Meet the people behind Sigma Connected in South Africa: Rick Barrett

Our South African operation is home to a huge range of teams, roles and expertise. In this Q&A series, we’re getting to know some of the people behind it and hearing what their part of the business looks like day to day.

This time, we’re heading to Woodstock in Cape Town to meet Site Director Rick Barrett. Around 500 people are based at the site, supporting clients across financial services, insurance, energy and utilities.

Here, Rick talks about staying close to the operation, combining a strong people culture with high standards, and why the resilience of the Woodstock team makes him particularly proud.

Can you introduce your role and the Woodstock site?

I’m the site director for our Woodstock operation in Cape Town. Ultimately, my role is about bringing together our people, our clients and our performance, and making sure we’re creating an environment where all three can succeed.

Woodstock is a busy, diverse site with around 500 people supporting a number of different clients and sectors. What I enjoy about the role is that no two operations are exactly the same. They each have their own challenges, personalities, and opportunities, but they’re all part of one site and I want people to feel that sense of belonging.

For me, being site director isn’t about sitting in an office looking at numbers. I like being visible, knowing what’s happening across the floor, talking to our people, and understanding where we’re doing well and where we need to get better.

What kind of work do the teams at Woodstock support?

We support a really varied mix of customer operations across different sectors, including financial services, insurance, energy, and utilities.

That variety is actually one of Woodstock’s strengths. Some of our teams are supporting quite complex customer journeys and, in many cases, customers are contacting us because they genuinely need help or something has gone wrong. That means our people need more than good process knowledge. They need empathy, judgement, and the confidence to take ownership.

Having worked across several different client operations myself, I’ve seen how important it is that we don’t lose sight of the person behind the interaction. Performance matters, but ultimately there’s a customer at the end of every number we look at.

How would you describe the culture of the site?

I’d describe Woodstock as having a lot of heart. There’s a real sense of community here and people genuinely care about each other.

I’m also quite clear that a great culture isn’t just about people enjoying coming to work. For me, it’s about creating an environment where people feel supported but also know what’s expected of them. You can have high standards and still have a strong people culture. In fact, I think the two should go together.

We’ve been through periods of change and challenge, and I’ve seen teams show huge resilience through that. What I want to keep building is a culture where we celebrate success, have honest conversations when something isn’t working, and people feel they have a voice in how we make the site better.

What does good site leadership look like when you’re supporting busy customer operations?

For me, good leadership starts with visibility and consistency. You can’t understand an operation purely through a spreadsheet or a Teams call. You need to be close enough to the operation to understand what your people and customers are actually experiencing.

I also believe strongly in giving leaders autonomy. I don’t want to micromanage capable people. I want to give them clarity around what good looks like, trust them to deliver it and then hold them accountable for the outcome.

The other part is being willing to get involved when things aren’t going well. Leadership is quite easy when everything is green. You learn much more about a leader when performance is under pressure. That’s when our teams need us to be calm, visible, decisive, and focused on what we can actually change.

How do you keep teams engaged, supported, and focused on customer outcomes?

I think engagement starts with listening. I spend a lot of time talking directly to people across the site, whether that’s through skip-level sessions, walking the floor or simply having conversations with people about what’s working and what’s frustrating them.

But listening only matters if people see something happen afterwards. If we ask people for feedback, we need to be prepared to act on it or explain honestly why we can’t.

Recognition is important to me as well. We spend plenty of time in operations talking about what needs fixing, so we should put the same energy into recognising people when they’re doing a great job.

At the same time, engagement and performance aren’t separate things. People generally want to know what’s expected of them, how they’re performing and that their contribution matters. My job is to make those things as clear as possible.

How does Woodstock contribute to the wider strength of Sigma Connected’s South African delivery model?

Woodstock brings a huge amount of experience, capability, and diversity to our South African operation.

One of the things I’ve seen through my own journey with Sigma Connected is how much confidence clients can gain from our South African teams. I’ve been involved in transitioning operations from the UK into South Africa, so I’ve seen that journey from both sides. It isn’t simply about moving work from one geography to another. You must build trust and then demonstrate through performance that the operation can deliver.

Woodstock has people who understand complex customer operations and who have shown they can adapt quickly when clients’ needs change. I think that combination of talent, resilience and operational experience makes the site an important part of Sigma’s wider Cape Town Operation.

What are you most proud of when you think about the people and performance at Woodstock?

The resilience of our people.

There have been challenges across different operations, and I don’t think there’s any value in pretending everything is always perfect. What makes me proud is seeing how people respond when things are difficult.

I’ve seen teams recover performance, leaders step up when more has been asked of them, and people continue delivering for customers through significant change. I’ve also seen people grow into bigger roles and become more confident leaders, which is something I personally get a lot of satisfaction from.

There are always going to be things we can improve, and I’m probably someone who will always be looking for the next thing we can make better. But when I walk around Woodstock and see the talent we have here, I’m genuinely proud to lead the site.