Jo-Anne Ward

Reporting Structure: Directly to Managing Director: MEA; indirect reporting to Group CEO and Group CFO

Governance: Board Member | Exco | Manco | RemCo

Span of Control:

• Direct reports (5): Payroll Manager, HR Administrator, HR Consultant, Talent Consultant, Learning & Development Manager
• Indirect reports (7): Training Facilitators (3), Learning Administrator, Content Developer, Content Designer, Training Officer

Role Overview

• Executive accountability for the People & Culture strategy, providing strategic leadership across talent, performance, remuneration, governance, transformation, and organisational capability to support business objectives in a complex, digitally evolving environment.
• Lead and execute enterprise-wide People & Culture strategies aligned to organisational objectives, commercial priorities, and governance requirements.
• Provide strategic oversight of the full Talent Management lifecycle, including succession planning, leadership development, career pathing, and organisational capability building.
• Drive the design and continuous enhancement of performance management frameworks to improve engagement, productivity, and accountability.
• Lead skills development and talent pathways to support digital transformation and future-fit workforce capability.
• Act as a trusted advisor to the Executive and senior leadership, providing guidance on people strategy, leadership effectiveness, employee wellbeing, and organisational performance.
• Partner with the Remuneration Committee on remuneration governance, reporting, and alignment to reward strategy, including oversight of compensation, benefits, and payroll governance.
• Provide executive oversight of employee relations, legislative compliance, and employment governance, ensuring fair and consistent practices.
• Lead workforce planning, organisational design, job profiling, and salary benchmarking, aligning structure and capability to support executive decision-making.
• Drive HR digitalisation, including HRIS implementation, process optimisation, people analytics, and data integrity to support executive decision-making.
• Lead and embed change management and transformation initiatives, including system implementations and organisational change programmes.
• Oversee employee engagement measurement, ensuring insights translate into targeted, measurable improvement initiatives.
• Champion Employment Equity, transformation, BBBEE, culture, values, and wellbeing, embedding these through structured engagement initiatives.
• Lead, develop, and enable a multidisciplinary People & Culture team, ensuring high-quality, efficient HR service delivery and ongoing compliance with employment legislation and governance standards.

KEY ACHIEVEMENTS

• Designed and developed a comprehensive end-to-end recruitment framework, enhancing operational efficiency, governance, and the candidate experience.
• Created and implemented a Talent Management framework with talent reviews, succession planning, and development planning.
• Led people process optimization and HR digital transformation projects, encompassing:
• End-to-end project management of an automated recruitment tracking system, supported by organisation-wide training and change management.
• Partnership with Marketing to launch the Ctrack Careers Page, strengthening employer branding and talent attraction.
• Contribution to the design and rollout of the Company Intranet Portal.
• Design and implementation of a fully paperless onboarding programme, integrating recruitment directly with payroll systems.
• Implementation and governance of a new performance management system, including redesign of the review framework and end-user enablement.
• Redesign of pre- and post-onboarding and induction processes to enhance early engagement and productivity.
• Review and optimisation of job profiles and organisational structures to support scalability and role clarity.
• Implementation of an organisational workforce planning and budget management tool to strengthen strategic workforce decision-making.

Role Overview

• Strategic HR business partner providing leadership across people strategy, employee relations, talent management, remuneration, and organisational transformation within a complex, unionised environment.
• Execute the HR strategy for the business area, driving organisational performance, transformation, and workforce effectiveness.
• Act as a strategic HR business partner and change leader, representing HR at Exco, Manco, and on the Transformation Committee.
• Provide leadership across HR governance, policy development, and implementation across all functional areas.
• Lead employee relations and employment governance, including discipline, grievances, retrenchments, settlements, performance and absence management, ensuring consistency and legislative compliance.
• Support enterprise-wide transformation initiatives, promoting diversity, inclusion, and cultural alignment.
• Drive the end-to-end talent management lifecycle, including talent acquisition, succession planning, workforce planning, leadership development, retention, and capability building.
• Oversee the full recruitment lifecycle, including role definition, selection, and pre- and post-onboarding.
• Lead and embed performance management processes, enabling leaders to drive accountability and performance.
• Support learning and development initiatives aligned to organisational capability and performance requirements.
• Implement and advance remuneration and benefits strategies, including annual increases, bonuses, benchmarking, and merit reviews.
• Support job design and job evaluations for regional and global stakeholders.
• Advise on and approve remuneration packages for appointments and promotions, ensuring equity, competitiveness, and policy compliance.
• Partner with Centres of Excellence to deliver employee engagement and wellbeing initiatives, supporting a high-performance and engaged workforce.

• Provided day-to-day leadership of the HR function, working in close partnership with the Head of HR to deliver people strategies aligned to business priorities.
• Led and supported talent management initiatives, including succession planning, workforce planning, job design, employee engagement, job evaluations, and benchmarking.
• Managed the end-to-end recruitment and selection process, ensuring effective placement aligned to organisational needs.
• Guided and supported learning and development initiatives to build capability and support performance objectives.
• Ensured effective management of employee relations matters, providing consistent, compliant handling of employment issues.
• Project managed cross-functional change initiatives, supporting organisational change and continuous improvement.
• Led and developed direct reports, ensuring effective HR service delivery and team performance.

• Led key Human Resources initiatives across talent attraction, talent management and development, retention, transformation, diversity, succession planning, and organisational governance.
• Provided executive oversight and final sign-off for HR administration and payroll, ensuring accuracy, compliance, and governance.
• Translated and localised global HR strategies into practical, compliant regional plans, ensuring alignment with local legislation and business requirements.
• Led and delivered global HR initiatives and projects at country level for South Africa and Mozambique, ensuring consistency with group strategy.
• Managed and resolved disciplinary, industrial relations, and employee relations matters, ensuring fair, consistent, and legally compliant outcomes.
• Oversaw expatriate and mobility management, supporting cross-border workforce requirements and business continuity.

• Led enterprise-wide HR strategies, ensuring effective execution and alignment with business objectives.
• Held end-to-end accountability for recruitment and selection, talent management, succession planning, performance management, learning and development, and industrial relations for the Head Office environment.
• Ensured delivery of HR governance and statutory reporting, supporting compliance and informed executive decision-making.
• Provided leadership and resolution across industrial and employee relations matters, advising both management and employees on complex issues.
• Delivered high-level, timely, and trusted HR advisory support to senior managers and leadership teams.
• Played a key role in the Massmart / Walmart merger and cultural integration, contributing to successful transition outcomes and recognised with the Employee of the Year Award for leadership during the change process.

• Executed and aligned the HR strategy to business objectives, ensuring effective delivery across the organisation.
• Led and embedded learning and development programmes, supporting capability building and performance outcomes.
• Held end-to-end responsibility for recruitment and selection, talent management, performance management, workforce design, and employee relations processes.
• Actively contributed as a member of the Business Exco, partnering with leadership on people, performance, and organisational priorities.

• Appointed as Regional HR Lead for the KwaZulu-Natal region, with accountability for people strategy execution and governance.
• Executed the Group HR strategy and ensured alignment with regional business priorities and operating requirements.
• Partnered with Centres of Excellence (CoE) to lead the effective implementation of Talent Management, Organisational Design, Learning and Development, and Employee Relations initiatives, policies, and processes.
• Led and governed HR Compliance and Governance, including FAIS and Codes of Good Practice, ensuring regulatory and policy adherence.
• Actively contributed as a member of Regional Exco, Stratco, and Manco, advising leadership on people, performance, and organisational matters.

• Held end-to-end responsibility for the HR generalist function, covering talent attraction, retention, development, and performance management.
• Provided leadership and guidance across workforce planning, talent management, and employee relations, supporting organisational effectiveness and compliance.
• Successfully led the end-to-end recruitment and workforce mobilisation for the operational launch of a new manufacturing plant, delivering against an aggressive implementation timeline.