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About Dolapo Onasanya
Dolapo Onasanya is a strategic HR Leader with over 12 years experience in Multinationals and Nigerian Organizations. Key areas include HR Business Partnering, Talent Mangement, Organisational Development, Reward and Talent Sourcing.
Dolapo has held top roles in HR ranging from Head of Recruitment at Union Bank to HR Business Partner Nigeria and Ghana at Upfield Foods.
He is currently a member of the leadership team for Pernod Ricard Western Africa as HR Manager covering Nigeria, Ghana and 3rd Party Countries.
INTERVIEW
QUESTIONS
These interview questions were brought to you by TwoCents and Daluchi Iweanya
TwoCents
What are some things you've had to learn and unlearn to prepare yourself for the "Future of work"
Dolapo Onasanya
Always be willing to learn, be more flexible, listen to understand, collaborate more as against individual excellence.
TwoCents
With increasing talent migration especially within the tech space, what is the role of HR in making sure that the firm retains talent within the company? How does HR (Nigeria) intend to compete?
Dolapo Onasanya
Organizations must have a clear definition of who a talent is and how to identify a talent. Next will be how to develop those talents, reward and retain them. To retain them, we need to identify what motives them to stay and build our retention program around it.
TwoCents
How has the Covid-19 Pandemic changed recruitment for HR, and work generally? Are there specific differences in what HR considered when recruiting Pre-covid and now?
Dolapo Onasanya
With the Covid pandemic, more interviews are conducted virtually. This demands more preparation from the candidates as well as the interviewers. I still prefer at least one physical interview before final decision except the work can be done virtually 100%.
TwoCents
In cases of redundancy and restructuring, how do you manage expectations of affected employees, especially in relation to labour laws etc.?
Dolapo Onasanya
In cases of redundancy, my view is always for the Organization to go above what the labour law prescribes. This will show that the Company truly cares about its employees
TwoCents
In your opinion, how long is ideal to stay in an organization?
Dolapo Onasanya
There is no ideal time. We should have our personal development plans. If your goals are being met in your current organization, there is no need to jump ship. While growth might be faster with frequent change of jobs, consistency also pays especially in the long run
TwoCents
In your experience, what is the most recurrent blunder candidates have made during their job interview session?
Dolapo Onasanya
Not listening to understand before responding to questions, appearing desperate and lack of proper preparation before interview.
TwoCents
How useful is an MBA when applying for a role at Pernod Ricard - what's the balance of experience versus certifications/degrees you'd advice candidates to have when applying?
Dolapo Onasanya
While qualifications are still relevant, they now serve as minimum requirements. The real measurable values that differentiate candidates include potential, attitude, building relationship, communication, motivation and the quality of experience/achievements.
The candidate also has to be culture fit for the organization.
TwoCents
Given the emergence of Gen Z into the workforce, How do you strike a balance between the "experienced" talent and the new generation?
Dolapo Onasanya
Organizations should view this from the strength derived from having a diversified workforce, not just in terms of gender but also what everyone brings to the table. In fact, we can run both mentoring and reserve mentoring programs. Leaders of the Organization must lead by example and Gen Z should always be ready to also learn
TwoCents
As a HR professional, how do you manage increasing staff attrition rates. What role does HR play in keeping her workforce motivated and balancing attrition rates?
Dolapo Onasanya
Staff attrition becomes a problem when it’s above a certain threshold. The role of HR is to proactively engage employees, assess what’s happening in the industry (both local and global) and take steps to keep employees engaged. We also have to develop a strong talent pipeline and succession plan.
TwoCents
What is HR’s role in managing the mental well being of staff given the pandemic? How is HR ensuring that staff maintain a work-life balance giving that people tend to overwork unconsciously when working from home.
Dolapo Onasanya
Mental well-being is critical to employee wellness and every organization must be interested in it. Working from home has its merits and demerits but organizations that will retain its talent will have to be flexible enough to provide different platforms for employees to work and express themselves.
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As remote work becomes the new standard across many industries, especially digital-first industries, borders are disappearing as companies from around the globe can now hire African talent. These companies can often offer renumeration far above their African counterparts. Is there anyway for these African companies to compete?
2 Answer requests
Lagos
You are right...however African companies need to see talent attraction and retention beyond just the pay cheque but the entire employee experience from culture to development opportunities and other areas like employee wellbeing, diversity, long term rewards like shares option, etc.
First is sort of that 'contrarian' question, what are 3 things widely believed to be true about the HR space that you have found to be completely false?
Second is, what's your two cents on culture-fit versus skill-level - would you rather take a highly-skilled person who's not culturally fit, or someone who's a great fit but not so skilled.
Third is something I've heard a lot from friends in the HR field, how practical is the Nigerian Compensation Act in the industry.
2 Answer requests
Interesting questions Cyrus...
On the first question, I think it’s largely about perception and it varies from one Organization to the other. An example is HR is responsible for hiring and firing, but the truth is we only support the process to ensure fairness and consistency, the decision maker is mostly the Line Manager or the Functional Head.
On the second question, for permanent recruitment, I will rather go for culture fit and train the individual, but if it’s a short term fix, then I will go for the highly skilled.
On the last question, my advice is to always go above the legal requirements as much as you can...but it’s good that we have a compensation act in place, which at least serves as a minimum requirement especially in extreme cases like accident and death. However, it needs to be reviewed at intervals to align with current realities.
The legislation I struggle with is ITF and I think it should be restructured
Suggest areas that you feel need the most improvement, based on your understanding of current and evolving HR practices?
2 Answer requests
Good question...
It mostly depends on how HR is being practiced in each Organization. Generally, HR needs to improve knowledge of the business so we are more impactful in our initiatives
There is a wildfire assumption that the role of HR is dwindling, especially in Nigerian companies. As a mentor (having years of experience) in career management, human development and work ethics in organisations, how true is this and what solidifies the role of HR in companies amidst the shedding of company tasks as organisations tend to cut down on workload?
2 Answer requests
HR is threatened same way as other departments. With improvements in technology, creation of shared services, outsourcing, integration of processes etc, headcount will mostly be affected.
As individuals, whether in HR or other departments, we need to always prepare for tomorrow. Learn new things, manage our resources well, be open to new challenges,etc
How is HR managing the lacuna that can be accrued to Intellectual Disability? How would HR manage this going forward, especially with innovation and equal employment opportunity being publicized as salient HR terms?
1 Answer request
The recruitment process of strong organizations have been tailored to identify the right talents in line with their vision and culture...this is coupled with continuous training with a combination of on the job training, projects, coaching and formal classroom trainings.
😊 getting everyone aligned without necessarily applying force, having a seat at the table to see HR as value adding and not just an Administrative Department.
What trends do you think will shape Human Resource departments over the next 10 years?
1 Answer request
Data will be critical....things like predictive analytics etc will shape HR and business decisions in general
As a HR manager how have you been able to manage the diversity that might occur in your organization.
1 Answer request
Diversity is good if properly managed. Everyone brings unique qualities to the table...but we need to ensure collaboration and shared vision for diversity to be effective
Hello Dolapo,
Thanks for all you answers so far, they are quiet interesting and practical, which leads me to my first question
1.You mentioned earlier that beyond the certifications, is the value you are bringing onboard. Nevertheless , most organisations have made it hard to even grow with the 10-12 years work experience policies we keep seeing, as an expert in the field what are the necessary steps for someone transitioning from another career path into Human Resource management.
1 Answer request
Thank you Temitayo. It is easier to transit within same Organization. You can show interest in HR during development conversations and also get involved in HR projects (if any) while still in your current department. You must continue to deliver on your job while planning to move to HR.
If you are fresh out of school, you can write professional examinations in HR to prepare you for opportunities.
You only have control over your readiness while you hope for the right opportunities by actively searching
I recently stumbled across a saying on social media saying, "HR is for the benefit of the company not its workers". Do you agree or disagree? Whatever your answer, I would appreciate it if you explain further.
1 Answer request
I would rather see it from a point of collaboration as against company versus workers.
A company is as good as its people, HR helps the company to shape policies and procedures while also coming up with initiatives to drive employee engagement in line with the vision of the company.
When employees are engaged, productivity is higher.
Good day,
Can you recommend an HR practice which startup should implement to create the bedrock for company culture? Also, do you have a blog that I can follow?
1 Answer request
For startup, the vision and mission of the founders should be very clear that every employee can identify with them and broken down into measurable behaviours expected from employees with the founders leading by example.
I don’t have a blog at the moment. Maybe in the near future 😊
Hi Dolapo.
I noticed that you mentioned culture fit several times in your discourse. During interviews, how do you measure to what extent a candidate fits your culture?
Secondly, how best could a candidate improve his/her fitness to the culture of a prospective organisation?
1 Answer request
We ask scenario questions and also probe further to get evidence, so we are able to make informed recruitment decisions.
For example, rather than asking if you work well in teams, we can ask you to tell us about a time you worked in a team, what the objective of the team was, your role in the team, what obstacles you faced, what would you have done differently etc.
Another option especially for fresh graduates is to group candidates and give them case study to discuss. We will monitor how they interact, the quality of their outcomes, etc to evaluate some of the competencies we are looking for.
To improve, read about an organization before attending the interview. Prepare well, rehearse to improve your presentation skill, etc
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