Jabu Mahange, group HR executive at Famous Brands, sees policies as only valuable when they help a business perform, not when they are treated as immovable rules, filed neatly in ring binders and dusted off when something goes wrong.
Spend a few minutes with Jabu and it quickly becomes clear that his approach to HR begins with understanding the business. While consumers think of Steers burgers, Wimpy breakfasts or Mugg & Bean coffee when they hear Famous Brands, he thinks about the thousands of people, factories, warehouses, franchisees and distribution centres that keep the business moving.
“I believe everything should revolve around the business and its needs because our role as HR is to enable the business. We are here to support its strategy and ultimately drive better business outcomes.”
“If your company operates in an environment that's completely different from another organisation's, your policies need to be designed to suit your business and the environment in which you operate. Of course, they must take into account legislation, the realities of your operating environment and what your competitors are doing. At the same time, you need to position your company as an employer of choice, capable of attracting and retaining top talent. Your policy framework should form part of that overall architecture.”
HR that means business
To understand the people strategy, Jabu believes you first have to understand the business it exists to serve.
“We see it as a value chain. We operate manufacturing sites in several locations. In Midrand, we have a meat plant where we process meat into patties, as well as a factory where we manufacture spices for Steers, Wimpy and our other brands. In Centurion, we have a factory where we roast coffee beans that are transformed into the products supplied to our outlets.”
“The majority of our brands are operated by franchisees. We own the brands and the intellectual property, while they buy into our business, source most of their products from us and pay franchise and marketing fees. We also manufacture our own soft-serve ice cream, produce potato chips in the Western Cape, have a joint venture that produces cheese products, and operate warehouses and distribution centres across the country. The majority of the products you see in our restaurants are products we manufacture ourselves.”
While the business stretches across multiple sites, products and partners, the way people are managed remains intentionally uniform because according to Jabu, consistency is what holds the entire value chain together.
“Standardisation is actually quite simple because standardisation is all about your processes and your systems. We all use the same performance management process, the same job grading system, the same people development model and leadership development model. In terms of organisational values, it's the same values across the business. When we do climate surveys, everybody gets assessed on those same values. We also have events that help drive culture.”
“We also meet once a year to recognise achievements across the entire organisation. It helps us share best practices and showcase innovation. When someone wins an award, there's a citation explaining what they did that stood out. That gets published across the organisation so people can learn from it. We also encourage every business to find its own way of driving our organisational values. Some focus on one value each month, others over a longer period, depending on what they need.”
Calm under pressure
For someone responsible for aligning thousands of employees across multiple operations, Jabu projects a remarkable sense of calm. He credits that partly to personality and partly to the habits he has developed over many years.
“I’m not into drama. I’m not the kind of person who overreacts. Yes, I get affected when things go wrong, and I do experience stress. One way I deal with it is by going to the gym. I sweat it out. The gym is my time to switch off. I don’t even touch my phone when I’m there. I leave it behind and immerse myself in the workouts. That’s how I de-stress.”
That ability to pause before reacting has become one of the hallmarks of his leadership style.
“One of the things I keep telling people is that you're better off asking questions than making statements. My personal view, based on experience, is that you hardly learn anything by making statements because you're simply repeating what you already know. You learn far more by asking questions. When I find myself in a challenging situation, I engage by asking questions to better understand the issue and the other person's perspective. I see myself as someone who is analytical and focused on solving problems.”
The teacher within
His analytical approach is no accident. He explains how it was shaped by experiences that began well before HR entered the picture.
“I didn't go straight into HR. When I finished university, I started my career as a teacher. I then completed an honours degree in political economy, studying the relationship between politics, economics and society. It exposed me to philosophy and different ways of thinking. After a while, I grew frustrated with the system, so I went to business school and enrolled for a postgraduate diploma in management, followed by a masters degree.”
“Before I finished the business school programme, the people in my syndicate group took a liking to me and introduced me to Standard Bank. That's where I landed my first HR role.”
Standard Bank accelerated his development, while Absa exposed him to international leadership programmes, including time spent in Israel exploring leadership and community development. Later, Johnson & Johnson gave him exposure to understanding the importance of organisational values.
“I saw how values could be used as the glue to bind everybody together and at the same time as a lubricant to get things going. I was interacting with colleagues around the world before I had even started working there. It showed me that people from different cultural backgrounds could affiliate to one organisation because they subscribed to one set of values.”
He credits those experiences for broadening his perspective, but the mindset that allowed him to make the most of them had been instilled much earlier.
“I come from a generation where education was a big thing. We were taught that the world doesn't owe you anything. If you don't study hard and equip yourself with the skills and know-how, life is likely to be difficult. It's not about time. It's about what you allocate your time to. The things that matter the most to you are the things you're likely to allocate time to.”
Behind the HR executive who champions continuous learning is a man who knows growth begins with looking after himself.
“What also matters most to me is balance: mental, physical and spiritual health. I see my body as my home. I live in it, so I have to take care of it. I always say I focus on my body holistically, in terms of how it looks, how it performs and how it feels. If I'm physically fit, I'll feel better and be able to perform at my best.”
