Authentically passionate about learning and change
Our organisational culture and our values are vitally important to us. Empanda believes in practicing what it preaches; we see ourselves as role models for excellent people practices. We live in rapidly changing times, and to manage this, we place a strong emphasis on wellbeing, innovation, growth, and balance. We are always learning and experimenting to hone our best practices.
WE ARE LEARNERS
We combine our confidence in our space with a ‘shoshin’ beginner mindset. We love to learn about clients. Our creativity is infused by being open minded and we are unified by our passion for learning.
WE ARE CHANGE AGENTS
Change is a constant in our own world, so we know that kindness, an eye on sustainability, and a true invitation for collaboration, motivates best for the greater good in the change we want to see.
about empanda
Empanda is an agile and innovative people-consulting organisation. Formed in 2014, we have grown fast and now deliver services globally, specialising in change, learning, communication and engagement. We have deep experience working with large corporate and public sector organisations. We specialise in engagement in both our face-to-face, and our remote world of work.
We would like to work with you… Let’s engage, enable and evolve together.
Letlhogonolo Noge Tungamirai
Non-Executive Director
Christy Kirkpatrick
Founder and CEO
Claire Grundy
Change Capability Lead
Nyami Ntshoko
Talent Lead
Troy-Ann Petzer
Business Development Director
Jo-Ann Fuller
Finance Lead
our values
Culture is important, the beating heart
and soul of who and what we are. Culture is also an outcome, the sum of our
collective identity.
At Empanda, we unify around shared values, with the
intention of creating an aligned space within a diverse range of talents where
we can thrive together.
ENGAGE | ENABLE | EVOLVE
Engage - We learn when we are engaged in the process. We value the ability to get people involved, creating content and products that listen and attract engagement, so that the learning process can thrive.
Enable - We are empowered if we are enabled to leverage our human potential. We value tools, content and experiences that authentically enable us, so that we can perform at our best, both as individuals, teams, and communities.
Evolve - We succeed when we are set up to evolve. We value sustainable approaches that set up our learners and our clients to grow and transform over time. We believe in nurturing our infinite ability to innovate in both our personal and professional lives.
CARE | CREATE | COLLABORATE
Care - Our people are passionate about what they do. We care about our colleagues and our clients in our ways of working, operating with kindness. We also care about sustainability and what it takes to look after our wider world.
Create - Our business thrives by attracting a diverse range of creative talent, and by celebrating and innovating creative ways of working. We are a growing hub for learning industry creative and multimedia talent.
Collaborate - Our approach to delivery is highly collaborative, both within our teams, and working with our clients. We love partnering, with authors, with freelance talent, and with strategic partners as part of our operating model.
PLAY | PURPOSE | POTENTIAL
Play - We perform our best when we love the work that we are involved in. Often our joy comes from the relationships within our teams. Empanda loves to build the fun factor: for our clients, and within our projects.
Purpose - We perform our best when we find purpose in our work. We believe that education and innovation are vitally important to a thriving world, especially within our South Africa, where we are invested in thriving for future generations.
Potential - We perform our best when we know that through the work we are doing we are evolving along pathways that develop us toward our full potential. We care about creating learning environments that nurture us.
what empanda means
Empanda is the Roman goddess of asylum, charity, and hospitality. Her temple on the Capitoline Hill was famous for always being open to those in need. Translated, her name means “to open” or to stand with hands outstretched in offering. For us, she represents a spirit of transparency, trust, and a commitment to sharing. Our purpose is to share knowledge, with the mindful intention of empowering people. Empanda is our muse, inspiring us to bring people together to collaborate on this objective collectively.
Our destination?
A more sustainable, equitable, inclusive, and beautiful future world.
To operate with hands outstretched, openly and in offering
our avatars
When you work with us, we are likely to get excited about characters, personae, and avatars. These symbols and personalities can be role models, representatives of our customers, key roles, or guides that help the navigation of our journeys. We craft personal stories for our characters, making them relatable, bringing life and feeling to scenarios. We imbue characters with the values and behaviour we want to see, or to engage with.
So naturally, Empanda has avatars of her own, to guide our way:
TRANSFORMATIONAL CHANGE
DRAGONFLY
Our leadership avatar is based on a dragonfly. We love its shimmering and agile beauty. It is able to move quickly in any direction, hovering for strategic insight, informed by multifaceted eyes. A dragonfly is born under water, and under pressure, in murky darkness. It starts as a simple, little, unevolved grub creature that goes through transformational change, evolving into an iridescent, beautiful form.
LEARNING CONTENT
PEACOCK
Our learning avatar is the peacock, a sacred bird and symbol of wisdom and the creative arts. For us, the peacock’s ‘all-seeing’ tail represents a beautiful suite of inspirational learning interventions, each unlocking unique insight. We see the natural, yet organised, flow of the feathers as the ultimate curriculum, courses that, together, paint the bigger picture for the overall learning offering.
SUCCESS JOURNEYS
ROCKET SHIP
Our change and learning journey avatar is a rocket ship. A technologically enabled and innovative vehicle capable of great speed and intergalactic travel to future destinations. We want the people we facilitate to feel part of a valued, skilled crew, working together to break through performance frontiers, unlocking the secrets of the modern world of work. Journeys should be inspiring and fulfilling.
TALENT
UNICORN
Our talent avatar is the unicorn. A mythical creature that shows up with magical skill blends that we can achieve if we work in teams with diverse talents. This avatar speaks to our search for talent - you cannot catch a unicorn, it chooses you because it likes your meadow. The unicorn is also our avatar when we do human capital work, understanding what people need to thrive.
our stakeholders
our global goals
our community
Make a Difference Foundation
Empanda gives back by financially sponsoring a selected university graduate, employed by MAD, so they may continue studying for a further 12 months.
MADs mission is to provide young South Africans who show academic and leadership potential access to quality education as well as personal and leadership development opportunities in order to inspire a better future for South Africa. They offer a comprehensive scholarship programme that focuses on individual support and development.
LPF Skills Development Partner
Empanda gives back by sponsoring a learnership for a student with disabilities. We supplement this with a monthly stipend.
LFPs mission is to provide people and communities with the developmental and scalable solutions they need to enter the job market and be self-sufficient. They are committed to pursuing the common good and working hard so that communities can thrive and those who are vulnerable, isolated, and disadvantaged can experience life in its fullness.
Gold Youth SED Partner
Empanda gives back through an annual financial donation towards ICT spend. This increases Gold Youth's reach to remote or rural areas.
Gold Youth's mission is through the Gold Youth Peer Education Model, they embed peer leaders and mentors into schools and communities, developing young people from being passive recipients of negative norms to proactive agents of positive change, who are empowered to become the ethical and economically independent leaders of tomorrow.
Propella Business Incubator
Empanda has invested in Propella by issuing a zero-interest financial loan.
Propella's mission is to provide a significant entrepreneurial experience and presence in Nelson Mandela Bay where innovation and technology convergence is facilitated to create sustainable and profitable ventures, through exceptional management, leadership & infrastructure contributions in specific sectors.
our amazing partners
We like to specialise in what we do best, which is offering learning and change management solutions. We, therefore, like to partner with splendid specialists where we need services that aren’t our core focus. These are the collaborators that help us perform our best; we strongly recommend their services.
OUTSOURCED CFO
Our outsourced CFO, Alisha Sadler-Almeida from The Finance Team can be credited with our financial survival through lockdown. She brings a wealth of experience and insights from beyond our organisation to ensure that our financials are shipshape.
www.thefinanceteam.co.za
ACCOUNTING ON XERO
Our outsourced accounting function is delivered by Real Time Accounting, who are Xero specialists. We also leverage their sister company Real Time Assurance for validation and audit of our financials. Incredible service for high tech, slick, fast, accurate financials.
www.realtimeaccounting.co.za
MANAGED IT SERVICES
Our IT services are managed by the incredible Castlerock, who manage our IT platforms and provide excellent support to all our people when they face hardware or software issues. A fast, friendly and skilled service, sorely needed in our world of complex software.
www.castlerock.co.za
PEOPLE WELLBEING
Leilani Du Toit is a qualified biokineticist who has led our wellbeing programme since the beginning of lockdown. She helps our people maintain physical and mental health, attain work life balance; curating our individual wellbeing goals. We are constantly motivated by her incredible positive energy.
www.linkedin.com/in/leilani-du-toit/
LEGAL SERVICES
Our outsourced legal advisor is the impeccable Paul Cooley. We rely upon his understanding of the full employment lifecycle and of best practice contracting. Workplace Strategies support us with all our service level agreements, contracts and partnership agreements. Smooth and simple.
www.workplacestrategies.co.za
PEOPLE DEVELOPMENT
Tanya Roux is our HR strategic advisory partner, focused on coaching and mentoring our people for peak performance. Tanya provides a safe space for all our people to focus on professional skills development, so that we perform our best. Tanya provides an excellent advisory sounding board.
www.seasonedhrsolutions.co.za
Learning Content
Success Management
Change Management
