Golden Jubilee For Zimbabwe Catholic Bishops’ Conference HUMAN RESOURCE MANAGEMENT – ZCBC has come of age A s we celebrate 50 years since the founding of the Zimbabwe Catholic Bishops' Conference (ZCBC), it is equally important to celebrate the many people, lay, religious and clergy who have worked at the Secretariat. The Secretary General , who is the overall team leader , has the responsibility to give guidance and direction to all staff who hail from varied backgrounds. Of the agreed management functions, there is one which stands out, that is leading. It is so, because it deals specifically with Mr. Albert Dhafana people and ensuring that they achieve their best in ZCBC HR Manager their professional and personal endeavours. From its founding, the ZCBC has had a functioning department, which is focused on recruitment and selection, staff contracts management, payroll administration, staff welfare and motivation as well as training and development. Over the years, what has changed is the ZCBC's adaptation to new labour regulations, improvements in the worldwide Church by embracing change in the labour market. This also benefits from Church documents like Pope Leo XVIII's 1891 encyclical Rerum Novarum, which emphasised on 'Christianising of the conditions of the working classes' the human resource office is also responsible for the administrative functions which encompass properties and transport management. The area of human resource management is fraught with potential litigations, hence the proactive approach which the Church has adopted. Employment contracts have a bearing on a number of issues ranging from remuneration to job or work deliverables between the Church and the respective individual. In the early years, it was possible to have localised arrangements, with contracts being made at the local level in the most basic form. This was largely due to the size and a labour market still in its infancy. Over the years, and more pronounced in the new millennium, the ZCBC has worked to develop a recruitment and selection strategy, which is responsive and relevant to the times. Benefiting from the best practices in the Holy See, sister conferences, state (public service) and non-state actors (NGOs) and private sector, the ZCBC has created policies and procedures to guide in human resource management in the local Church. The Church has been through the many phases of the country's development from the oppressive 20