INTERVIEWER: MAHMOUD MANSI
“It’s not enough to have laws in place; we need women in key decision-making positions, not administrative positions no matter how good the title may sound. HR needs to be aware of the challenges women face and some strategies to help them deal with them in a respectful and assertive way.”
Rita Maselli
About the Interviewee:
Dr. Rita Maselli is an Italian/Canadian HR Professional, consultant, trainer, award winning writer and painter currently living in Egypt, though she considers herself a Global Citizen. She owns her own business in Egypt as the Managing Director of RitaMaselli & Associates, a Management and HR consultancy founded in Cairo since 2009 www.rmaselli-associates.com. Dr. Rita specializes in Change Management, ROI, KPIs, Crises Management Training, Competency-Based HR, TNA Automated Tools, Performance Mgt and Attitudes Training and Coaching. She has lived/studied/worked in Italy, North America, Latin America and since 2002 the Middle East. She has a PHD in Management specialized in Change Management; and MA in Leadership/Supervision specialized in women leaders and gender management.
THE INTERVIEW
1-HR Revolution Middle-East Magazine: When you were a university student what was your dream job?
Rita Maselli: Actually, I never really saw myself in a job; I had a number of dream images that I carried around in my head: me as a lawyer pleading for the innocent; as a novelist winning the Nobel Prize for literature, and as an anti-apartheid human rights activist.
2-HR Revolution Middle-East Magazine: When was the first time you thought about starting your career in the HR? Tell us the story.
Rita Maselli: I never made a conscious decision to have a career in HR: I started in the education field as an English teacher, then as department head, then in counseling services, secondary principal, assistant-director, director and finally as board member. Throughout that part of my career, I always worked in the private sector which is highly competitive. I was directly involved with overseas recruiting, assessment and evaluation as well as all of the other management duties many of which were connected with strategic budgeting, staffing and evaluation.
3-HR Revolution Middle-East Magazine: How did you develop yourself into being a better HR person?
Rita Maselli: While in Latin America, I lived through a few revolutions, some military coups, assassinations, kidnappings and even killing of my staff and if that doesn’t make you a better person maybe nothing will. As for the HR part, I just figured it out as I went along. I realized that HR refers to the people part of dealing with the logistics of management. I’ve become very good at learning from my experiences and especially from all the mistakes I’ve made within the work context. But more traditionally, I read, read, read … about best practices and failures; I watch videos; I meet and share with other HR professionals, attend some conferences, try out what I believe in, continue to learn from new mistakes I make and share what I know.
4-HR Revolution Middle-East Magazine: Working as an HR consultant and trainer in different regions in the east and the west, what is the difference between both regions in HR application?
Rita Maselli: When I first came to Egypt in November of 2002, I felt that we were quite far behind in terms of our view of the role of HR. Even though I was working in a multi-national setting and was hired to be an Assistant CEO, with the main responsibility to oversee a regional “systemic excellence” change initiative launched from Cairo, when I got here I was shocked to realize that I was basically just a “showpiece”; no real change was expected or planned for. I had just finished my PhD in management, specializing in change and for the 2 years of my contract I was not given the authority to change anything. I was a well-paid decoration. It was the most frustrating time of my professional career and that is when I decided I would never have a boss again.
But we’ve come a long way since then; although I believe that we, in the HR community in Egypt, a) are often missing the core business skills required to be strategic business partners and b) are splintered into many, competing HR groups (many of which are really just recruiting sources) and c) we still have a long way to go to adapt global best practices to the Egyptian reality and culture.
I am convinced that if we can create an umbrella HR group, a national association of HR professionals, we would have so much more national influence in terms of the impact of HR on the daily lives of employees and we could make a real CHANGE.
5-HR Revolution Middle-East Magazine: How many years have you been in Egypt? What is your criticism and advice to HR in Egypt?
Rita Maselli: I’ve been here twelve years. HR professionals are still not seen as very critical to the success of an organization. We are often still perceived as personnel, almost “admin” with a little veneer of HR. We need to become very competent at strategic thinking and management and understanding the business aspects of running a company and only then will the owners, CEOs and Senior Mgrs start to take us more seriously. As long as they think “HR has no idea how to make money, create added value or improve quality” then they will not trust us to help make the right decisions, and we’ll continue to be excluded from the strategic decisions that drive vision and results.
6-HR Revolution Middle-East Magazine: From your profession, what are the qualifications of a professional trainer? And with the increasing number of trainers, how can one determine who is fraud?
Rita Maselli: I think that trainers should have enough technical knowledge of a topic, have experience in that topic enough to deliver the message in a clear and practical way, and be able inspire participants to grow and choose attitudes that empower them to live up to their potential. This combination is not easy to find, but is the one that leads to success. It isn’t because you can download a PPT presentation, copy and paste activities from different sources from the internet and are not afraid to speak in front of a group that you are trainer. A presenter of information is not a trainer. You might be able to get away with that at the university level but not with adult learners. It seems that a growing number of people have become or are becoming trainers because they think that they can make good, fast money. We need quality trainers, quantity is not enough.
7-HR Revolution Middle-East Magazine: When did you decide to start your own organization in Egypt? What were your challenges at the beginning?
Rita Maselli: I started at the end of 2008. Just setting up the company was a challenge for me as a foreigner but even more of a challenge was deciding what areas of HR, Management and training I wanted to specialize in. I found my niche a little at a time as I better understood the needs of the Egyptian market and where my strengths lie.
8-HR Revolution Middle-East Magazine: How did you market your own training programs at first?
Rita Maselli: Actually at first I didn’t market my training programs as I worked as a partner/consultant with IMI. Later I marketed through some special events, my own reputation as a trainer and the best marketing tool of all, word of mouth.
These days most of our marketing is done through social media. Check our Company Page Facebook. Also discover the following pages that we use to share the latest best practices in specific and key HR and management areas: Breaking the Glass Ceiling; Trainers Niche; Dr. Rita Maselli’s ROI Club; Dr. Rita’s KPI Academy; Attitudes for Personal Success and Happiness.
9-HR Revolution Middle-East Magazine: The Egyptian market has been continuously bombarded with training organizations. Does this mean that organizations in Egypt are beginning to understand the importance of training?
Rita Maselli: I don’t really know why the boom in training companies. But obviously quantity does not imply quality or results. Here’s the reality that we face as a country. You tell me what it means!
The 2015 Global Competitiveness Index puts Egypt at 116 out of the 140 countries that participated; a very poor showing. We might be tempted to say that it’s because of the regional area and the political instability etc. but that wouldn’t account for the rating of Jordan (64) and of Morocco (72).
Perhaps two of the most horrible and worrying ratings are in the sub-categories “quality of management schools: we scored 139 out 140” and “extent of staff training: 139 out of 140”. This is critical stuff! There is no lower rating that we could have received (except 140 out of 140). I believe that we need to organize an HR national forum on these two ratings. We desperately need to find out why we are so low and come up with a plan to improve. I’m willing to work with anyone who is interested to make a difference.
10-HR Revolution Middle-East Magazine: As the owner of your training organization, RitaMaselli & Associates, how do you keep your customers and market share among all the different competitors and economic changes?
Rita Maselli: Frankly, I don’t waste my efforts trying to find out what my competitors are doing. I refuse to compete. I focus on developing those business areas that I believe in and that I can deliver quality results for, sort of like Blue Ocean strategy. I design different training programs, different assessment tools and different ways at looking at generating business results. I basically focus on retaining my customers and repeat business.
11-HR Revolution Middle-East Magazine: As an HR person, how does this help you become a better person in the community?
Rita Maselli: As an HR person, I believe in the innate potential of people and my role is to create an environment where that potential may be developed by removing all artificial obstacles. From a practical point of view whenever possible I buy from the smaller shops instead of the chains. I try to appreciate the effort that people make when they show initiative, especially at the lower levels.
12-HR Revolution Middle-East Magazine: Your office is decorated by a lot of artistic paintings, all signed by you. From a personal perspective what could be the relationship between art and HR? And how does painting inspire you to become a better HR?
Rita Maselli: The practice of Art is like that of HR. There is the science of art, meaning understanding the medium you use, how to mix the colors effectively, how to design your message etc. But there is the human aspect of the creativity needed to create a piece. It comes down to what someone feels like when they stand in front of the final piece of art. Are they touched in some way? Are they uplifted or diminished? At the end of the day in terms of HR, we look at the results and ask ourselves, have we contributed to the improvement of an organization (without sacrificing employee rights) or have we contributed to the ineffectiveness or inefficiency of non-ethical, non-productive procedures? We are part of the problem or part of the solution. You can’t sit on the HR fence.
13-HR Revolution Middle-East Magazine: Would you advise the Learning & Development departments to apply a painting course to the employees of the organization? How would this be useful?
Rita Maselli: Interesting idea but I’m not sure that it would be beneficial or “do-able”. There is the process of creating a piece of art. I guess if someone would be willing to go through the process then many things could be learned, but it is a learned process and it would be time-demanding unless of course we should promote pure spontaneity. That would be fun but not sure that it would benefit all.
14-HR Revolution Middle-East Magazine: You are also a writer, and you are writing your own novel. What are the difficulties you face as a writer?
Rita Maselli: As a novelist, you have to make sure that you have a worthwhile message to share otherwise you’re just filling up pages. Writing is a solitary activity, and it’s very easy to become discouraged. It requires concentration, organization, creativity and an incredible amount of discipline, actually just sitting down and doing it even when you’re not inspired. I’m very lucky because I’m part of a writers group in Cairo whose members are all very supportive of each other.
15-HR Revolution Middle-East Magazine: How does HR inspire your motherhood?
Rita Maselli: I have two adult children: daughter, who’s a writer and temporarily living in Egypt and a son who is traveling the world and is now in Peru. I’m not sure that HR inspires to be a better mother, but it definitely does inspire me to be a better communicator, confidante and supporter.
16-HR Revolution Middle-East Magazine: Being a member of Global HR Forum, how does this add value to you as an HR professional?
Rita Maselli: The main reason for the creation of Global HR Forum was the need for an HR group that is focused on the activities that are: very worthwhile, rich in meaning, high in impact and find ways to make this group truly stand out in key HR areas. And for the first 3 or 4 months, the spirit within the group was very inspirational as people came up with creative ideas about how to add value to the community and to the members of the group. Global HR Forum actively promotes debate, professional learning and a mindset of excellence in HR practices. We had a couple of great sessions and competitions that I feel added significant value to me individually and to us as professionals. Additional to this the group is also used as a recruitment tool.
17-HR Revolution Middle-East Magazine: From your work experience and observation in Egypt, what are the problems that face “working women”? And how can HR offer a hand into making a better working environment for women?
Rita Maselli: It seems that the “proper” legislation to protect women’s rights exists; so then it becomes an issue of making sure that as HR professionals we become very familiar with the laws and that they are applied consistently and correctly. For me I think that some of the bigger issues seem to be the lack of women in certain key professions and at certain levels of management. It’s not enough to have laws in place; we need women in key decision-making positions, not administrative positions no matter how good the title may sound. HR needs to be aware of the challenges women face and some strategies to help them deal with them in a respectful and assertive way. I am a feminist through and through. Men will never be completely able to discover their true potential until women are able to do the same. We both benefit when we are equal partners, and equal does not mean the same. Equal simply means having equal opportunity to make the choices we want for ourselves.
HR Revolution Middle-East Magazine: Dr. Rita, thank you so much for being the artist and professional person you are, for your honesty and for vividly sharing your knowledge, experience and valuable opinions with us.
Facebook Page:
https://www.facebook.com/ritamaselliandassociates/?fref=ts
