Technology News South Africa

AVI empowers with Siyakhula

Forming part of the AVI People Development Strategy, the well-known fast moving consumer goods company has launched an internal training initiative, Siyakhula meaning ‘We are growing'.

Siyakhula is designed to empower some 100 AVI employees across the country who will be trained to facilitate training sessions which will reach over 1 500 employees within the company.

According to Nicole Cimring, who heads the programme, “we have selected facilitators from our employees who have already been through the Growth Alignment Programme (GAP) where they attended modules which covered personal leadership, innovation and diversity. These individuals will be trained in facilitation and will be fully functional in their facilitator roles by March 2007. They have then been given the task of transferring their learnings of personal leadership to their teams by July 2007 through training modules and by using practical examples which they have learned.”

Selected for their unique strengths within their teams and at their sites, the facilitators will also be tasked and trained as change agents and will ensure that all employees fully understand the structural changes that have taken place within the company.

“Over the past few months, we have gone through a number of strategic changes. However, we remain committed to ensuring that everyone within our employ fully understands the restructure. We are also continually focussed on developing and empowering our greatest asset – our people – and Siyakhula enables us to do just that,” adds Nicole.

In order to best set the scene, Jumping Dust Productions used industrial theatre to portray the restructure.

“Industrial theatre is a wonderful means to communicate with people. Not only is it entertaining, but it also brings the message home. The message is clear: we can all grow as the company grows. Essentially, we want our employees to get involved in the company and its growth and to feel part of the changes.

“We continue to strive to provide our staff with the highest quality development and Siyakhula is the next step in creating a unique and highly successful learning experience for our employees,” concludes Nicole.

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