The Siggy School of Success goes from strength to strength

Here at Sigma Connected we are delighted with the ongoing opportunities that our Siggy School of Success is providing across our  international sites in South Africa.

Named after our much-loved mascot Siggy, who helps bring our vision and values to life, the Siggy School of Success is all about giving our staff additional learning and development opportunities so they can progress their careers, and in turn, give us the confidence as a business to promote colleagues into more senior team manager and leadership roles.

The programme, which covers a multitude of areas, including the history of Sigma Connected, our culture and our brand, was officially launched in 2022 and has already seen 24 colleagues promoted to team managers.

These 24 high-performing colleagues from our Diep River and Retreat offices, are making the move from advisor or performance coach roles into team leader positions. To help give them the tools to make their new roles a success, they are currently undertaking an intense nine-week coaching programme to prepare them.

The nine weeks is already flying by and all 24 colleagues are covering a range of topics including an introduction to leadership, managing emotions, moving from peer to leader, coaching and HR fundamentals.  

The first five weeks is being helped along by our service delivery manager who is providing support and context, with the last four weeks of extensive classroom training to rubberstamp their learning. Each person is also allocated a mentor who not only helps them during the course, but also acts as their central point of contact once in post.

Noerunesa Adonis, who is currently undertaking the programme, talked about her experience so far.

She said: “I saw the Siggy School of Success as my opportunity to help me get to where I really wanted to be.

“When I applied for a Team Manager role for the first time I wasn’t successful, but that didn’t stop me and I gave it another go. Second time round I was successful and have now been in my new role for three months.

“I am learning so much as part of the Siggy School of Success, including how to overcome challenges which has also come from listening carefully to others about their inspirational journeys and experiences. It’s a journey I am really enjoying.”

Bevin Sandras, Director of International Operations, said: “The feedback we’ve received so far has been amazing and the team are really embracing the opportunity and stepping up to the challenge.

“As a committed and passionate employer here in South Africa, we are very proud to be able to say that 80% of staff are promoted from within. The sky really is the limit at Sigma Connected, a place where everyone has an opportunity to grow.

“However, this is just one element of our wider development programme and we look forward to sharing more on that in the months ahead.”