Electricity distributor Umeme Limited has recruited 100 new technicians and 19 Graduate Trainees drawn from different Universities and Colleges across the Country. The recruitment is in addition to the 588 contractor technicians brought on board by the company in March 2022.
This brings the total head count of Umeme to 2137 directly employed and 788 contractors, making Umeme the largest employer of electrical engineers and technicians amongst others in the energy sector.
Umeme’s Managing Director, Selestino Babungi says Umeme has been deliberate and focused on building local capacity to run the electricity sector by providing employment opportunities to Ugandans, especially graduates.
“We aim to be an employer of choice, providing the opportunity to Ugandans in the electricity sub sector, attracting, nurturing, and retaining critical talent. To date, Umeme employs over 3,000 Ugandans both directly and indirectly,” he said.
The utility company has nurtured a diverse workforce with an enabling work environment that fosters staff safety, wellbeing, and growth. Human capital development is critical to Umeme’s and energy sector’s long-term success.
“Our human capital strategy aims to deliver a safe and conducive employee experience founded on our core values, quality leadership, employee collaboration, retention and engagement, within built purpose aligned to deliver the organization objectives,” Babungi explains.
Umeme’s contribution to the economy can not be underscored as it supports the whole eco system by providing livelihoods to thousands including dependents.
The Company has a staff average age of 34 years which means majority of the people working in the utility are young. This also signifies Umeme’s contribution towards providing employment opportunities to the youth directly through employment but also indirectly through contractors and suppliers.
Dr. Fred Mwita, Umeme’s Head of Human Resources said Umeme is the largest employer of Engineers in the Country with over 80 per cent of the work force being engineers employed across the value chain.
“We are the biggest employer of engineers who are drawn from across the Tertiary Institutions to Universities across the Country. Umeme has a robust training programme to skill our employees,” he explained, adding, “We deliberately train our staff to impart hands on skills which make them very marketable across the globe. The average training hours per staff member last year was 25, with programmes around safety, system operations, service, training of trainers, supervisory skills and management development.”
He said they have been very deliberate and taken affirmative action to ensure they observe gender equality in their recruitments by encouraging more women to apply for the available jobs.
“The Company aims to remain an Employer of Choice, attracting, developing, and retaining high performing staff. Our staff turnover rate was 4%, with higher retention rates for critical talent through rewards, retention schemes and an exciting value proposition,” he said.