Gemma Dos Santos

• Organisational Skills • Analytical skills • Problem Solving • Communication • Stakeholder Management • Team Management • Project Management • Change Enablement • Workday configuration

Education

1996

Grade 12 at Dinwiddie High School

2008

CAPM - Certified Associate in Project Management, Leadership for Project Managers, Scope Facilitation, at PM Ideas

2006

Project Management Methods and Mechanics at Project Management Institute

2014

Prosci Change Management Certification at Prosci

2022

Workday Pro Certified - Recruiting at Workday Education

Experience

March 2023 - January 2024

Workday Lead at Barclays

• Supporting in the discovery phase and business requirements gathering, understanding business
processes and how Workday can deliver according to the requirements.
• Testing of configuration and raising necessary defects.
• Defining the cutover plan for recruiting from existing solution to Workday.
• Data analysis in order to support successful migration to Workday.
• Identifying gaps and raising required CR’s with relevant teams.
• Engage with and build a highly productive and trusted working relationship with stakeholders and
with members of the programme.

JANUARY 2022 – FEBRUARY 2023

Workday Functional Lead - Recruiting and Talent at Absa

• Manage the configuration team for the Recruiting, Onboarding and Talent modules of Workday.
• Build stakeholder relationships with CoE’s.
• Understand the business strategy and how Workday can support in achieving their objectives.
• Configure business processes, perform functional testing, write test scripts and facilitate UAT.
• Support with change management/training requirements for implementation of functionality.
• Collaborating across the Workday team to align deliverables and impacts across different
modules.
• Improve internal capability through knowledge sharing, training and mentoring of team members.
• Troubleshoot and resolve system support issues.
• Identify system gaps and deficiencies and suggest best practice.
• Identify long-term improvement roadmaps to ensure alignment with evolving business needs.
• Assess and implement new releases

APRIL 2014 – DECEMBER 2021

Transition Manager at Absa

In this role I have been involved in and lead a number of projects in South Africa (Absa Head Office) and
the Africa businesses, including system implementations, process improvements and optimization
initiatives. A key component of my role is to understand the business need, assess the impact of proposed
changes on processes, systems, people and controls and support the business throughout the
implementation.
Key responsibilities within my role are:
• Project Management
• Business Analysis and Process Mapping
• Change Management
• Global stakeholder engagements – including UK, India and Africa engagements. This included
travel within Africa
• Team Leadership – both project teams and a permanent BAU team
• PMO Lead
Key achievements:
• 2020 – Implementation of the Workday Adaptive Insights solution.
• 2018 – 2019
Barclays HR Separation Programme (Separation of Absa from Barclays PLC). Implementation of
Workday
• Lead on Business Transitional Processes to ensure business continuity during transition
• Business Lead on Time Tracking processes
• My key role on the Programme was defining and implementing business processes that
would ensure business continuity during system freeze periods as well as collaborating
with the data migration and integration teams to ensure data integrity was maintained
throughout the implementation phases.
• 2017 Africa Bonus Process Improvement Project: Managed the project that remediated issues
within the annual bonus process across Africa which included VIP system changes and stakeholder
management across all 10 Africa countries. Commended by Africa COO that best bonus round in
history.
• 2017 – 2019 – Managed a BAU team of 13 HR Administrators from 2017 to 2019. Ensuring
service offering is optimized through minimizing duplication of effort across teams and non-value
adding work. Mentoring of 3 team leads.
• 2016 – HireRight People Risk Screening Solution implementation across Africa.
• 2015 – Successful implementation of Taleo Upgrade (across Africa).

JANUARY 2013 – JULY 2014

GROUP RESOURCING: PROCESSES AND GOVERNANCE LEAD at Absa

• Business lead for the Taleo Recruitment System, ensuring the system is aligned to governance requirements.
• Supported the business in streamlining recruitment processes.
• Responsible for recruitment policies, processes and procedures.
• Monitoring compliance to processes and governance, implementing necessary controls to mitigate risks.
• Engaging with key stakeholders in the value chain to ensure risks were mitigated.

JUNE 2010 – DECEMBER 2012

Project Manager at Absa

Manage projects within HR by use of knowledge, skills, tools and techniques (Absa methodology and PMBOK).
• Managing various projects within the HR function.
• Deploy systems ensuring that effective change plans are implemented to support project success.
Achievements: Successful implementation of the Barclays ATS, Taleo into South Africa, Graduate
Recruitment system across Africa, FAIS (South Africa Regulatory) changes on SAP, Lead for Barclays global process alignment across Africa

APRIL 2008 – MAY 2010

Project Planner at Absa

PMO support assisting Project Managers on medium to large projects.
Facilitating detail planning workshops, creating project plans with WBS, resource allocation, cost allocation. Reporting on scope, time and cost and mitigation of any slippage.

MARCH 2006 – APRIL 2008

Project Coordinator at RAW Industries

Consulting company contracting to mining industry. Worked with Anglo Platinum on a number of system implementations.
Responsibilities included project planning, scope, time and cost managements, RAID’s and weekly progress reporting.

MARCH 2005 – FEBRUARY 2006

Personal Assistant at Victor Recruitment

Personal assistant to the owner and CEO of the company performing all PA responsibilities. Supporting in recruitment activities such as conducting interviews arranging client interviews. Managing company payroll.