The Siyandza Team

 

Jeff Austin - Managing Director, Siyandza Skills Development

An expert in call centre operations, training, and workforce management, Jeff Austin has spent the majority of his international career transforming the way forward-thinking organisations view and utilize their call centre and helping them to deliver exceptional levels of customer service.

Jeff was invigorated and inspired by the enthusiastic desire of South Africans to grow and develop themselves; he decided to make the country his home in 2004.

A graduate of Montana State University, Jeff has always passionately advocated the benefits and importance of growing and inspiring staff through appropriately customised or “operationalised” skills transfer programs. Genuinely committed to sharing his experiences and passing on his expertise, Jeff worked with several of the biggest companies in South Africa prior to starting Siyandza.

An area of unique expertise is removing organisational "silos" and maximising a call centre’s service quality and output by uniting its diverse processes and people towards a common goal ─ knowledge that Jeff gained while providing support to operations in multiple call centres in America and South Africa.

Only content to hold himself to the highest of standards, Jeff’s global experience and South African predisposition have equipped him with a genuinely unique perspective on, and approach to, call centre and customer service training.

Khanya – Key Account Manager

Khanya is responsible for the management of valuable customer relationships that are important to Siyandza.

By following Siyandza’s unique methodology, she ensures that Siyandza focuses all of its efforts on delivering the best tailor-made solutions to these clients, every time. Her lust for challenges, eye for detail, and innovative approach to training delivery gives Siyandza the edge it needs to become a market leader in the training and development of strong leaders for the competitive call centre industry. Khanya has over 5 years of experience in the call centre industry as a trainer, as well as managing a variety of small and medium sized learning solution projects for businesses in education and training.

Donné - E-learning Officer

Donné is the e-Learning Manager with Siyandza Skills Development. In this role, Donné is accountable for Siyandza’s e-Learning strategy; she manages the team by providing direction, inspection and control for the delivery of online learning products and services offered by Siyandza. Donné is responsible for the creation, implementation, evaluation and innovation of the defined strategy.

Donné has 6 years’ training experience and 4 years’ training management experience within the call centre industry. Prior to starting a career in training management, Donné spent 2 years in customer service and call centre training in London, and on return to South Africa, became involved in training account management.

Pam - Accounts and Payroll Administrator

As the Accounts and Payroll Administrator for Siyandza, Pam is responsible for assisting in multiple financial activities relating to company Accounts and Payroll functions. Pam has over 20 years' experience in Public Relations, Events Management, Marketing, Accounting, HR and Payroll and comes from a Internal Sales, Manufacturing, Banking and Insurance background. Pam also has close to 5 years exposure to the call centre industry.

Desigan - Business Development Executive

Desigan is a Business Development Executive with Siyandza Skills Development. In this role he is responsible for the generation and development of new business opportunities within the corporate and government sectors. The role is focused primarily on new business, in addition to management of existing business relationships with Siyandza clients. In addition to this role, he manages the business support functions within Siyandza. Desigan is knowledgeable and experienced in the contact centre environment from agent level, team leader level and operational level, having spent 5 years in the call centre environment. Desigan also is knowledgeable and experienced in the government sector as an operations manager in the human resource section, having spent 3 years in this sector.

Desiré - Executive Assistant

Desiré is the Executive Assistant at Siyandza. Her role at Siyandza is to ensure smooth running of the Executive Offices. Desiré has been in a position of Personal Assistant for the last 8 years. Her passion for working with people has lead her to complete a diploma in Counselling.

Leazal - Senior SLE Administrator

Leazal is an SLE Administrator with Siyandza Skills Development. In her role as an administrator she updates and maintains the system according to the client’s needs. She holds a diploma in Executive Journalism but has chosen to develop her skills within the training industry and use her strong communication skills to benefit the company. Leazal has been with Siyandza since May 2008.

Kim - SLE Team Leader

Kim is the SLE Team Leader with Siyandza Skills Development. Kim manages a team of administrators to ensure that the SLE is updated and maintained efficiently and promptly according to our clients’ needs. Kim has been with Siyandza since January 2007. Through exposure to different functions and aspects of Siyandza, Kim has improved her skills and abilities, and has gone from Business Support to SLE Administrator and now SLE Team Leader. Kim is a Certified Assessor and is now exercising her skills as a leader. She plans to achieve a great deal more.

Florence - General Assistant

Florence is a cleaner/general assistant at Siyandza. Florence assists with cleaning of the office, copying and binding training manuals and is also our tea lady. Florence is an eager learner who enjoys tackling our new challenges everyday with the view of self improvement.

Prudence - key Accounts Manager

Prudence is a (Key Accounts Manager/ Trainer/ Personal and executive Image Consultant) and she is the youngest member of the team with great aspirations within  Siyandza Skills Development. She is a goal oriented individual who's willing to form a very crucial part of the managerial structure with aspirations to assist with the proficiency that she has acquired within the 4 years she has worked in a Customer Service industry.