most of these areas, most women are stay home moms, hence it would go a long way in letting the girl child know that she too, has the freedom to chase after her dreams.”
Mutinda believes it is a new dawn for women in Kenya.
“We still have women who fancy rich boys even when they come with poor character and majority still believe their breakthrough can only come through sexual offerings. It’s a new dawn for the Kenyan woman. We are living in very good times, the environment provides for equal opportunity, therefore, women should dive in and go to the table with confidence.”
She advises women to go for what they want and deserve, especially leadership positions.
“Let’s not wait to be called, affirmative action is good but it still leaves you feeling inadequate – it has a negative effect of making one feel like they are not enough. Women should not wait to go to leadership under affirmative action only, they should desire, dream big and put work towards that.”
So, how can employees cultivate a positive relationship with HR personnel in their organisation to develop their careers?
“Some employees hate HR because HR will have information that might affect them negatively and will continue smiling with them. What we forget is that HR are bound by confidentiality and must play the delicate balance between the employer and employee interests.”
She feels some perceptions come from staff not understanding how some HR decisions like promotion and termination are made or when they feel the HR is unresponsive to their needs.
She says the HR department exists to support employee welfare in the organisation.
“HR exists and is paid by the business to care and ensure you are happy at the workplace. No HR professional would be happy to be referred to as enemy of the employees. A HR professional should do everything to create happy workplaces where they are seen as an employee advocate and not enemy. Employees should also not expect HR to baby sit them. As an employee do your work, don’t be the 3% of bad employees who are always causing toxicity in the workplace, and of course don’t break the policies – HR will give summon you to explain why your employment should not be terminated.”
According to Mutinda, these are the most common mistakes employees make that sabotage their careers;
1. For students and recent graduates – not building experience while in college through internships and volunteers is the biggest mistake. You graduate with a CV that has nothing apart from your school grades and your year of birth - competing becomes very hard.
During internships, some students also do the minimum, they sit waiting for assignments from the supervisor. If you choose to do internship or volunteer work, have a plan to learn all aspects of your work. You must have some personal objectives that you want to achieve at the end of the internship.
Speak with people, get JDs of assistants and use it to guide your discussions with your supervisor. Understand how they do the stuff you will both see. For starters, take that internship, get experience and money will follow.
2. Confusing a job with a career and basically lack of career management – most people get a job, and they get comfortable, they forget that a job is a short-term goal while a career is long term goal. Career Management means you are deliberate and intentional about helping yourself to advance in pay and responsibility.
3. Failure to prioritize personal development - Many individuals stop learning the day they get their current job, yet complain that the employer does not value training and development. Your current employer is okay with your skills as they are, but you will struggle to move or change jobs if you are not up-to-date with skills required in the industry currently. Make your personal development and career growth your business, this you can’t delegate.
4. Failure to network – Networking means getting to know and letting people know you and your work is key for personal and career growth. Believing that your exemplary work will talk for itself, is a huge mistake. People grow because of referrals and recommendations, that promotion will not come because you are so good.
5. The serial latecomer- People come late for meetings and are the first to leave. This is common with women than men. At the same time, women tend to volunteer for non-strategic committees/extra duties at work eg visiting a colleague who recently had a baby and fail to show up for the strategic ones eg the automation change committee.
These are the two values that have shaped her personal and professional lives;
• Quality is our number one value – we want our customers to see value for money, we go all out to ensure we deliver products/services in a way that people are happy to send us new clients.
• Relationship oriented as a culture– We save all our customers by name, and always go out of my way to deliver with a personal relationship. It should never be transactional.
Her colleagues describe her as a champion of diversity and inclusivity in the workplace and unapologetic about pulling down barriers hindering women from scaling leadership heights.
Mutinda is also described as an optimistic leader, very knowledgeable in her field, focused, ready to empower others and very passionate about women issues.
In conclusion, she described the kind of a new world of work she would create for the youth.
“I wish for a world that’s results-driven with less control, hoping that young people will exercise strong work ethics and behave like fully informed individuals who understand why they come to work every day. Otherwise, they should be at home sleeping.”
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