Safaricom staff anxious as restructuring begins
A new organisational structure at Safaricom is causing anxiety among employees who will be required to re-apply for their jobs afresh in the new arrangement.
In the restructuring process currently underway, the company intends to adopt an agile organisational structure, which will kick out the traditional hierarchical one.
Under the new plan, many of the current departments and offices will be collapsed in a move which will severally blur traditional boundaries between superiors and their subordinates.
The changes intend to make employees work in groups called squads, where several squads will form a tribe.
Each tribe will then report to the executive committee (exco). So far, four tribes namely Digital Care, Mobile Data, Fixed Data, and Payments have already been created with positions advertised internally, and are open to all employees.
Implementation of the changes is taking place progressively with most of the communication to employees on the matter carried out through town hall meetings.
In a recent memo to employees CEO Peter Ndegwa said: “Two weeks ago, we started the journey towards becoming an agile organisation.
This will enable us to serve our customers better by sustaining our customer obsession efforts, achieve deeper engagements with our colleagues, connect with our community and deliver greater shareholder returns for the company.”
“As detailed in the organisational and divisional town halls, our agile transformation will unfold across several months.
This will be through a graduated approach that will ensure we collect feedback and literate as we launch more tribes,” he added.
It is not yet clear whether the terms of engagement for the newly restructured positions will differ significantly from the current terms.
Although the hiring process is largely transparent, according to the sources, there are fears among employees that those who may not secure positions in the newly formed squads and tribes, could be rendered jobless.
“We are currently applying for the agile jobs as we go on with our normal duties. You simply check the responsibilities and skills required and apply if you qualify.
If you don’t get the position, you wait for the next tribe to be formed and apply,” said an employee at the company who is not authorised to speak to press.
"So far, it is some former Heads of Departments who have secured jobs as tribe leads,” he added.
Formation of squads will follow later with all positions to be advertised internally, according to our source.
It is widely believed that the company intends exhaust the human resource available internally before advertising the positions externally.
