Yvette was one of the first HR leaders to become a member of the CHRO SA community.
Yvette Mujinga has been appointed as the HR business partner at the World Health Organisation’s (WHO) regional office for Africa. Yvette is a longstanding member of CHRO SA, having been one of the first HR leaders interviewed at the inception of the community.
After studying finance and Business Administration at Université du Québec à Montréal, Yvette stumbled into a career in human resources, she told CFO South Africa. She began her life as a human resources consultant at Vodacom Congo in the year 2004 before very quickly rising up the ranks to become the head of human resource operations in five years’ time:
“I worked for Bank part-time, while I was finishing my studies, but I never put that on my CV because, my experience is now in the telecommunications industry,” says Yvette.
Later, Yvette would move to Millicom where she became the human resource director overseeing Tigo, a small competitor to her previous employers, Vodacom, in the Democratic Republic of Congo. Here she found a very different challenge to what she had ever experienced before, having to develop and execute an entirely new human resources strategy for the company – the Tigo People Project – where she oversaw everything from top-down remuneration to the appointment of senior management. Unbeknown to her, while she was implementing he turnaround strategy at Tigo, Orange had also begun the process of acquiring the company from Millicom. It was a process from which she learned many lessons in diplomacy as she had to manage the merging of staff from each organisation as two people could never be retained to do the same job.
Read more abouy Yvette’s experience, managing HR during a takeover here.
In her current role at the WHO, Yvette is responsible for coordinating HR services within the portfolio ensuring compliance with organizational policies, procedures, rules and regulations while providing advisory to support and implement HR planning for the countries of focus.She will also provide guidance to managers on staffing matters as well as entitlements and benefits.Furthermore, she will be involved in the implementation of workforce and succession plans, providing guidance on matters of recruitment and
selection processes for local positions, leading to timely sourcing, selection and placement of required talent.
