Four years ago, Prisca Langa was enjoying a highly successful career in sales. Despite being unable to afford university, Langa, the daughter of a domestic servant who grew up in Soweto, on the outskirts of Johannesburg, landed sought-after jobs with Coca-Cola and Heineken, thanks to her drive and ambition.
After being headhunted by Reckitt, a multinational consumer goods company that produces brands such as Nurofen and Durex, in 2019, she was responsible for leading the sales capability development across South Africa. But while it was a role she enjoyed, her real passion lay elsewhere. What really inspired Langa was the prospect of finding and recruiting talented individuals to the company.
So the 39-year-old mother of a large family asked the company to sponsor her to study part-time for a degree in human resources, while she also became involved in outreach work at universities – all on top of her day job.
But Langa managed to fit it all in. “I had a supportive line manager. I would study at the weekend and after hours. Classes would start at 7pm. My husband, mum and neighbours gave me lots of support.”
Today Langa is Reckitt’s talent acquisition manager Africa, responsible for hiring in South Africa and sub-Saharan Africa – a career move she describes as “life-changing”.
“Recruiting is the best job,” she says. “This has changed my life. My success is bringing the best talent to the business. My ambition is to always use my talent and skills to improve people’s lives.”
In her role, she oversees day-to-day hiring activities, including difficult-to-fill posts, ensuring her team gives candidates the best experience, and overseeing the building of a talent pipeline through university relationships.
She’s delighted she was given the opportunity to switch to a completely different role. “Not many organisations encourage you to go from one sector to another,” says Langa. And she believes the skills she carried over from sales are put to good use in her current position. “Coming from sales to talent acquisition … I am in the business of selling my organisation to the world, to our candidates.” Her negotiation skills enable her to agree the best offers for candidates while staying within her hiring budget, she says. And her communication and problem-solving abilities have helped her collaborate with HR and other stakeholders.
Langa’s story illustrates Reckitt’s evolving recruitment strategy, which is moving away from a focus on job titles towards an emphasis on transferable skills, leadership behaviour and experiences. The philosophical shift – introduced five years ago – reflects the company’s goal to be more inclusive, according to Kay Smart, global head of talent acquisition.
Hiring managers are upskilled to ensure recruitment processes centre on inclusion. Interview panels feature a diverse range of decision makers as a priority and learning is provided to emphasise the commercial value of diverse teams.
Over the past year, Reckitt has gone one step further in its quest to identify candidates by embracing an AI recruitment programme in two pilot projects. With 40,000 employees, the programme has an algorithm that identifies people with skills and experiences that most closely match a role vacancy, “so the search and shortlisting becomes a lot more fact based”.
Smart says the tool is helping to build consistency within its hiring processes, giving “much better visibility of the capabilities and potential that already exist in our workforce and our candidate talent community”.
She says the pilot is another layer of Reckitt’s hiring policy, which aims to attract and engage a broad pool of employees who have the potential to develop and grow within the business.
“We are thinking about what a person can do, not just focusing on their last job title or experience/company. A skills-based approach will bring more diversity and agility to our workforce over time.”
Langa isn’t the only employee who’s switched tack. Some 4,600 miles across the Atlantic in Sao Paulo, Brazil, 37-year-old Fernando Gama tells a similar story.
Having worked in risk for 10 years, Gama joined Reckitt as head of risk management, compliance and corporate security, a role focusing on distribution and supply chains. Yet, just six months in, inspired by a colleague who told him he was a “natural marketeer”, he turned down a promotion and made the leap to marketing.
Becoming category manager for the dishwasher tablet company Finish was a huge turning point in his career. What followed were multiple promotions as he displayed his talent for creative thinking in the marketing of products ranging from Finish to the stain remover Vanish, and more recently Veja – a Reckitt Brazilian-brand surface cleaner that faces competition from multinationals, nationals, and regionals.
Gama, a passionate traveller, cook and former Ironman triathlete, believes his ability to inspire teams and his creative approach to problem solving have helped him change tribes. Like Langa, he wants to pursue his career within Reckitt and would like to be a marketing director.
Looking back, he says he’s always approached solutions creatively: “I was assessing all the time, I didn’t know that skill could be used in marketing. And even though I don’t come from that background, my career has transitioned from marketing the smallest product to one with the biggest market share.”
“We know that the best people to continue their careers at Reckitt are people who already work here and love working here,” says Smart. “If we can help them fulfil their potential, it will also help us to deliver what we need as a business. So we genuinely believe this is a win-win of people growing their own careers.”
For a flexible career and a role where your skills and passion can shine, take a look at the opportunities offered by Reckitt
