Tanya Ramlagan shares how her role is to keep the current flowing between business strategy and people by building the skills, leadership and culture needed to power the business forward.
As the VP of HR for Schneider Electric’s sub-Saharan African cluster, Tanya says her role is to ensure there’s never a short circuit between organisational goals and employee aspirations.
Speaking to CHRO South Africa, the boxing-gloves-wearing executive also unpacked how she’s developing Africa’s next generation of talent, and why HR remains one of the most powerful power sources for business transformation.
Q: What inspired your career journey in HR, and what have been key moments of learning along the way?
I originally studied to become a psychologist; I’ve always had a passion for helping people. As part of building life experience, I started working in the corporate environment and discovered that I had a real flair for it. I loved the pace of business, the constant change and the complexity that comes with working in a corporate setting.
I spent many years in operations and commercial roles, and it was almost 16 years later that BMW approached me about a talent leadership role. They were looking for someone who understood business and had commercial awareness, not just a traditional HR background. That’s really where my HR career started.
The reason I’ve stayed in HR is because it turned out to be the perfect blend of what I always wanted to do to help people and the aspects of business that I had grown to love: the pace, the challenges and the constant evolution. So, while my career in HR was unplanned, it ended up being exactly where I was meant to be.
In terms of key learning moments, without a doubt the Covid-19 pandemic was a major milestone. Suddenly the entire business turned to HR for answers, the situation was fundamentally about people. We had to learn in real time how to help businesses adapt, how to keep people safe and productive, and how to lead through enormous uncertainty.
One of the biggest lessons during that period was recognising that there was no one-size-fits-all approach. Employees had very different realities, single parents, large families, people living in rural areas with limited connectivity versus those in urban environments. HR had to become much more personalised in how we supported people and enabled them to continue performing.
Another significant learning curve came with Schneider Electric’s strong focus on diversity and early careers. The company doesn’t approach diversity as a compliance exercise; it is embedded in how we operate.
Schneider Electric is intentional about bringing in younger talent and building a workforce where a large percentage is under 35. That means bringing together very different generations and finding ways for them to thrive together.
Learning how to harness the energy and expectations of younger employees while still leveraging the experience and structure of more established generations has been an incredibly valuable leadership lesson. At its core, HR for me remains about transformation, therefore helping people become the best version of themselves while helping the business achieve its goals.
Q: What does Schneider Electric do, and what does your role as VP of HR entail and how does it feed into the overall business objectives?
Schneider Electric is a global leader in energy technology, driving efficiency and sustainability by electrifying, automating, and digitalising industries, businesses and homes. Our technologies enable buildings, data centres, factories, infrastructure and grids to operate as open, interconnected ecosystems, enhancing performance, resilience, and sustainability
My role is essentially to ensure that the business strategy is enabled through people. I lead HR business partnering across sub-Saharan Africa, and the core question we focus on is: how do we help the business deliver its strategy through its workforce?
That spans the entire HR value chain. For example, we look at how we build the right talent pipeline whether through graduate programmes, internships, learnerships or bursaries. Once those individuals join the organisation, we focus on how we develop and prepare them, particularly given the gaps that sometimes exist in the broader education system.
We also look at remuneration and benefits, ensuring our offerings remain relevant in a challenging economic environment and for a workforce that spans multiple generations with different expectations.
A large part of my role is also coaching leaders. HR doesn’t own the people in the organisation, leaders do. My role is to enable those leaders to bring out the best in their teams. That involves supporting them in building inclusive environments, driving high performance and having meaningful conversations that unlock potential.
Ultimately, everything we do in HR, from talent acquisition and development to reward and engagement, is about helping the business achieve its goals by ensuring the right people, with the right skills, are empowered to succeed.
Q: What leadership muscles have you had to strengthen in this role?
Two leadership muscles have become particularly important in my role: stakeholder engagement and influencing without authority.
Schneider Electric operates within a highly matrixed global structure. While we operate across many markets, we are fundamentally “One Schneider”, which means our strategies, policies and employee value proposition are globally aligned.
In practice, it often requires collaboration across multiple stakeholders who may not report to me directly. They might be peers, senior leaders, or colleagues in other regions. I can’t simply instruct people to do something. I need to help them see the value in it.
I’ve had to develop a strong ability to understand my stakeholders: what drives them, what matters to them, and how to align our goals so that they believe in what we’re trying to achieve.
Another major leadership muscle has been navigating cultural diversity. While we often speak about Africa as if it’s one entity, the reality is that the cultural nuances across the continent are incredibly different. The dynamics in Nigeria, Kenya, Ivory Coast, or South Africa are all unique. Each market has its own cultural, social and historical context that shapes how people think and work.
Operating within this environment, and within the broader Middle East and Africa region, requires a high level of empathy and cultural awareness. Sometimes a situation may not immediately make sense from your own perspective, but leadership requires stepping into the other person’s context and finding solutions that respect where they are coming from.
Q: What are some of the biggest HR challenges you face and how do you overcome them?
One of the biggest challenges we face on the African continent is talent scarcity. It’s not that we lack people, but the specific skills needed for industries to grow and remain competitive.
There is still a strong narrative that success is only achieved through a university degree. However, the reality is that many graduates struggle to find employment, while skills-based careers such as artisanship, electrical work and technical trades are critically needed but often undervalued.
Addressing this requires rethinking how we build talent pipelines. At Schneider Electric we invest significantly in early career programmes, bursaries, learnerships, internships and graduate programmes, to create opportunities and develop the skills the market needs.
Another dimension of the talent challenge is generational change. The way talent presents itself today is very different from how previous generations recognised it. Younger employees may communicate differently, dress differently, or prioritise work-life balance in ways that older generations did not.
Therefore, part of our role is helping leaders understand that talent today may look different, but it is still talent. Once leaders recognise that, they can unlock enormous value from the younger workforce.
Schneider Electric also places a strong emphasis on inclusion. It’s embedded in our core values, alongside curiosity, mastery, purpose, action and teamwork. Through initiatives such as mentorship programmes, leadership training, women’s forums like SELF, and structured development pathways, we focus on ensuring that people feel included, supported and able to grow within the organisation.
Q: What kind of culture are you intentionally building and why does it matter for business results?
The culture we are intentionally building is one that combines agility, purpose and high performance.
In a world going through perpetual change, organisations need people who are adaptable, curious and open to learning. When you build a culture where employees are continuously developing and responding to change, you don’t need endless policies and processes to tell people what to do. Instead, people apply judgement. They assess situations, understand the context and respond in ways that add value. That kind of mindset allows organisations to move faster and remain competitive.
We are a purpose-driven company, and we actively encourage employees to connect their personal purpose with the organisation’s broader mission of sustainability and impact.
Our values, curiosity, inclusion, impact, teamwork and mastery, guide how we work together and shape the environment we want to create. Ultimately, when people feel connected to their work and empowered to perform, it translates directly into stronger business outcomes.
Q: What’s one change you’ve made in HR that you're proud of and continues to ripple across the organisation in ways you didn’t anticipate?
One of the most impactful things we’ve done is help employees reconnect with the value of Schneider Electric’s employee value proposition.
When I joined the company, I realised that what Schneider Electric promised as an employer was genuinely what employees experienced. It is one of the strongest employee value propositions I have seen in my career. However, as with many organisations, people sometimes lose sight of that over time.
Human nature tends to focus on what’s next rather than what’s already there. In a challenging business environment, especially within Africa, where economic and social pressures are often significant, it’s easy for employees to forget the value they already have.
A big part of our work has been reminding people of that value. Recognition through initiatives such as our Top Gender Empowered Company accolades and wellness programme accolades helps reinforce the strength of Schneider Electric’s people practices.
But beyond external recognition, the data also tells a powerful story. When benchmarked through the Top Employers Institute, our career development practices scored 100 percent against a global benchmark of 76 percent. Also, our employee engagement score around career development sits at 86 percent in our cluster.
For a generation that values growth and development so strongly, that’s incredibly meaningful.
When people remember that they are valued and supported, they show up differently. They feel a stronger sense of belonging and commitment, and that ultimately drives productivity and performance.
Q: When not driving HR strategies, what do you do to unwind? And what’s something about you that people might be surprised to learn?
HR can be one of the loneliest roles in an organisation because people bring their challenges, emotions and concerns to you. It requires a lot of empathy and active listening, which means you can end up carrying quite a lot emotionally.
Because of that, it’s important to have healthy outlets. For me, that outlet is boxing. I train three to four times a week in the mornings, and boxing gives me both physical exercise and a mental release. It’s a way to clear my mind and reset.
I also love reading, which has always been a personal passion.
But probably the most important part of my life outside of work is being a mom to two young girls. Everything I do is ultimately about showing them that the only limits in life are the ones you set for yourself.
