She says the talent war is one of South African businesses’ biggest challenges.
Newly appointed Pragma chief people officer Elke Mackridge says talent is flooding international companies, making employee value propositions so much more important.
The battle between skills and career path training is now more rife than ever before, she says. “Ensuring employees are competent concerning technical knowledge and skills, but also equipping them with skills such as EQ, CQ, collaboration and curiosity to advocate continuous learning is a juggling act. Moreover, managing a family culture within a hybrid/digital environment is also challenging.”
To tackle this, says Elke, organisations need to ensure that their EVPs are well thought-out and factual. “Build a culture that positively differentiates you from your competitors.”
In her newly acquired role at Pragma, she aims to do just that, as well as expand on the internal learning and training programmes. “The company has an incredible learning academy, but the focus has always been on the bulk of our employees who are engineers, so I would like to expand that to other types of learning like project management. Pragma is very agile, so this would be possible.”
Elke says her passion for HR lies in the entire process of understanding a problem, brainstorming solutions, fine-tweaking the idea, implementation thereof and finally, the cherry on the cake, evaluating what was done and seeing a change for the better. “I believe group interventions done correctly can make a big difference and thus reach a large scale of people at once. However, one must refrain from wanting to do 100 things at once and rather focus on one element done correctly.”
A people’s person at heart
It is no coincidence that Elke found herself in the HR profession. A high school career assessment paved the way for her choice.
“At 16, I completed a career assessment which suggested a career in industrial psychology. It’s quite fitting that a psychometric assessment led me to my career choice.” After high school, she studied for an MCom (Psych), focusing on industrial and organisational psychology from Stellenbosch University.
In 2014 she started her career at the Shoprite Group of Companies as an industrial psychology intern and worked her way up to regional personnel manager. “Industrial psychology can sometimes be theoretical, but how I’ve always differentiated myself from academics is to make the teachings more practical for the workplace.” Elke describes work here as an excellent base for HR, especially with regard to framework, legislation and recruitment and best practices.
The following year she joined the international chemicals manufacturer MANE as a human resource project manager. Here, she met “an incredible mentor” who set her path in the world of HR and “allowed her to grow into her role and apply her creativity”.
Elke says her passion for HR lies in the entire process of understanding a problem, brainstorming solutions, fine-tweaking the idea, implementation thereof and finally, the cherry on the cake, evaluating what was done and seeing a change for the better. “I believe group interventions done correctly can make a big difference and thus reach a large scale of people at once. However, one must refrain from wanting to do 100 things at once and rather focus on one element done correctly.”
Family goals
Elke, as a mother and partner, gets a lot of practice in creating a culture that speaks to a family from her own family, including a partner and two busy boys. “I married my best friend, and together we have two busy boys who we are trying to instill a perfect balance between enjoying life at the moment and working hard towards the goals you choose for yourself.
“Our motto this year as a family is that it takes just as much energy not to do something than to actually do it, so put your head down and get it done! Lastly, our life is built on the foundation of grace.”
In her downtime, she enjoys watching sporting events, whether it’s rugby, Formula 1, netball, or the Olympics. She also watches documentaries and links with a close-knit group of friends she has maintained since primary school.
“I also enjoy reading articles on LinkedIn and finding different perspectives on HR trends. Instead of spending too much time on social media, I read articles from all sources, knowing some would be nonfactual and some would be gems.”
She says her life motto, “What is the plan?” is something she learnt from her father about his work environment and has carried this forward to hers. “People felt comfortable enough to approach the big boss and admit their mistakes, and the response after that was always: ‘Okay, you messed up. Now, what’s the plan?” she concludes with a chuckle.
