High performance starts with buy-in: Advice from Shivani Ramsaroop

By Koketso Mamabolo

Shivani Ramsaroop, HR Manager, TransUnion’s Global Capability Centre Africa

It starts with buy-in from your employees. “A high performance culture grows and develops when people willingly want to contribute to their organisation’s success because they understand and share a common purpose,” says Shivani Ramsaroop, the HR Manager at TransUnion’s Global Capability Centre Africa.

When creating a high performance culture, Shivani advises that businesses build meaningful relationships with their employees, learning about their experience in the company. One of the tools that can help you build that culture is receiving feedback from the people in your organisation. By finding out what your employees think, and how they feel about working in your organisation, you are able to respond accordingly and nurture trust which is integral to a strong performance culture. 

Happy employees result in better performance. Here Shivani delves into the challenges she’s overcome since she took up her role, her advice on creating a high-performance culture, and attracting top talent, with examples from the success she’s found at TransUnion’s Global Capability Centre Africa.

How does one build a high-performance culture within an organisation?

A high performance culture grows and develops when people willingly want to contribute to their organisation’s success because they understand and share a common purpose, and the organisation’s mission and values align to their own mission and values too. Having meaningful and authentic relationships built on a strong foundation of trust means people can show up as they truly are as the environment is inclusive and flexible to cater and balance people’s personal and professional needs. A high performance culture is one where feedback happens, is embraced and the work environment is mutually rewarding and fun.

At TransUnion GCC Africa, we emphasise inclusivity and flexibility – which are both made possible by our fully virtual working model. This model has meant that so many people who would otherwise have been restricted by access to offices or technology are able to be a part of a global organisation that is widely recognised for its focus on its people.

How does one build an inclusive organisational culture?

In my organisation we build an inclusive organisational culture by creating opportunities to invite employees and managers to openly voice their experiences and formally address unconscious biases. We create occasions for honest dialogue about inequalities and differences to create more understanding to broaden our perspectives.

What do businesses need to be doing to attract talent?

Businesses attract top talent by building a strong organisation that remains relevant and has withstood the test of recent times by successfully adjusting to change and making the right investments and decisions in leadership, strategy, culture and growing a brand that is morally and ethically strong.

Being adaptable and responsive to significant changes in the world of work has seen TransUnion and the GCC Africa attract the top talent that will build the scope and sustainability of the business in a global financial services environment that is constantly evolving, thanks to constant developments in technology.

What do businesses need to be doing to retain talent?

Businesses that retain talent understand what is important to each employee. Regular engagements between leaders and their team members should include checking-in frequently and understanding how to help and support the team, taking a proactive rather than a reactive approach. It’s important to constantly invest in development and recognise each individual journey.

In my own organisation, we have an active and ongoing talent retention strategy that extends from offering competitive pay, an extensive suite of employee benefits, ongoing opportunities for further studies within the organisation and externally – and even ‘surprise and delight’ moments like wellness days off.

What trends are you noticing in the HR sphere and how can businesses adapt to them?

COVID-19 has made remote working the new normal and cross-border career opportunities possible without the hassle of travel and visa requirements. This means more access to global talent pools and the need to move to digitising HR practices to suit the virtual work environment. It’s why so many of our GCC Africa colleagues are actually supporting colleagues in an increasing number of international markets.

We’re noticing that the employee experience is changing through digitalisation and automating processes, analysing, and acting on employee data to make more informed decisions; and implementing self-service channels are still areas of focus for HR professionals.

How is technology changing the HR profession?

Technology is helping HR professionals better manage administrative tasks, elevating their offering with smarter and faster solutions. Technology boosts the efficiency of the recruitment process, making it quicker and more cost-effective while creating better candidate experiences. There are products that deliver single-platform solutions and hyper-personalised experiences for candidates, recruiters and employees as well as AI technologies that are user-friendly, and that assist candidates with self-scheduling to interactive chatbots on career websites.

At TransUnion, we’ve set up a comprehensive digital onboarding process to create on demand micro-learning experiences as well as mobile-enabled solutions that ease the time and travel requirements, giving our people time back to work smarter and not harder.

How can the employee experience be improved?

Employee experience should be a key focus of the leadership team, and top of mind in every HR solution design. At TransUnion we invite colleagues to participate in the design process of HR solutions, which also ensures that the needs of our people are taken into account as well as creating opportunities for employees to openly share their feedback so solutions are impactful and meaningful.

What challenges have you faced in your career and how did you overcome them?

The challenge has been moving into leading a team where I was once an individual contributor and peer in the same company. The relationship dynamic will naturally change in a situation like that, and when I had my first 1-on-1 with each team member as their manager, it was quite awkward and strange, especially when I started taking notes. This of course did not remain a challenge as we just needed time to adjust and I did not change as a person, it just meant that my feedback carried more weight and was more impactful.

In my role at TransUnion’s Global Capability Centre Africa (GCC Africa), I’ve always made a point of engaging with everyone equally and respectfully, with that experience in mind.

How are you creating a high performance culture? Share your story