Five interviews from 2020 with HR leaders who opened up about their challenges and triumphs.
Reflecting on a tough year gone by, this article is part of a series that aims to highlight some of the most insightful and inspiring stories from the CHRO SA community. Here are five of CHRO SA community manager Sungula Nkabinde’s favourite interviews with HR leaders in 2020.
1 Servest HR director Lungile Langa shares how she achieved early success
Servest Group HR director Lungile Langa has gone through many of life’s traditional milestones quickly. She completed matric at the age of 16 and, by 21, she was a BA graduate, a wife, and a mother.
Her career in HR took a while to take off. But once it did, it skyrocketed. She had struggled to find work and settled on working in retail in her early twenties and eventually found an administrative job at McDonalds’s where she would sit in a tiny back office of a McDonald’s restaurant to organise payroll and staff schedules.
Joining Servest, she says, was an opportunity to achieve a greater purpose because most of her ‘colleagues’ within the business are low-earning individuals that often do not have a voice in large corporations or even in society for that matter.
“I’m fortunate to be working in a company like this where my CEO and the executive team are immediately tuned in when I start talking about things we can do to fulfil our purpose of improving the lives of our colleagues,” she says, adding that, while CEO Xolile Sizani is an engineer, he is one with a heart of gold.
2 Jaguar Land Rover SA's Tanya Ramlagan on building a career with purpose and balance
In light of the Covid-19 pandemic, many people have had to make some difficult changes and decisions that affect different parts of their lives.
That has been no different for Tanya Ramlagan, the Head of HR and Training at Jaguar Land Rover South Africa who was diagnosed with an autoimmune disease in 2016. The condition makes her highly susceptible to Covid-19 complications.
Tanya notes that the Covid-19 crisis has opened up possibilities to re-imagine what the workplace will look like post-pandemic. She feels the company has been the most productive during the crisis. Even though people are comfortable working from home, she admits that it does pose challenges to HR, citing the impact that working remotely has on the social aspect as one of the challenges that would need consideration.
“While we have been far more productive at getting things done than we have ever been, we are also aware that being so far apart from one another has also reduced the opportunity to collaborate and innovate.”
In 2019 Sharon walked away with the Strategy & Leadership Award and the Transformation & Empowerment Award at the inaugural CHRO Awards. These accolades are a testament to her 29-year record of introducing many of the people philosophies that define the bank today, as well as making great strides with transformation.
She joined Standard Bank in 1991 and has since never sought an opportunity elsewhere, thanks to colleagues who energise her, various generalist and specialist roles and a career that has adapted to banking’s continued evolution.
Sharon believes that a fulfilling experience at work has a ripple effect on families and communities. As a large employer, Standard Bank has a staff complement of 55,000, which means the bank has a massive responsibility to influence lives positively.
“My team worked on a compelling leadership message to describe our purpose. We decided that our primary job is to create an environment where people can give their absolute best, and by doing so we will grow Africa’s economies.”
4 Vulnerability can go a long way, says Unilever's global employer brand manager Hyren Peterson
Hyren shared a LinkedIn post on failure which went viral. Hyren (pronounced ‘hai-ren’) shared how he struggled with imposter syndrome and feelings of inadequacy in the early years of his career. He wrote about how he had failed many times, making many big mistakes on his way to becoming a leader in his own right.
"The post went viral, which was totally unexpected. I was only sharing my thoughts after reflecting on my journey but I had no idea it would appeal to so many. I mean, the post had 3,000 likes and over 400,000 people viewed the post, which is just crazy," says Hyren.
"I think it shows that allowing one's self to be vulnerable can really make an impact. I didn't say anything overly personal other than the fact that I'm just an ordinary coloured boy from Upington who had been given the opportunity to travel the world for work and, although I had made mistakes along the way, I was being recognised for my hard work. And I think that resonated with a lot of people.
Hyren says it's difficult to be vulnerable. To step outside of one’s comfort zone and say to the world, 'even though my LinkedIn profile portrays me as this person who is in another country every other year and is working for an amazing company, I am not perfect'
5 Mars Africa’s Nerisha Charlton shares how she stands up to adversity
Mars Africa director of people and organisation Nerisha Charlton’s story is one of perseverance, endurance and staying true to the things that really matter in life. In the face of every adversity in both her private and professional life, Nerisha has always paid more attention to what was still in her glass rather than what was needed to fill it. She has never seen it as empty.
The theme that has endured from the beginning of her career has been her dedication to her special-needs son, Tanvir, whom she has always fought for and prioritised while also pursuing an incredibly challenging and often emotionally taxing career.
“I have never been the type of person to wallow in self-pity, thinking ‘Why me?’ Instead, I would ask myself ‘Why not me?’ People face circumstances far more difficult than mine and they too have overcome them, so I really make an effort not to allow life’s pitfalls to dampen my spirit. My positive attitude and outlook have helped me to transcend many barriers,” says Nerisha.
