Nkanyezi Ruth (Pref. Ruth) Goudemond

Skills

Human Resources Experience | Strategic Thinker || Full Cycle Recruitment | Employee Relations Management | Planning, Budgeting & Forecasting | Organisational Design | Organisational Development | Talent Management | Personnel Management | Workforce Planning| Employee Engagement | People Management | Performance Management | Compensation & Benefits | HR System: People Soft | SuccessFactors | Succession Planning | Recruiting | Change Management | Job Evaluation | Industrial Relations | Coaching & Counselling | Stakeholder Management

About

My name is Ruth Goudemond, and I bring over 15 years of high-impact experience as a human resources executive, with a proven track record of building strong, people-centred organisations across Africa. I hold a Bachelor of Commerce in Human Resources, a Diploma in HR Management, and a BA in Advanced Labour Law. My career spans multiple industries, complex markets, and transformative mandates—making me uniquely equipped to contribute meaningfully to your team.
For over a decade, I’ve led HR functions in both multinational corporations and fast-paced growth environments. Most recently, as Head of HR for NBA Africa, I served as a strategic business partner to the CEO and Country Heads, driving region-wide people strategies aligned with both global HR goals and local market nuances. I’ve operated across more than seven countries, navigating varied legal, cultural, and organisational landscapes to deliver best-in-class talent solutions, organisational development, and change management.

Career Highlights and Core Competencies
• Strategic Leadership: I’ve built and led HR teams of up to six professionals, driving performance management systems, employee engagement strategies, and succession planning frameworks that have consistently elevated organisational effectiveness.
• Trusted Business Partner: As a go-to advisor to executives, people managers and employees, I was respected for my ability to align people strategies with ROI. Whether working with our USA based Centres of Excellence, department heads, or regional leaders, I ensured collaboration, communication, and clarity remain at the heart of all HR initiatives.
• Performance Management: I have extensive experience in the execution, delivery and managing of the full life-cycle performance process from the setting up of individual goals, midyear reviews, year-end reviews and moderation of calibration sessions between department leads, people managers as well as with executives. I have also managed performance related matters from performance improvement plans, mutual separations, investigations to mention but a few.
• Diversity and Inclusion Champion: I’ve developed and implemented diversity & inclusion strategies tailored to local contexts while leveraging global best practices. By translating data insights into action, I’ve driven measurable progress on equity and representation as well as culture and change management. Between 2022 -2023 I successfully rolled out a company culture and change management process across Senegal and South Africa with significate improvement in the working conditions between the two markets as well as a significant improvement on the silos work approach.
• Employee Relations and Case Management: From spearheading performance review cycles to navigating complex employee relations cases (10–30 per month at FedEx), I bring both the strategic vision and operational excellence required to lead in high-stakes environments.
• Organisational Transformation: At FedEx, I served as the project lead during the three-year acquisition integration process of SupaSwift. Working across five countries, I led job redesigns, skill assessments, and structural alignments—ensuring business continuity and a seamless cultural transition.
• Onboarding and Orientation Process: Throughout my career in HR, talent acquisition / recruitment has always been an integral part of all my roles. I have successfully led talent acquisition strategies in large corporates and global companies. When I joined the NBA team, we were at risk of losing skilled candidates and this was due to poor onboarding and orientation process. As part of the improvement process, I partnered with our HRIS team in NY, in building a robust and seamless onboarding process tailor made for each of the markets I managed. This not only helped attract talent as we ventured into other markets, but it built confidence within our team, especially people managers.
• Leadership and Coaching: When in a leadership role, I believe in empowering my teams. My leadership style combines structure with autonomy, allowing team members to take initiative while knowing they are fully supported.

Global Perspective,
While I may not yet have direct experience in the UK, my career has demanded constant adaptability across industries, regulatory environments, and organisational cultures. What’s consistent is the impact: I have been instrumental in building and supporting environments where people thrive, leaders grow, and business goals are met through strategic, values-driven HR practices.