Lisa Soares Lewis: HR director with the right stripes

We continue to look at Jamaican companies and organisations where women are increasingly either heading several departments or the entities themselves. This week we look at Diageo.

For someone who started out in the manufacturing and operations management area, Lisa Soares Lewis has made the field of human relations her own.

The HR director at Red Stripe, Soares Lewis leads HR strategy and operations covering HR business-partner functions, HR solutions including rewards, resourcing, talent management, industrial relations and employee engagement. Under her leadership, last year Red Stripe achieved its highest super-engagement score of 63. The process is like a modern, more in-depth employee satisfaction survey, based heavily on the workers' input.

"We look for the questions that really cause people to want to come to work, to want to treat the company like their own." Soares Lewis also created and launched the employee Red Stripe Ambassador programme and revamped Red Stripe's job advertisements to refresh employment brand.

Loving her job

Her career has involved working in companies from various sectors .

"There are nuances to each company, but I think what I've found is that, for every company I've worked with, they really have people at the top who are genuine. They invest in people. No person comes to the organisation and doesn't get the chance to develop." Her love for the HR field is evident.

"It gives you a bit more of a general management opportunity, because you're not stuck in your function. You work with people from different areas," she explained. Before Red Stripe, she excelled at Cable and Wireless Jamaica (now LIME) helping to launch the Jamaica Business Council on HIV/AIDS among other achievements. Additionally, it was the sports programme there that gave her the sports bug. C&W's long-term sponsorship of international cricket and seeing the workers actively participating in sports, led her to re-invigorate Red Stripe's sports programme. She said she looks for certain value systems and strong community-affairs programmes in companies, and that's part of what attracted her to Red Stripe and parent company Diageo.

"We want it to be a great place to work, so you put things in place. You really encourage everybody to be proud of the brands. You don't have to drink (alcohol), but be proud of the company." She also lauded Red Stripe's investment in functional and leadership training, calling the company "a community of workers". She is more than pleased with her career journey so far.

"I've been very blessed. I think I've been very privileged to work with some great leaders in and outside Jamaica," she said. She believes in giving a solid day's work and proving that she is a valuable employee, one of the many "spirited women" at Red Stripe.

"We actually have a good gender balance compared to other countries. They don't have as many women in sales and marketing, so we measure it (gender balance) and we try to make sure we have good diversity all around, not just gender." An admitted hard worker, juggling family and work isn't always easy, but she said "the company really encourages you to find the right balance, so it's really up to me."

And if she ever comes up with an entrepreneurial venture, she will be tackling being the boss of her company.

"I like growth and doing my own thing. Making decisions and all those things? I love to do it."

daviot.kelly@gleanerjm.com