Are you a HR leader or business owner in Africa?

If you are an HR leader in Africa, looking for inspiration and practical advice on how to use technology and prepare for the future of work, this site was designed for you!

My name is Ayaan Chitty. Welcome to my site, HR Tech Africa.

In 2015, I quit my job at the London Stock Exchange to move to Kenya! I will explain why shortly.

Up to that point, I had worked in the HR technology space for almost a decade. So, naturally, I spent my time in Kenya exploring this field. I learned that there was some interest in HR technology but not very much happening. There was a lot of misconceptions, confusion, skepticism and some reluctance toward adapting to new ways of working.

Fast forward five years. I’m back in the UK, working for PwC – still in HR technology. But, I’ve kept my interest and connection to the African continent. Having spoken at various conferences in Kenya, Rwanda, Ghana and South Africa, I can see interest in this topic is now growing very fast.

In addition to speaking, I’ve also published a number of articles that have been featured across Africa and internationally – take a look at the Press and PR page for details.

But, I wanted to do more to put my experience to work and support HR leaders, professionals and business owners across the continent.

I initially started to publish a few blogs on my personal site but wanted to focus on developing content specifically for Africa.

So, I have created HR Tech Africa to help you realise the potential in leveraging technology to build the ideal future workplace.

I am in a unique position. HR technology is a niche, specialist field which has yet to develop and mature in Africa.

During my career, I have worked with over 17 world-renowned blue-chip companies, spanning 100+ global markets. During that time, I have gained a wealth of experience and learned a lot of valuable lessons.

So, through this site, I am bringing my 13+ years of global experience to you!

But, I also understand that local context plays an important role. One of the lessons I learned from my 9 months in Kenya, subsequent visits to other African nations and conversations with many leaders across the continent, is that western methods cannot simply be duplicated and applied in Africa.

Therefore, in my posts and materials, I will be using a combination of my global expertise, local knowledge and input from experts in each African country, to bring the topic to life and make it relevant for you.

Finally, as I continue to gain new knowledge and insights, I will share these with you through the blog posts and content published here.

I grew up in the South of England and graduated from the University of Brighton (UK) in 2006 with an BA (Hons.) degree in Computing and Information Systems. Since graduating, I have followed the corporate career path. My first job was a HR Systems Analyst for a global engineering consultancy company called Mott MacDonald. Since then, I have worked with many businesses, developing a unique set of experiences and skills within the growing and expanding world of digital HR.

More recently, my connection with Africa has become much more personal.

In March 2015, I travelled to Nairobi, Kenya to meet my future wife. Little did I know at that point, I would be visiting the country twice more that year, quitting my job, packing up my life in the UK, moving to Kenya and getting married before the end of the year!

I then spent nine months in Kenya before we had to move to the UK due to various, unplanned circumstances.

My wife, step-son and I still live in the UK and I’m back in the corporate world. This suits us well for the time being but we plan to relocate back to Kenya at some point in the not-too-distant future.

In the last few years, we have been back to Kenya a few times to visit family and I’ve been to Kenya, Rwanda and South Africa to speak at industry conferences. I also hosted my own seminar for the first time in Nairobi in August 2018.

Outside of work, I enjoy travelling and love to experience different foods and cultures. I also have a passion for scuba diving, which has been a big part of my life since I was 16. Recently, I have not been able to dive as much as I would have liked but as of 2020, I intend to change that!

I want this site to be as open and transparent as possible. It is important for me that you enjoy the experience of engaging with it, without fear of being hassled or bombarded with advertisements and spam emails. There’s too much of that out there already and that’s not what this is all about, so I’m making some commitments right up front.

• I will not use advertisements on the site

• I only make recommendations on products or services that I personally believe in

• I do not accept one-off freebies or paid content. However, I am open to forming long-term, strategic relationships and partnerships that will provide benefit to you and the industry

• I do not accept unsolicited guest posts. If you see content from other writers on this site, these are people that I know very well personally and trust to write honest, non-biased content for you

• I encourage interaction and I will do my best to answer all comments you make on the posts – please do post your comments and questions at the end of each post

• Any emails you receive from me will be kept to a minimum – a maximum of one per week.

Finally, please note that all content, views and opinions published here is authentic. All content is my own work, unless otherwise stated. To provide enriching content, I will frequently refer to wider sources and industry publications – these will be referenced accordingly.

I want you to be part of this community and encourage you to engage with me in the following ways:

• Subscribe: I will let you know when I post new content

• Share: Help me to build awareness and share content, to benefit as many HR and business leaders on the continent as possible

• Participate: Be sure to leave your comments and thoughts in each blog post – I want to hear your thoughts, what you liked, what you didn’t like, what questions you have etc.

• Follow: Please follow me on the following channels

• Email: If you are not able to post a comment on the site, please feel free to email me.

What are you waiting for, start right now!