City girl keeps on making waves

Michelline Nawatises

Pull Quote: Our people are the greatest asset yet we still need to grow, develop and nurture their potential to enable them to support the growth and evolvement of the organisation - Janlé Viljoen

Janlé Viljoen was born and bred in Windhoek, and she considers herself a city girl. She attended Windhoek Afrikaanse Privaatskool right through from primary to secondary school.

While climbing the ladder of life Viljoen met her husband, secured her first job and started their “Viljoen tribe” with the birth of a beautiful baby boy. Now she claims to be a family-oriented professional. “I am just as passionate about my work as I am about my family,” she says.

Viljoen is the head of talent and leadership development at the Capricorn Group. With specific reference to her career, she has always had an interest in understanding and influencing human behaviour and both her academic background and professional exposure aided her to further grow this passion.

After obtaining a master’s degree in industrial psychology at the North West University, she kicked off her professional career at Capricorn Group as a change management consultant.

Since then she has fulfilled different positions with varying responsibilities, yet all relating to the support and driving of the human resources landscape in the banking sector.

One of her many responsibilities is to optimise talent deployment to maximise organisational performance. Her new role further entails leading the talent management philosophy and practice of the Group as well as looking after leadership capabilities and associated development.

“I will be part of the team that is responsible for employee engagement and through my role, assist in transforming the culture to support our business objectives,” Viljoen says.

One of her biggest challenges has been to set clear boundaries between her professional and personal life. “It is easier nowadays to juggle a thriving career as well as a happy family life, but it is only possible through setting clear boundaries and prioritising properly.”

Her most recent accomplishment was the design and delivery of an end-to-end employee onboarding programme that has the potential to significantly improve the employee experience by providing them all the relevant information and engagement opportunities with leadership to ensure they acclimate quickly to the new environment.

Viljoen says even though she prefers to live in the moment, she has many future goals and aspirations. “In the short term, one of my goals is to continue expanding my knowledge on topics related to the human resource (HR) landscape and to grab each opportunity to upskill myself to deliver on the ultimate employee experience which relates to the sum of all interactions employees have with their employers,” she says.

In the long term she plans to further her studies, but she is still exploring the HR specialisation fields as it is her dream to enrol in an MBA at Insead, Européen d'Administration des Affaire Business School.

Her greatest fear is not living life to its fullest and not achieving all her goals. Nonetheless, she is inspired by Capricorn Group’s culture called The Capricorn Way. According to her, the Capricorn Way sets out certain behaviours that we should all apply in our daily lives, such as “being an example of what is possible”.