By Koketso Mamabolo
The winner of the Future of HR CEO of the Year award is someone who has prioritised the wellbeing and happiness of the people in their business, recognising that people are what makes an organisation great. It is a person who has earned respect within the organisation and a good reputation outside of it – someone who steers their business deftly through change and transformation, engaging with employees and being an inspiration while driving the success of the business.
In 2024 the award went to Nomazibulo Tshanga, the Founder and CEO of Ziyana Business Consulting and Training, a people management consultancy servicing clients across sub-Saharan Africa. A previous winner of the HR Leader and HR Rising Star awards, Nomazibulo spent over a decade in the industry, starting as an HR Graduate at Coca-Cola, going on to work at Schaeffler South Africa, CSIR, Bidvest Facilities Management, and serving as the HR Transformation Director at Bidvest Steiner.
Nomazibulo is an accredited HR professional and registered director with the Institute of Directors SA.
She founded Ziyana in 2016, moulding it into a business which places people at the forefront of the strategies it puts together for its clients, tapping into tech solutions to enhance their offering: talent sourcing, leadership coaching, and organisational design and effectiveness solutions.
Besides being a successful entrepreneur and mentor, Nomazibulo is an expert voice in strategy development, gender transformation, leadership and people management. Her work is about bringing people’s visions to life, using her strength of helping organisations create a workplace where values are the foundation.
“Ziyana was started as an attempt to solve people-problems through employment value propositions. It has been my passion to assist organisations in uncovering the true value in people through people management and leadership development,” explained Nomazibulo, when she won the Standard Bank Top Women Entrepreneur of the Year award a few years ago.
“I founded the company with vast experience and knowledge in the HR field, having worked for large corporations, so this was a natural step. Founding the company also gave us an opportunity to participate in economic activities by means of creating employment in an attempt to alleviate youth unemployment burdens and also create value in our society.”
Her “Brunch with Noma” initiative is driven by her belief that women working together can create the change needed for the country to develop. She hosted the event in three cities, Johannesburg, Cape Town and Port Elizabeth, reaching 250 women. She is also the founder of ShePowers SA which advocates for the empowerment of women across Africa.
In 2022 she started the Ziyana Foundation, a non-profit organisation promoting inclusive growth, focusing on six pillars: women empowerment initiatives, bursary and mentorship programmes, and skills, community, and entrepreneurship development programmes.
Her Leaders in Conversation podcast featured C-suite executives who joined Nomazibulo for discussions around transformation and approaches to leadership, among other topics.
Over 80% of the employees at Ziyana are women and Nomazibulo says the business’ emphasis on diversity and inclusion helps them to retain top talent, the development of which boosts employer engagement, assisting them to attract more talent by making Ziyana a great place to work.
She has been described as highly motivated with a thirst for knowledge. She is a leader who practices an open door policy, always ready to give advice and support to her people. She has not only built a business which continues to grow and develop, she has also built a business which helps its employees grow and develop, creating the value to society which she dreamed about more than a decade ago.
READ: All the winners from the Future of HR Awards
