EOH's fundamental belief is that while systems make it possible; it is the people that make things happen.
This conviction is deeply entrenched in the company culture, with a belief that EOH's competitive advantage lies in the quality of its people. As a result, it is essential for the company to ensure the development of its people, its most valuable asset.
Several programmes have already been in place for some years to grow individuals within EOH; however, they were targeted at individuals operating on a delivery level as opposed to those at management level.
"About three years ago, we realised we had a gap in our training and development programmes. We needed to develop managers too, creating a beneficial chain-reaction for their entire team," explains Vera Massyn, divisional director of group human capital.
This is the reason why, after maturing and shaping the idea for three years, EOH recently launched its new leadership programme.
Massyn explains that the first step was to define the objective of the programme. It was decided that it was necessary for team leaders to develop leadership and management skills in order to develop their non-technical intelligence, and by doing so, create role models for the entire organisation.
The second step was to define the type of training managers were to receive. She explains that her priority was to find a starting point. "For the moment, it consists of one training day a month. Only one topic is tackled at each training day. We have a pool of topics ready, but we are aiming at scheduling sessions according to the priorities defined by the participants themselves," says Massyn.
The next step will be to evaluate the results with the participants and the management committee, and adapt accordingly. Massyn says this approach is being tested during a pilot phase, which will last for approximately one year. "We already know it is a high level of involvement for these individuals, considering they have such busy schedules. But we will adapt the content of the programme with the feedback we are gathering."
Ultimately, EOH hopes the participants will make the programme their own. "We like to build human capital initiatives in an organic and collaborative way. This is part of EOH's culture. Thanks to their feedback from this pilot phase, we will shape the programme to tailor it to what the business really needs and wants."
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EOH is a business and technology solutions provider, creating lifelong partnerships by developing business and IT strategies, supplying and implementing solutions and managing enterprise-wide business systems and processes for medium-to-large clients.
EOH operates in the following three clusters of business units as a fully-integrated business:
Consulting - concentrated under the EOH Consulting brand are business units offering services ranging from strategic and business process consulting, project services, change management, supply chain optimisation and education.
Technology - through a number of subsidiary companies, EOH is able to sell, implement and support a range of world-class business applications, including ERP, CRM, business intelligence, advanced planning and scheduling, e-commerce and manufacturing execution systems.
Outsourcing - EOH offers comprehensive maintenance and support of client's IT infrastructure and applications through the rendering of full IT outsourcing, application hosting and managed services. In addition, EOH offers full business process outsourcing services.
EOH has a presence in all major centres in South Africa and Botswana, and operates in the rest of Africa.
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