Some Practical (Situational) Examples of My People Ops Experience

I was tasked with rebuilding the company's entire hiring process (for use across all teams and geographic regions), with the aim of attracting better talent, improving hiring efficiency, and improving the candidate experience.

I designed a brand-new hiring funnel with those goals in mind, which included crafting new screening call questions, new interview questions for both role- and culture-fit interviews, updating the design of the company's job ads, and mapping out the candidate (external stakeholder) and team member (internal stakeholder) communication experience across the whole hiring process. I received very positive feedback on my work.

From almost my first day with the company, I was entrusted with managing an exceptionally complex conflict resolution process, involving multiple employees (at both junior and senior levels).

I did this while at the same time creating a conflict resolution policy and process for the company to follow in future, as they'd never had one before. So, I was essentially using my prior experience and my judgement to build the plane while I was flying it. The process ended up with a good resolution all-round, and the policy was completed, taking into account the practical things which were demonstrated within that specific company's conflict resolution process I was managing. So, it was really tailor-made.

It was great experience to have gained, and my manager said she was so impressed with how my interpersonal skills, calmness, and fairness made the process go smoothly, that she would make her satisfaction with my work known directly to the two Co-Founders, which obviously meant a lot to me.

When I joined, RGX was using Workable as mainly an Applicant Tracking System (ATS), with minimal Human Resource Information System (HRIS) usage because of the package they were on.

Having enjoyed using BambooHR in a previous role, I did some research, and found out that for almost exactly the same price that we were paying for Workable, we could get BambooHR, but with a package that included a full HRIS component as well as ATS features we needed. 

Once I got approval, and after negotiating the price down further with BambooHR Sales, I began the roll-out.

I fully managed the implementation and setup of the new system, as well as transferred existing job ads and candidates who I screened and wanted to keep in the new system. That process also involved correcting errors that had been made by other team members on the old platform, before I started with the company. Further, it involved moving the employee data that was housed in Workable over to BambooHR, and, as an admin, training my manager on how the system worked.

Finally, the project also involved collaborating with the Development Team to create a new Careers Page for the website. That involved my considering how to improve upon the existing page to attract better talent and more clearly and accurately communicate the company's culture and benefits, as well as recommending design changes for the future page. I worked directly with the Developer appointed to lead the project.

Throughout my time as an independent People & Culture Specialist contractor with RGX, I advised managers and senior leadership on a variety of cultural issues they indicated they were experiencing.

That included making recommendations, based on my past experience and what I learned about RGX specifically, to improve the culture, both for existing employees, and future hires who joined in any team, from any region.

Once hiring was handed over to me, so that we could bring it entirely in-house, I worked to bring more structure to the process. I have facilitated 28 hires across 5 teams thus far.

I redesigned our hiring process, working with team leads, to create a fluid process that worked for everyone, taking time-constraints into account.

I began conducting all screening calls for candidates, setting up all our interviews, as well as leading many of them myself (especially culture alignment ones, which was an area I was particularly focused on). I also redesigned our screening and interview question docs, restructured our cloud filing, designed my own candidate ranking sheet for keeping track of recruitment, and redid our HR system tags for new applicants.

I worked with samdesk teams across the globe to achieve more uniformity in samdesk's hiring process, so that every candidate who came through the recruitment pipeline and into onboarding received the same treatment (and enjoyable experience), and the business saved time where it could with its hiring processes.

The feedback I received from managers and samsters in general on this revitalized process was very positive.

Samdesk did not give out awards for anything. There was no such tradition or process. Yet, below is an award my then-manager went to a company to have made specially for me, after I made a joke that I was the King of Screening one day, after having spent 6 hours conducting screening calls for roles I was hiring for. I think this demonstrates both my dedication to and enjoyment of my work, as well as the kind of work relationships I build over time with my managers.

When I joined samdesk, our onboarding process was decent, and we had the framework of something that could be expanded upon over time. Through a series of meetings with team leads, as well as samsters who had been hired quite some time back and recently, I gathered notes and recommendations on how we could improve the entire onboarding process.

I used this information to put forward some ideas I could implement for future hires, to give them an even better experience, helping them integrate quicker into our culture, and get up to speed faster in their roles.

An example was a 2-week check-in with myself (now that there was someone in a dedicated HR role), as well as a check-in with their manager during probation, to make sure expectations were being met, and they were fulfilled so far in their role.

I bolstered the offboarding process, through expanding what was documented when someone leaves, as well as implemented a more formalized exit interview process, and launched a samster debrief process where feedback from managers about their direct reports is documented for future learnings.

I reviewed and updated a number of policies, including travel, for samdesk, bringing them in line with current business practices and employee expectations.

I also researched and launched new mental health supports that were added to our existing private medical plan for full-time employees in Canada.

I developed and then managed an improved system for tracking company-provided hardware, so that our payroll could use this for asset management during audits, and so that we had an easy time retrieving devices during offboarding, as well as replacing those that were deprecated.

Furthermore, I put together a system for tracking which of our samsters used certain paid apps (software platforms), for budgeting purposes as well as easy removal during offboarding, to protect company IP.

For 6 months, I helped plan samdesk's first annual user conference, Horizon. 

This endeavor was aimed at creating a valuable opportunity to dialogue with our clients face-to-face, learn from their experiences with our product, provide them with information about what we had in store for future releases, and build a foundation for hosting future user conferences.

Our team had never done anything like this before, and I learned a lot about event planning in the process, including putting contingency plans in place, budgeting, travel management, and communications. 

Horizon was extremely successful. Our guests provided very positive feedback, and we look forward to hosting future, even bigger conferences year-on-year.

Find out more about Horizon.

Below is the badge I proudly wore on the day of the conference.

In late 2023, I was added to the small team tasked with readying samdesk for compliance audits, scaling up from SOC 2 to FedRAMP, and beyond.

Among other things, I needed to gather and input information on all of the company's vendors, and categorize them by potential risk. I then needed to arrange for annual vendor audits, through a new platform, whereby we had a grasp on the users for each vendor, who requested the use of the vendor, who approved that user, and whether those assigned to each vendor list still needed to be there.

Further, I sourced samdesk a Learning Management System (LMS), and, during 2024, was responsible for creating course content, configuring the LMS, and rolling out compliance training across the company.

This was a really important project for the business, as it scaled and sought out deals with larger entities, including those from the US Government.

I provided Sunset Candles' senior leadership with support and advice on various matters related to improving their recruitment and hiring processes, including researching local labor legislation to ensure compliance.

This included considering the entire employee lifecycle, including during onboarding, shift changes and promotions, and offboarding.

At this point, the company had existed for around 30 years, so I was updating the owners on much more modern hiring methodology than that which existed at the time of the company's founding.

I performed research into South African labor legislation, specific to the kind of employees and agreements that the business had with its team members, and the kind of roles they were in. That included looking into the Basic Conditions of Employment Act (BCEA) for various types of team members, across different kinds of roles and work arrangements.

I also advised the two Owners about things that would be good to research in future, and why, in terms of local labor legislation and compliance therewith.

This research and advice provided to the Co-Founders ensured the business was up-to-date with SA labor law, and remained compliant during a time of restructuring and refreshing the business, after its having proudly existed and progressed for around 30 years.

To improve upon an already great, positive, caring, inclusive, diverse culture, I organized numerous events. These were geared towards fostering a sense of cohesion amongst team members, and allowing them to get to know one another better, if they wanted to.

These events contributed towards everyone knowing that, despite our differences, we were all working towards common goals, and that there was strength in our diversity and breadth of skills, knowledge and experience.

The whole truly was greater than the sum of its parts. In this case, those parts were excellent, innovative people. And the whole was a connected culture, and a business that ended up performing (revenue-wise) the best it had in all 30 years of its existence.

I led a project to digitize, organize, collate, and secure important business and employee information, both on hardware, and in the cloud.

I also rolled out Google Workspace tools across the business, which increased user satisfaction in terms of our tech platforms, and also improved efficiency and productivity, so it was a double win!

I facilitated a re-branding of the business, which at the point I began working for it, had existed for almost 30 years. This was a large undertaking, but I developed a fresh, modern look for the company that spoke to its roots, but also projected the new digital path the company was taking. New company logos, documents, typefaces, and promotional materials were developed.

I also advised the Co-Founders on People processes and policies, local labor legislation, and hiring matters as part of the business refresh.

All products previously just went by name, including in company records. I developed a new product classification system for all items sold by the business, inclusive of new item codes, theme groupings, dimensions, and weights. These classifications formed the foundation of the new online store listings, as well as integrated with the new ordering system, both of which I also created for the business.

I designed and developed a brand-new company website, which has provided the business with the first opportunity to sell items online. This site is currently migrating to a new hosting setup, so it may not be viewable at this time. Please check back again later, if so. I also updated all existing company social media channels, and started new ones, such as Instagram and LinkedIn.

This project also involved managing the process of taking all new product photography, which was used in various places online.

Throughout my time at the company, I provided a range of assistance to the Head of HR. This included helping with recruitment and hiring across over 30 African countries. It also encompassed assisting with organizing staff-wellness, cultural, and team-building events.

In doing these things, I realized that I wanted to move into the People space full-time. And, after this role, that's just what happened! And I'm so glad I decided to do that, because of how fulfilled I am in my career now!

We realized that the Consultants we had posted around the continent were well-positioned to assist us with sourcing leads, especially taking into account the fact that certain cultures preferred in-person introductions.

We designed a Lead Generation Campaign, inclusive of a training manual and letter of authorization, after which we trained select Consultants, and developed a tracking system for new leads across Africa. We integrated a referral payment system into the Campaign to incentivize lead generation.

We went through a full digital rebranding, inclusive of project managing numerous third parties to redesign our website and digital assets.

Relocation Africa decided to start uploading more on their existing YouTube channel, and I was often the host or voice of those videos.

I managed, hosted, and/or edited multiple interviews and other videos that went up on the official channel.

To view some examples, you can use the links listed below.

1. Moving Internationally: An Interview With Rolf Lamers from Kings International

2. Moroccan Immigration Landscape Interview

3. Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) Initiatives at Relocation Africa

4. Season's Greetings from Relocation Africa: 2020

As part of a move to a more digital, streamlined service offering, I helped launch and market our Integrated Program. This was a lengthy roll-out of new online platforms that we used to increase the value we offered our clients, while also saving the business money - a challenging balance.

We initially began using a pre-made travel app that worked on mobile devices and was updated in a back-end through web browsers. We later moved to a newer online portal-based system.

We received extremely positive feedback from clients for our Integrated Program, developed new avenues of doing business, saved money, provided additional digital value to our clients, and won a major global supplier award for our efforts.

I oversaw the restructuring of how the marketing division tracked its finances for annual budgeting, as well as a redesign of how our monthly reporting worked for the Board. These efforts were both aimed at greater divisional accountability and streamlining administrative processes.

When I began volunteering at iSMA, the Association was in the process of moving from an old web provider and hosting system to new ones. I assisted with transferring content from the old site, building new pages, and launching the new website, which you can view here.

When the pandemic started, we realized that we had a responsibility as a social marketing association, to provide the public with accurate information about the pandemic, and to try and encourage positive behavior change that would lessen the impact of the pandemic in society.

I put together a comprehensive new page dedicated to COVID-19, and helped source videos, articles, publications, public health websites, and various other resources for our visitors and members to use.

Alongside my responsibilities as Web Coordinator at iSMA, I am also a member of the blogging team. I was part of a drive to produce new content for the site, and I frequently edit, post, and tag new articles for our website.

After assisting with the 2021 iSMA Board elections, I had the time to work on our next project, alongside my Communications team members: a book section.

We gathered recent social marketing publications from our connections, and I started creating a new area of the website where we could both host informative content, as well as promote the sale of social marketing resources via affiliate links. I look forward to seeing this endeavor evolve over time, through the efforts of the current volunteers.