About Me, My Hobbies & Interests!

Chester is an experienced Head of Operations and Training with a demonstrated history of working in both the Corporate and Outsourcing Sectors. Skilled in People Development, Talent Management, Coaching, Employee Engagement, Organizational Development, and Business Process Improvement, Operations. Strong people development professional who graduated from the University of Johannesburg. Chester joined DSG as Training Manager in 2016 bringing over a decade’s worth of experience where he was owner of Prince Academy of Learning and is an Accredited Training and Development Practitioner. Before becoming an Entrepreneur, Chester held a senior role at Discovery Holdings where his accountability was the development of the organization's Middle Management Capability. He is no novice in developing individuals with some key milestones being: • Lead various Learning and Development at Blue Chip Company • Head of Middle Management Development at the fore mentioned company, • Facilitated strategy sessions for various Executives, • Launched talent identification programs and leadership pipelines to compliment leadership portfolios, • Lead redesign team to update and align all the curriculum to outcomes based, • Introduced simulation learning and reduced time to competence by 50%, • Launched self-awareness and customer centric programs within community to empower grade 9- 10 learners with functional skills before they leave school. Chester soon used this experience to develop impact training programs for DSG that would allow the company to service its clients at the highest standards. In addition to the standard induction and product/process training Chester introduced a variety of self-development interventions for staff and leadership. Chester’s never-ending desire to go over and above lead to him launching one of the most ambitious campaigns with a leading brand during the latter part of 2017. He was not only responsible for ensuring that the DSG recruited and trained the correct staff but was also involved in all project engagement sessions with the client where the scope of work was defined and developed. Using the insights from the project engagement sessions Chester successfully piloted the campaign and soon conducted many more training sessions as the pilot was a success. During this time, he constantly adjusted content and methodologies based on new learnings. Chester oversaw the migration from Rosebank to the Newtown site where the campaign would be based and eventually seated over 200 employees. He was responsible for ensuring that key milestones were achieved as we rolled on more restaurants and staff. By March 2018, a fully functional call center with all required systems and networks was setup and DSG was able to complete the full roll out by September 2018. During this time Chester used the experience to on-board a second large campaign that reached 60 seats. Soon he was managing operations for 2 of DSGs biggest clients. Chester soon played a pivotal role by working with the Maharishi Institute to launch the Impact Sourcing Academy which allowed previously disadvantaged youth the opportunity to get a formalised education while getting work experience. Since inception over 200 students have been afforded the opportunity to work on various campaigns. The Operational systems and processes put in place was directly influenced by Chester and soon he became the face of the Newtown Site where he would regularly engage with the clients on progress and performance. In September 2018 DSG recognised the role that Chester played by ensuring that 2 of the biggest campaigns were successfully launched in Newtown and duly offered him the role of Head of Operations -CXG. The new role would require Chester not to only manage the campaigns in Newtown but Rosebank too. This meant that Chester would oversee operations for 20 plus campaigns and over 300 staff. Chester is supported by a phenomenal leadership team that allows DSG to not only service existing clients but over the past 2 years we have on-boarded many new clients. Important to note that a large part of the leadership team has moved through the ranks at DSG and have an intimate understanding of the client’s needs and expectations. Chester works closely with the Operations and L&D teams to ensure that DSG’s strategic objectives are met while ensuring that we create an environment that allows our people to flourish as they are exposed to new challenges daily. The team’s efforts were recognised when DSG won the Top Support Service Provider Award at the BPESA 2019 National Awards. This achievement ignited Chester’s desire to implement more impactful systems and processes that will allow us to provide our Clients with value added services that are geared to future proof their businesses. During the recent COVID-19 pandemic Chester was part of the creation and implementation of the DSG COVD-19 playbook. The playbook was shared with all clients in the build up to level 5 lockdown and it clearly articulated strategies to reduce any interruptions to operations for clients that would be operational. Chester oversaw the Health and Safety committee who deployed gazetted regulations for employers. These were often updated therefore Chester ensured that he leveraged our partnership with BPESA to remain aligned with all health and safety requirements. Throughout the state of disaster DSG remained compliant through regular reporting and the team attended various briefing sessions. The work environment was reconfigured to meet all regulated requirements and currently still complies. Chester oversaw the biggest deployment of work from agents the company has ever seen. This required the development of guidelines. policies and processes which would allow agents to work from home. In addition to this the procurement of equipment was driven to ensure agents were able to operate remotely. Successful implementation of expense reduction exercises and flexible staff staffing models were introduced to allow the business to remain operational. Throughout the state of disaster these initiatives allowed DSG to service all operational clients at the required service levels while maintaining a positive revenue line for the business. Impact on staffing remains minimal as we redeployed staff to busier campaigns in the event their allocated campaign was non-operational. We continue to look for best practice methodologies and leading tools/technology that will put us at the fore front of delivery next level Customer Experience both locally and Internationally. Set the overall strategy for the day-to-day management of the operations portfolio including financial accountability of revenue target assurance; budget adherence; cash flow forecasting and profitability. Portfolio management of business processes, customer experience, development, project office, customer operations management and internal operations management. Achievements in this role included the stabilization of client relationships in the digital space as well as the implementation of project and operational processes