Brigitte Da Gama, Human Capital exec at McDonald's SA, is passionate about developing people
Brigitte Da Gama, Human Capital Executive at McDonald’s South Africa, strongly believes that South Africa is on the cusp of renewal. Despite the political and economic uncertainty, she believes that there are still many opportunities. She names as an example that McDonald’s SA has been a net job creator in the last three years, and that this trend is likely to continue in the foreseeable future. CHRO South Africa caught up with Brigitte to find out about her career journey.
"At McDonald’s, we’re very competitive and always strive to improve. That’s one of the defining characteristics of our culture. We love winning,” says Brigitte, whose HR journey started at the University of Cape Town (UCT), where she studied Industrial and Organisational Psychology. She thereafter became a senior HR Manager, leading a team and forming a strategic partnership on HR matters with all the Deans of all the academic faculties at UCT. In 2009, she obtained an MBA from the University of Stellenbosch.
Having spent many years working in the banking, IT and asset management industries, Brigitte joined McDonald’s SA in 2015. Her arrival coincided with the global brand’s initiation of a revitalisation strategy. One component of the strategy for McDonald’s was to roll out a new organisational culture. In 2017, McDonald’s SA embarked on rolling out the new culture in a uniquely African and South African way. The project was so successful that the South African entity achieved recognition as a Best Practice Country in the McDonald’s global system.
“For me, my greatest passion is training and developing people. I love to give people the tools that empower them and allow them to change their lives for the better. That’s why I put a lot of effort into making sure that the development programmes we run at McDonald’s offer tangible value to our people and the company,” says Brigitte.
Regarding her hopes for the profession as a whole, Brigitte says she would like to see more companies recognising the strategic importance of the HR role. After all, it oversees the most important asset and competitive advantage for each and every company, namely the people, she says. “When you pick up the newspapers and read the business news it is mostly the CFOs and the CEOs whose voices are heard and sought after. HR should definitely have a higher profile because of the significance of the role that people play in creating and implementing any successful business strategy."
