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By Chinyere Anyanwu
A reimagined human resource model has been described as indispensable to the building of a workforce ecosystem where flexibility drives productivity, development strengthens employability, technology enhances human judgment, and business growth advances decent work for all.
President and Chairman of the Governing Council of the Chartered Institute of Personnel Management of Nigeria (CIPM), Mallam Ahmed Gobir, revealed this at the recent HRSpace 2026 conference held in Lagos.
The conference, hosted by the Caleb Business School (CBS), an arm of the Caleb University, alongside its partners, was themed: “Reimagining HR for Business Resilience and Growth”.
Speaking on the topic, “Leadership Development in the Gig Economy: Alternative Workforce Models”, the keynote speaker, Mallam Gobir, who was represented by the CIPM Registrar, Ms Oluwatoyin Naiwo, said, “organisations must be intentional about how they recruit, engage, and retain critical talent in support of their long-term business objectives.”
He stated that HR “leaders who will thrive in this new era will think in terms of capability ecosystems. They will choose workforce models deliberately, align people through outcomes, develop talent beyond organisational boundaries, govern technology ethically, listen across all categories of workers, and measure success through shared value.”
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Gobir insists that HR professionals must possess the knowledge, skills, and competencies required to support line managers effectively. “If HR leaders are unable to provide strategic support to the public service, we cannot expect the system to perform at its best,” he said.
For his part, Prof. Christian Harrison, Professor of Leadership and Enterprise, University of Greater Manchester, UK, strongly believes that leaders need to model the behaviour they want to see.
Prof. Harrison, who advocates continuous learning and upskilling for workplace viability, said, “annual training isn’t enough. As HR directors, your job isn’t just signing off on annual training budgets — make sure that training is linked to something that supports continuous development.”
According to him, lifelong learning isn’t optional but an obligation. “In Nigeria specifically, only 26 per cent of managers actively develop their teams. 91 per cent of Nigerians say they would stay if given learning opportunities. So the lesson is clear: if you want to retain people, invest in them, train them. It’s not enough to say you care about your staff — you have to show it through action,” he said.
Earlier in his welcome address, the Caleb University Vice Chancellor, Prof. Olalekan Asikhia, described HR as a subject that is fundamental to the survival and prosperity of the country and the human resource market.
Prof. Asikhia noted that if HR would still be relevant in the current digital age, “it must transition from being a mere administrative support function to becoming the very architecture upon which business resilience and growth are built. We cannot continue to manage people the way we managed them in the 90s. The world has changed. The workforce has changed. And if we do not change, we will be left behind.”
