Good afternoon All
I really need to get back to the habit of sending these weekly e-mails on Mondays and not on Thursday like am doing this week. You know its easy to make a resolution and then get distracted by the day job. However, I will endeavour to stick to my resolution from Monday next week😊.
Where do we start from then? Definitely it’s the Men’s Conference on Monday, 12th Feb in Lilongwe….it was massive. Tinaipatsa Moto kuti buuu! It was impressive, the attendance was massive, the participation was great. Our ladies out there please be assured you have allies within the Corporation. I have no doubt that we’ll all see big changes in the next 12 months. We all know that there’s a big wave of transformation and change happening within the Organization, and no one will be left behind. We have to also change the gender outlook in the ranks and file of the Corporation. Better still, ESCOM Board has approved EM’s recommendation of an affirmative action on 40:60 representation within the Company. This means that all hiring managers will have to be mindful of this affirmative action during promotions, recruitments, sponsorship, and scholarship offerings etc. I believe this is something that’s doable and we will do it! I would like to sincerely thank Ms Eluby Chienda for being our gallant champion in mainstreaming gender and social inclusion in ESCOM. Your efforts are now bearing fruits, you have a whole host of forward think men who are ready to be change agents!
On a sad note, though, on 5th February 2023, engineers, technical supervisors and engineering managers were gathered in Lilongwe to reflect on our safety record for the past 9 months. It was a tough meeting to note that about 46 accidents have happened on our network for the past 9 months (see some of the incidences in the attached report). 10 of these were fatal. Am sure not even one of us can be proud of such a safety record. A number of recommendations and resolutions were made to improve the situation and we will be following up closely. Some of these resolutions are:
- To undertake above normal network maintenance from April to October this year (Maintenance season).
- To restore engineering standards through Training, Capacity building and mindset change. From this year, we’re bringing back the 72- week graduate trainee programme. No short cuts will be entertained. Additionally, we’ll focus on refresher training and continuous professional development. We’ll also encourage registration of engineers and technicians by working collaboratively with Malawi Engineering Institute (MEI)
- To empower supervising engineers
- To put continued focus on fault management
- To improve availability of materials and tools.
As we continue to implement FR, it came to EM’s attention of some of the challenges inherent in the FR structure. It was understood across the Organisation that staff with Diplomas could only be considered for ES10 positions and not ES9. This means that there wasn’t a provision for progression amongst this cadre of staff. To address the situation, it has been decided that ES10 and ES9 are entry points for a person with a diploma and advanced diploma respectively. However, a person with a diploma who has 3 years relevant working experience can still be considered for progression to ES9. More details on this and implications for staff who may have been impacted by the previous stance will be communicated through Line Managers.
Bye for now…
Regards
COO