As someone who values nature and time outdoors, Dr Leigh Adams sees people much like evolving landscapes, purposefully unique, each shaped over time and able to thrive in the right conditions.
Being grounded is what allows Leigh Adams to manage one of the largest retail engines in South Africa as chief people officer at the Shoprite Group, where nearly 169,000 employees rely on the systems, culture and strategies she helps shape.
“As leaders, our role is to create the conditions that allow potential to surface, develop and ultimately contribute to both the individual’s growth and the organisation’s success. I try to enable flat structures and open access to information so that people have the space to do what they do best without unnecessary hierarchy slowing them down. In practice, this means giving people ownership, inviting diverse perspectives, encouraging thoughtful experimentation and creating an environment where questions are welcomed just as much as answers,” she reflects.
“Over time, I’ve found that when people feel empowered and informed, they naturally bring forward their best thinking, and that’s ultimately what strengthens both the team and the organisation.”
Walking through a busy Shoprite store, watching employees guide customers with practiced ease, Leigh reflects on what makes retail tick. She measures this success by the spark in an employee and customer’s eyes.
“In retail, the real differentiator is the quality of customer service, which is only authentic if the employee feels valued. Through our EVP, HR plays a central role in creating an employee experience that is aligned to our purpose, values and outcomes we aim to achieve. Our focus is simply to ensure that our people feel supported, equipped and connected, so that great customer service becomes a natural extension of how we work. Our CEO often says to look after our people so that they can look after our customers, and that is HR’s greatest contribution and enabler to the Shoprite Group’s bottom line.”
Tangible shifts
In a company as large as the Shoprite Group, it’s easy for processes to feel abstract, but Leigh makes sure HR is tethered to the ground, connected to the pulse of the stores. As such the Group’s leadership team spends a great deal of time in stores, engaging directly with the people who run them. “By listening to teams firsthand, we’re able to confirm what is working, understand where adjustments are needed, and make sure that our decisions genuinely enable better execution in operations.”
Her own journey into this field reflects the same organic unfolding she describes in people. She started off studying psychology and later specialised in industrial psychology, ultimately completing a PhD. Her career took a practical turn when she started as a systems trainer in the medical industry. Working through mergers and acquisitions gave her a front-row seat to how people and systems collide.
“It was during this time that I was really introduced to HR, a people-centred discipline that also plays a critical role in organisational performance. It immediately broadened my understanding of how people and systems come together to shape meaningful work. None of these moments felt significant at the time, but together they have shaped my journey and deepened my appreciation for the impact HR can have.”
That appreciation has translated into tangible shifts at Shoprite, and one of the shifts she is most proud of is the work they have done to strengthen leadership development across the business.
“Through a combination of strategic partnerships and the Group’s own leader‑led curriculum, we’ve been able to focus on both the what and how of leadership. What has been especially encouraging is the level of executive support behind this work, which has created space for open, honest conversations about real field experiences and how these intersect with academic and professional best practice.”
All about human potential
Technology and analytics have become essential instruments in that balancing act. “The Shoprite Group’s data and analytics team has developed comprehensive dashboards that track key people metrics every month, which we review with the CEO and executive team during divisional meetings. This continuous, real-time visibility helps us identify trends early, address emerging risks proactively, and ensure that our HR decisions are grounded in evidence.”
Yet beneath the systems, metrics and models sits a simple belief she has about human potential. “I’ve always believed that every individual has something valuable to offer. This belief guides the leadership qualities I prioritise when managing HR teams. I place a strong emphasis on accountability, curiosity, learning and resilience.”
Even as her days are full of meetings, strategy sessions, and operational check-ins throughout the aisles of Shoprite, Leigh keeps her own grounding rituals.
“I tend to recharge by creating a bit of quiet and grounding myself. Along the coastline, reading or reflecting helps me reset. Most of all, time with my family re-energises me, brings perspective and reminds me why the work we do to uplift lives, truly matters.”
The reminder of the work she does is the reason why she ensures that diversity and inclusion is visible in every aisle and every team across multiple countries and communities.
“Given our scale and footprint across the continent, our workforce reflects the many cultures, languages, backgrounds and perspectives that make Africa unique. In many ways, our business and our supermarkets including Shoprite, Checkers and Usave, are a microcosm of the communities we serve, and this diversity is one of our greatest strengths,” she adds.
“Because of this, inclusion is not a standalone initiative; it’s a daily imperative. We are intentional about creating environments where people feel respected, represented and able to contribute to their full potential.”
A deep responsibility
While some initiatives may seem smaller in scale, their emotional impact can be profound. She highlighted Xtra Discounts as one such, and described it as a simple but meaningful way in which they have used the Group’s scale to negotiate real savings for employees.
It’s this understanding that informs the HR interventions she champions. This sense of responsibility now extends beyond the Group’s walls for her and into the systemic challenges facing South Africa, especially the reality of youth unemployment in South Africa.
“As Africa’s largest private employer, we feel a deep responsibility to contribute meaningfully to this national challenge, and we continue to address this on multiple levels through the Group’s Retail Readiness Programme which is the largest and most successful skills development initiative undertaken by a South African retailer. We create work opportunities that give young people their first foothold into employment. We complement this with the YES initiative which provides practical exposure to the retail environment and equips young people with foundational skills that make them more employable, whether they stay with us or pursue opportunities elsewhere,” she elaborates.
Culture, in the end, is the thread that holds it all together. “The Group’s purpose to uplift lives every day by pioneering access to the most affordable goods and services, creating economic opportunity and protecting our planet, sits at the heart of our culture. What has made this culture consistent is that it is not abstract or removed from the reality of the business. It is deeply integrated into our assessments, onboarding, leadership development programmes, performance development processes and everyday feedback routines.”
Although every business unit operates with its own performance outcomes, Leigh says what remains consistent everywhere is their commitment to delivering an exceptional customer experience.
“Whether it’s in our supermarkets, or our distribution centres, our Medirite pharmacy business, or our on-demand services like Checkers Sixty60, the expectation is the same: customers must feel valued, served with excellence, and confident in our ability to deliver. HR becomes a critical enabler of operational excellence. By aligning people, culture, capability and leadership across all our brands, we create the foundation that allows every location from a small Usave in a rural town to a flagship Checkers Fresh X or high-volume distribution centre to consistently deliver the standards our customers expect.”
