PHILLIMON MHLANGA
He invested in people solutions and is an avid believer in the notion that human resources (HR) department is not special province for failures if organisations are to reap maximum benefits.
“HR is not a kitchen sink where every dirty is deposited. If organisations want to get the best out of HR, they need to deploy people who have passion for the profession. It is not a deployment zone for those who have failed elsewhere,” HR expert Philimon Chitagu,(pictured) told Business Times.
The Schweppes Africa Limited HR and administration director has experience in delivering innovative people solutions, developing and managing teams that operate in an agile way and helping to build a high performance culture that promotes diversity and inclusion.
This gave him the inspiration to start a leadership coaching platform which has impacted on the lives of more than 1 000 students and professionals.
The executive is the immediate past president of the Institute of People Management of Zimbabwe (IPMZ), is an international speaker on various HR matters and has presented papers on the international fora.
He has impacted on more than 1 000 students, graduates and professionals, through his leadership coaching platform, the Triggers Coaching platform.
“My motto is that if a coachee benefits, she or he should also go and coach other three. That way knowledge is spread to many.”
Chitagu is responsible for attracting, retaining and developing talent for Schweppes.
Previously, Chitagu was HR manager at CAPS Holdings.
The award-winning executive has authored two HR books — Inside the HR Cockpit and Human Resources Mojo.
The executive said during his tenure as IPMZ president, the human resources profession grew from strength to strength and is now able to collaborate with the outside world like World HRD Congress, Society of Human Resources Management (SHRM), HRM Board in Kenya, IPM in SA and Zambia.
Chitagu said his presidency’s legacy was anchored by the motto “LEAP INTO ACTION”.
The Council had to focus, consolidate and preserve legacy of past presidents, empowering HR practitioners to be organisation strategist, change agents, technosavvy, business managers (next CEOs), he said.
“During my tenure of office, a number of HR experts were appointed CEOs and General Managers in some organisations. The word ACTION (Accelerate, Collaborate, Transform, Innovate, Ownership and National) focussed more on acceleration of programmes in the pipeline such as e-learning, digital transformation, community social responsibilities, promotion of HR excellence and HR standards,” Chitagu said.
The Council also collaborated with the Confederation of Zimbabwe Industries, Employers’ Confederation of Zimbabwe, SHRM, World HRD, UNICAF, South African Board of Human Resources Practitioners, the Institute of Directors Zimbabwe, Law Society of Zimbabwe and the Institute of Chartered Accountants of Zimbabwe, among many other organisations.
IPMZ participated in the Zimbabwe Anti-Corruption Commission and the Zimbabwe Human Rights Commission interviews as a panel of experts.
The organisation also participated in formulation of Covid-19 guidelines on lockdown. IPMZ has been firm on making sure that Covid-19 information was spread across the country. IPMZ also participated on the Tripartite Labour Law Advisory Council under the Ministry of Labour and had collaborations with the Ministry of Health and Child Care.
“The Council had to establish the bench of past presidents to borrow ideas and align all the visions.
“On transformation, the Council had to look into building a strong team that believed in itself as well as empowered Secretariat.
“The Council had also to transform the Institute so that it would also participate at global level.
“The innovation aspect focussed on bringing new products. Our term of office was largely virtual (remote work) and we had to innovate to ensure continuity of the IPMZ business and also safeguarding employment for the staff under the Covid-19 pandemic,” he said.
“New products like leadership coaching, executive coaching, master leadership coaching were introduced. The Council had to change the culture of the Institute which included organisation renewal.
“On ownership, the focus was on the Institute’s response to industry needs, HR as an expert in organisation development, redefining the role of IPMZ, ISO Certification journey, leadership and governance agenda, pursuing HR Professional Bill, among others.
Chitagu said IPMZ has been able to stand high as a formidable HR board locally and abroad.
“Entering into a memorandum of understanding with international HR boards like World HRD Congress is a great achievement. Best practices can be shared and even when the pandemic impacted Zimbabwe; it was easy to benchmark what other countries had done about virtual working,” the executive said.
Going forward, Chitagu suggested IPMZ embrace Diaspora membership so that there is a “benchmark of global practices”.
Chitagu said he has read several books that have left indelible lessons and helped shape your views in life.
“I have gone through Balance Score Card by Norton and Darwin, Leadership Coaching, Employee Engagement, The CDH of Leadership Coaching by Dr Marshall Goldsmith, among many others.
Currently, Chitagu is reading HR Audit and HR Scorecard text books.
He is also writing books.
“I am not only reading but I am also writing HR books after realising that some of these HR books are only available in SA, India, Kenya, to name just a few places.
“It is critical to have such books in Zimbabwe as well. Besides, the culture of reading and writing books is the way to go.
“I have since written my two HR books-Inside the HR Cockpit and H Resources Mojo.
Chitagu has several mentors who inspired him such as Marshal Goldsmith (international mentor), HR expert Rose Nhamo, his former geography teacher, Nelson Mutakaya (who taught me to be resilient even when facing challenges” and Dr Bhatia, the founder of Human Resources Development Congress (World HRD Congress).
“Despite the inspiration I got from those mentioned, my SHAL Leadership Team’s support was amazing. They stood by me in very difficult situations,” Chitagu said.
His professional life started as a statistic officer under the Ministry of Health before migrating to HR.
“A chance to act as Hospital administrator came in 1992 when the then Silveira Hospital administrator went on leave for two months. After going through an induction process for two weeks, I was ready to move and take charge of the hospital HR function. I never looked back after tasting HR leadership,” the executive said.
He said he was influenced into HR by a nurse at Silveira Hospital in Masvingo Province, called Chiona.
“He just told me that I had people skills and would do better in HR than Statistics.”
Chitagu has won global HR Awards, which are accorded to individuals who have contributed to the growth of HR practice through nurturing of talent.
His Awards include the Africa HR Leadership Award (Mauritius), one of the 100 Most Influential Global HR Professional Award (World HR Congress — Republic of India),Africa Best Employer Brands (Mauritius), IPMZ/EMCOZ Overall Employer of Choice Award, Leading Change and Transformation (HR Systems Academy-Coca Cola System and Africa HR Professional of the Year.
“These are awards which are accorded to individuals and organisations which have nurtured talent as a strategy to build strong leadership pipelines in organisations,” he said.
Chitagu is a holder of a PhD in Transformative Leadership through bonding culture, Doctor of Business Administration, MBA, Bachelor of Management in Industrial and Labour Studies, IPMZ Diploma, Industrial and Labour Studies Diploma, among other professional qualifications.
“I think I have arrived. With my PhD in Transformative Leadership Through Bonding Culture, I believe I have achieved my dream. God willing, I do not mind if I end up being a Professor,” Chitagu said.
Chitagu said as a somebody with a ‘peasantry’ background, he faced many challenges as he was growing up.
“When you are from a peasantry background, accessing educational assistance has been a big challenge and is one issue that gave me sleepless nights during early stages of my career until the issue was resolved.
“The other challenge was adjusting from government ways of doing things to the private sector. With the assistance of my then predecessors at Caps Holdings Pharmaceuticals and Schweppes Holdings Africa Limited, adjusting to systems was smooth and quick,” he said.
Chitagu is married and has five children.
To fellow HR professionals, Chitagu said: “Never give up. Focus on your aspiration.
“Be the best version of yourself.”
