The Chief Executive Officer of Telecel Ghana, Ing. Patricia Obo-Nai, has called on mining companies to overhaul their approach to  recruitment and employee development to keep pace with rapid technological changes.

She said businesses must stop focusing solely on filling existing vacancies and instead identify the skills and capabilities they would require in the future.

Ing. Obo-Nai made the call at the 7th Biennial Human Resource Conference of the Ghana Chamber of Mines in Accra on Thursday, 20 August, 2026.

The conference, held at The Palm by Eagles Hotel, was on the theme: “Future-Ready People: Building the Workforce for Ghana’s Next Era of Mining.”

According to Ing. Obo-Nai, developments in artificial intelligence and other emerging technologies are changing the workplace and creating new categories of jobs.

She said many professions that are now considered essential to businesses were largely unknown a decade ago.

She cited cybersecurity analysts, data engineers, cloud architects, digital marketers and conversational designers as examples of emerging roles.

Ing. Obo-Nai said the growing application of skills across different sectors was also increasing competition for specialised talent.

She said skills that were traditionally associated with telecommunications were now being applied in industries including mining, agriculture and insurance.

This, she noted, had made some specialised skills increasingly expensive to acquire and retain.

She said organisations must therefore move away from recruitment practices that are based strictly on existing job descriptions.

“Historically, organisations recruited people who clearly defined jobs. Robust job descriptions based on our current professional environment. And we look for candidates to match them. That model is becoming outdated,” she said.

Ing. Obo-Nai said the changing nature of work had made the Human Resource function more important to corporate strategy.

She described the HR Director as one of the top strategic partners to the CEO and said HR executives must understand both their organisations and the future direction of their respective industries.

“The future-ready workforce must start with the future-ready HR team,” she said.

She urged HR leaders to challenge management to look beyond immediate staffing needs and determine the capabilities their organisations would require in the coming years.

She said this should be reflected in recruitment, promotion and employee development decisions.

Ing. Obo-Nai also urged businesses to make continuous learning a central part of their workforce strategies.

She cited the World Economic Forum’s 2025 Future of Jobs Report, which identifies analytical thinking, creativity, technological literacy and lifelong learning among the fastest-growing skills in the workplace.

She said employers should assess employees not only on their existing technical expertise but also on their willingness and ability to continuously acquire new skills.

“We can no longer afford to wait until employees become digitally obsolete before investing in their development,” she said.

Ing. Obo-Nai disclosed that Telecel Ghana had identified 14 digital skills that it considers necessary for the future of work.

She said the company was encouraging employees across various departments, including engineering, finance and external affairs, to develop proficiency in the skills.

She added that Telecel was also encouraging staff to use artificial intelligence tools to improve the efficiency of their work.

However, Ing. Obo-Nai said the increasing use of AI should not lead businesses to overlook the value of human intelligence.

She referred to comments by journalist and author Fareed Zakaria, who recently argued that human intelligence, imagination, inspiration and interpretation remain distinctive capabilities.

“The real stories are about people. It’s not about machines. It’s people who explore. It’s people who combine with HI and AI,” she said.

The Telecel CEO also called for deliberate measures to increase the participation of women in engineering, technology and mining.

She said industries risk losing valuable ideas and leadership when talented women are discouraged from pursuing careers in technical fields.

According to her, efforts to address the imbalance must begin before young people enter the job market.

She said Telecel had established programmes to introduce young girls to coding, web development and robotics.

The company runs 12-week programmes for primary and junior high school students, with about 70% of participants being female, she said.

Ing. Obo-Nai also disclosed that Telecel had supported female engineering students for about 10 years, particularly those at risk of dropping out during their third year of university because of uncertainty about their employment prospects.

More than 100 students have benefited from the programme, she said.

Some of the beneficiaries have joined Telecel, while others have gone on to work in other parts of the industry and its supply chain.

She said Telecel was also supporting the government’s one million coders programme, with a commitment to sponsor 200,000 coders on its platform at a cost of about $5 million.

Ing. Obo-Nai said the beneficiaries could develop technologies to address practical challenges, including automation, community reporting and tracking systems, and solutions to improve safety and efficiency.

She said businesses must see investments in skills and people as long-term investments in their competitiveness.

“The future of mining and the other fields will be determined by leadership that is willing to invest in people proactively,” she said.

Ing. Obo-Nai also urged mining companies to combine technological advancement with environmental responsibility.

“Responsible mining and environmental stewardship must go hand in hand,” she said.