The Mauritius Institute of Directors (MIoD), in collaboration with the ER Group, has unveiled the Human Capital Governance Forum (HCGF) on April 24, at the Atal Bihari Vajpayee Institute of Public Service and Innovation.
Considered as the seventh advocacy forum under the MIoD, the HCGF is viewed as a game-changer in the way local organisations approach governance, pertaining to skills and leadership.
The HCGF has been designed with the aim of bringing together directors, managers, and experts, built around a continuous strategic dialogue through events, intersectoral exchanges, and an active collaboration with public decision makers. The aim is to put talent and leadership governance at the heart of organisations.
The forum has since its inception, secured the support of founding members such as Absa Bank, Alteo Group, Constance Group, Currimjee Group, ER Group, Mauritius Telecom, Terra Group et UBP Group, putting human capital at the heart of governance enterprises.
The event also hosted a dialogue with the theme, ‘The Talent Imperative: Why Human Capital Is Now a Boardroom Priority,’ moderated by the CEO at MIoD and chairperson at HCGF Sheila Ujoodha. She commented: “We are witnessing profound changes unfurling at the technological, demographical, and economic level, redefining the job market and the environment in which our organizations evolve.”
Similarly, in Mauritius, the market realities serve as a constant reminder that our talent and leadership pose a central strategic issue. In this context, the MIoD has designed the HCGF, our seventh advocacy forum, to help foster best practices of corporate governance and broaden the scope of actions, addressing one of the most decisive issues for resilience of organisations and boosting the competitiveness of Mauritius.”
Minister of Labor and Industrial Relations, Honorable Reza Uteem, emphasised: “Human capital has witnessed a considerable shift. It is no longer a simple operational cost, but a strategic priority, lying at the heart of our organizations, directly linked to their resilience and long-term value creation.”
He added, “The challenges remain: Ageing of population and an increasingly global competition for talents call for a concerted national effort to retain local skills. Retaining talent is not restricted solely to remuneration: It involves the company’s culture, respect at work, and the ability of organizations to offer concrete opportunities to grow and professional fulfilment. In our organizations, and in particular across family businesses, barriers persist, whether it is the “sticky floors” which tend to slow down the rise of certain talents from the first steps, or the “glass ceiling” which continues to impede profits recognised to reach the highest ranks.”
While the Chief People Executive at ’ER Group Manish Bundhun, shared, “In an environment characterised by technological acceleration and constantly changing employee expectations, the board plays a direct and pivotal role. A need to focus on the right indicators: How deep is our leadership pipeline? What is our key talent retention rate? Is our organizational culture aligned with our long-term strategy? The HCGF offers precisely the space for these questions to be asked with the rigor and regularity that they deserve in terms of governance.”
On the other hand, CEO at Mauritius Telecom, Veemal Gungadin shared the value of his organisation, where digital transformation is not a technological project and most importantly, a human transformation. He told. “Our strategy 2026-29 aims to make Mauritius act as a digital bridge between Asia and Africa, which is not possible without developing, at the same time, the competencies and necessary human ability. The future jobs lie in cloud, cybersecurity, AI and data, posing a significant opportunity for the island, which entails developing today the skills and human capacity. It’s a strategic investment that the board of directors must actively implement.”
Managing Director Designate of Currimjee Group Dhiren Ponnusamy remarked, “At a time when emerging technologies, a shift in working methods, and sustainability, among others, are fundamentally redefining our governance models, the human is more than ever at the centre of the equation. Grappling with such changes, the issue of human resources should resolutely impose itself as a strategic lever at the organizational level. It is precisely in this context that the Currimjee Group anticipated such changes in 2015, when it implemented an HR committee attached to its board of directors.”
“The launch of the Human Capital Governance Forum showcases the willingness of entities to project themselves into the future, by opening a space for dialogue, reflection, and sharing with the aim to bring our practices and models of sustainability, accompanying their transformation, which is a welcoming change.”
