Vicky Koekemoer, CHRO at Ignition Group, doesn't describe herself as a risk taker anymore. These days, she says motherhood has made her far more cautious and measured.
Earlier in her career, Vicky was the kind of person who resigned from a comfortable publishing job to become someone’s personal assistant on nothing more than a promise that it would eventually lead into HR. It was a gamble that took her to Johannesburg, into corporate HR, and ultimately to the role she holds today.
Taking risks all those years ago gave Vicky more than a satisfying career in HR. It also shaped a leadership style built on seeing potential in people before they see it in themselves.
“Every time you’re able to promote someone or appoint someone and you see them flourish, that’s the moment that matters,” she says. “They don’t have that Monday feeling where they dread going to work. They actually love what they do. They’re excelling and they’re growing. Even now, I’ve got people in my own team with enormous potential. When you see and help someone become a better version of themselves, professionally and personally, that’s why I do what I do.”
She also believes seeing people thrive fits naturally inside Ignition Group, a business that has grown into far more than a contact centre. Trying to explain Ignition Group is, as Vicky admits with a laugh, no easy task.
Bringing six businesses together
“The largest company in the group is Ignition CX, which is the core of the business. Our Contact Centre supports both South African and international businesses. Our international client base has grown substantially, and we now have thousands of employees who begin work in the afternoon to support international customers through customer service and sales operations.”
Around that flagship operation sits a growing collection of businesses spanning telecommunications, banking, insurance, technology infrastructure and online classifieds.
“Spot Connect provides mobile connectivity aimed at entry-level consumers through free SIM cards and airtime incentives, while Spot Bank offers fee-free banking accounts designed to improve financial inclusion. MVNX builds the technology that enables mobile virtual network operators, while Ignition Financial Services provides life, funeral and device insurance. Gumtree South Africa also forms part of the portfolio, creating another avenue to connect with customers.”
“When we engage with customers, our aim is to offer them the best possible deal along with adding value, such as free airtime and device insurance. That’s how all the companies come together. Spot Connect feeds into Spot Bank, insurance complements a handset offering, and Gumtree gives us another customer touchpoint. The thinking has always been about building an ecosystem rather than standalone businesses.”
Building that ecosystem wasn’t only about customers. It also meant bringing together businesses that had spent years operating independently. Her first priority wasn’t to erase each company’s identity, but to create consistency where it mattered most.
“When I joined, they’d done these acquisitions but had not yet merged them into one company or one way for working. It was chaotic from an HR perspective because every company had simply carried on operating the way it always had,” she explains.
“We told the companies they could still retain their own branding. Gumtree must still feel like Gumtree and Spot must still feel like Spot, but behind the scenes we’ve aligned them to one set of policies and one way of doing things. That was our initial focus because people need consistency, even if the businesses have different brands.”
The best part of the job
While bringing structure to a growing business is satisfying, Vicky still finds the greatest reward in helping people discover what’s possible for themselves.
“I also spend lots of time with my team coaching them, investing in them, mentoring them and helping them get ready for their next role. I’m constantly talking to them about where I think they can go, what they’re capable of and the gaps we need to close. Not everybody is on that journey, but for the people where it lands and they grow, that’s incredibly rewarding.”
“I’m not going to be in my job forever. My job isn’t to make myself indispensable, but to make sure there are people who are ready to step into bigger opportunities because that’s how organisations keep growing.”
That mindset also shapes how she responds when talented people leave.
“Sometimes they move on and that’s okay too. When good people leave the team for the right reasons, I’m genuinely happy for them because they’ve found an opportunity that I couldn’t offer them at that stage. I always keep the relationship open and it's amazing how often people come back, whether it’s immediately or years later, because they remember that someone invested in their growth.”
Guiding others through their careers has shaped her own just as much.
“I’ve learnt that no one sets your boundaries except you,” she reflects. “There’s no one-size-fits-all. My boundaries aren’t the same as someone else’s and they’ve evolved at different stages of my life. They were different before I had children. They changed again when I was consulting because I wanted to be more present for my kids, and they’re different now.”
“I look at the owners here. They model dedication and commitment, both to work and to their families. They respect boundaries and don’t contact me after hours unless its business critical. It reminds me that we sometimes make things feel more urgent than they really are.”
When HR gets tough
She believes those boundaries become even more important when HR is called upon to lead people through some of the most difficult moments of their careers. Vicky still vividly remembers her first retrenchment process and the emotional toll it took.
“In those situations, you need to have support around you and be very conscious of what your healing moments are,” she says. “For me, it’s spending time with my family, going for a walk and getting outside. For somebody else, it might be speaking to a counsellor. At the end of the day, work is work. You don’t have to take it home with you.”
While she knows restructuring is sometimes unavoidable, she believes dignity should never be negotiable.
“You can’t always stop a business from needing to restructure. Sometimes those decisions have to be made. But what you can control is how you treat people. You can protect their dignity, respect their talent and never lose sight of the fact that you’re dealing with human beings.”
“One of the biggest lessons I learnt is that we often think retrenchment is the end of the road for someone, but people are incredibly resilient. Life has a way of opening other doors. Sometimes the road ahead is actually better than the one they were on. They just need us to help them through that transition with dignity.”
Her empathy in those moments is perhaps rooted in the fact that she knows that sometimes the most significant opportunities arrive in unexpected ways because that’s exactly how her own career unfolded.
Vicky initially studied psychology because she planned to become a guidance teacher. What fascinated her wasn’t teaching itself but understanding people.
After struggling to find work as a graduate, she accepted a role at legal publisher LexisNexis, editing legislation before later moving into business publications. It was while working on a book for a business executive that an ordinary conversation unexpectedly altered the course of her career.
“I told him I’d studied psychology because I wanted to help people find where they fit. I wanted people to enjoy coming to work and be successful. I never wanted HR to be about hiring and firing. I’ve always wanted it to be about talent. He told me he’d get me a job.”
He couldn’t bring me directly into HR, and I eventually resigned, went to work as a PA and did my time. Then he made good on his promise. He called me and told me it was time to move into HR, but that he needed me in Johannesburg. He asked how soon I could be there.”
Following curiosity
She packed up, relocated and never looked back. Looking back now, every role, from publishing to consulting, market research, banking and contact centres, added another layer to the leader she would become.
“I learnt so much technically and personally. Everything was a learning experience. I did my first retrenchment there. I learnt employment relations, job descriptions, performance management, all the things university never really teaches you. It was a season of sharpening the iron.”
Today, when she leaves the office, the CHRO title quickly gives way to another role.
“I’m a mother of two boys. They're teenagers now, so they have their own lives, which is good.”
She and her husband share a love of travelling and have deliberately postponed some of their biggest adventures until their sons finish school.
“Our dream is actually to travel from Cape to Cairo,” she says. Until then, weekends are filled with family, reading, cooking, exploring the bush and making the most of time together, a balance she has worked hard to create after years of learning where ambition should make room for life.
“I love understanding what makes people tick. I’ve always loved that. If you can understand people, help them find where they’re meant to be and then watch them grow into something they maybe didn’t even think they were capable of, that’s incredibly fulfilling. Those are the moments where you realise why you chose HR in the first place.”
