Aba Ayirebi never imagined how different the progression of her career would be, having completed an undergraduate qualification in BA International Relations from the University of Stellenbosch. She took what she thought would be a short-term sabbatical from her postgraduate LLB studies only to come across an intriguing job posting that led her to Stor-Age Property REIT Ltd, where she has now built a 13-year career.
“I first joined as an assistant operations manager at Stor-Age, which is essentially a sales and customer service role based in one of our facilities. I joined in May 2012 at an opportune time when the Table View self storage facility was about to be opened and I was allocated to that store. While I enjoyed the thrill of being in a sales environment, and made genuine connections with the team and clients alike, I knew that I was destined for something different,” she says.
“At the time, I found the company culture enticing. It was a fast-growing recession resistant company led by young dynamic entrepreneurs with an unflinching, persistent and persevering determination for success. The small team at the time showed genuine interest and concern for one another while striving towards excellence in their work.”
Eight months into her journey, the company advertised for an HR assistant, and she decided to apply for the role, despite her undergraduate qualification being a bachelor of arts in international relations, majoring in political science.
“It is essentially considered a social science as it trains its scholars in understanding global affairs as well as how to communicate effectively in multicultural contexts. It enables students to appreciate and manage cultural diversity in practical decision-making. Armed with this, I felt encouraged to pursue the vacancy.”
Grabbing the opportunity with both hands, she equipped herself with any form of formal and informal learning she could in human resources, with the greatest teacher of them all being experiential learning.
“With the founding executive team all being very hands on and detail orientated chartered accountants by profession, and reporting into one of the three executive directors, I grew into the art of mastering the detail and working with numbers from a fairly early stage in my career. Who you are led by can significantly impact your career either positively or negatively and I am incredibly grateful for the patience, investment into my development and support towards the opportunities that I have been able to get involved in by means of being in such an entrepreneurial space.”
Today, Aba proudly leads the HR function at Stor-Age with a hands-on and heart-first approach.
“This was a company and role that I somewhat grew into simply because it was so difficult to leave, because in an entrepreneurial environment you’re exposed to varied and complex challenges and opportunities, sometimes outside of your role. At each point you have the opportunity to see these as frustrations or to roll your sleeves up and get involved. Your attitude and delivery in facing each opportunity can open doors. I also thoroughly enjoyed my role. I became invested in the people.”
With a clear understanding of the most critical role in the business, the store operations manager, and recruiting for the majority of the workforce, Aba became invested in each person’s employment journey.
“It can be life-changing when you recruit people. It's not just about filling seats; you are essentially shaping the business and changing people's lives, affording them the opportunities they have worked so hard to achieve and to see their transformation both personally and professionally, seeing them flourish both in their personal lives and within the company and win awards can really be life changing. I find that quite gratifying.”
That passion became clear five years in, when she realised she had something not easily taught: emotional intelligence. “I came to realise that I had a knack for dealing with people, but also particularly enjoyed employee relations and the systems that govern and uphold the intersections between the employer, the employee and the law.”
Describing her role, Aba breaks it down into two distinct yet connected parts. “My role has a strategic element and an administrative one,” she says. “As a generalist, my role focuses on strategic human resource management through supporting the management team and ensuring that the human resource plan aligns with the overall business strategy.”
“Administratively, we execute this through the recruitment and selection process, facilitation of compensation and benefits, ensuring legal compliance and managing employee relations. Serving a workforce complex of roughly 500 in the South African environment, I have a tight but effective team of two, as well as rely on our managers across the business to administer general HR functions that can be outsourced at ground level. We would not be able to achieve what we have without them.”
She also recognises the importance of using resources wisely, from the people they work with to the technology at their disposal.
“Technology is there to make our lives easier and more efficient. Process automation has been a lifesaver. In 2022 I initiated the idea and outline of an automated onboarding process, JML, and our process automation engineer, Nadir Kamdar, whom I’m most thankful for brought it to life. It has saved my team and I from countless man hours, human error and the business from risk in terms of system, platform or equipment access. AI has also been handy. While we must still critically oversee information derived from it, we can now obtain survey results and screen candidates faster by using various tools.”
But not every chapter has been easy. The company experienced a significant growth spurt in November 2013 with the acquisition of several self-storage facilities across the country, which came across with several staff who came from a different company culture and held different expectations of their new employer and anxiety around assimilating into the acquiring company.
“Being in the first few months of my journey in HR, each consultation felt like a birth by fire, but thanks to the guidance of my predecessor, a lot of research and other relevant experts, I have since learnt so much about people, company culture and the importance of policy from each acquisition. The Covid-19 pandemic was another of my biggest challenges, balancing empathy with policy and all the regulations vs the realities that some were facing during that period was challenging,” she adds.
“In navigating those challenges, I learnt that vulnerability is a strength and that it is important to ask for advice or support where necessary and there you will get the support that you need.”
From the lessons of challenges faced, she was able to initiate one of her most proud contributions – launching the company’s internal wellness programme.
“I introduced the initiative in 2019 when I was promoted to HR manager. I had always been relatively active, but the pressures of balancing work and personal growth started to take its toll, it was then that I realised that keeping active, understanding my health indicators and doing my best to stay healthy allowed me to perform at my best, as well as had a positive impact on my mental wellbeing.”
“I felt that if I could benefit from this, then maybe so could others and pitched the idea to the CEO. I explained that I wanted to encourage people to make small, lasting changes to their daily habits to support a long-term career with us. He trusted me to run with it, and we launched it that same year.”
Such initiatives, she says, are part of her belief that HR impact goes beyond policies and spreadsheets, as she is well invested in the wellbeing of the people within the business.
Once responsibilities are done and the laptop is shut, Aba says she finds joy in travelling during her time off.
“Immersing myself in new cultures and environments is something I truly enjoy. Every trip is an opportunity to experience not only a different landscape but culture or perspective. I always return home either having learnt something new or with a renewed sense of appreciation for what I already have back at home.”
She also credits nature with helping her unwind, reset – and bringing a sense of stillness.
“I’m very blessed and lucky to live in Cape Town where we have the mountains for hiking and the beach to relax. I enjoy being in the vastness of nature which provides me with clarity of mind, grounds me and overlays a minimising effect on some of the complex and pressing challenges that we face in human resources.”
