Ina Paarman with Rene de Wit (DVT)
René De Wit is the Head of Delivery Support and Talent Acquisition at Inspired Testing, a Dynamic Technologies group company. Having spent 15 years in the hospitality sector, she moved into IT about four years ago because she wanted something dynamic, flexible and process driven – but with room for creative thinking. After working with a career advisor, she began her search for a job in the tech industry at the same time as Inspired Testing was advertising for a Resource Coordinator on LinkedIn. René hit the apply button while driving home to Stellenbosch via the Helshoogte Pass in the Western Cape. Within 15 minutes Leon Lodewyks, Inspired Testing’s Managing Executive (now Chief Technology Officer), had replied, within a day she had an interview and within two days the offer was in her inbox.
René’s journey at Inspired Testing has been busy. “After a year as Resource Coordinator, I moved out of the Operations team to take over what is now the Delivery Support Department. Our main focus areas are resource allocation, revenue assurance (billing) and supporting HR with parts of payroll. I also took over the Talent Acquisition team as part of the Delivery Support function, which is responsible for all sourcing and hiring for Inspired Testing. We use AI and other co-pilots to automate various parts of our function and I am a big fan of Chat GPT to help simplify complex and infuriating Excel formulas.”
Talent acquisition (TA) is about much more than simply hiring bodies, and René is passionate about getting it right. Her role is key to Inspired Testing’s purpose of making way for potential through quality, continuous learning and innovation. “One of our TA team’s greatest strengths is being able to know instinctively if someone is an Inspired Testing fit,” she explains. “We work very closely with Leon Lodewyks and his Principal Consultant Team to ensure that we adhere to the Inspired Testing technical core competencies, we constantly evaluate and improve our assessment processes with the use of AI and technology and we always take their guidance on industry trends and changes. When we send out the offer to a potential new Inspired Testing consultant, we think long term and big picture – how this person will contribute and add value to the business with their current skillset and be able to grow in their professional capacity with the platform we provide.”
Working in a dynamic environment where change is the norm creates a lot of opportunity for headaches and inconsistency, but René appreciates that this also makes her focus on streamlining and critically analysing processes to ensure there is a steady flow of things being done and being done well. “Call me a nerd,” she laughs, “But it has been so lekker to be able to be involved in formalising the Inspired Testing way of doing things! And even more so with such an incredible team – I would not be able do 1% of what I do without them.”
Something she appreciates about the company is that everyone has a hobby or activity that they enjoy doing outside of work – which is both accepted and encouraged. For René, it is the support of these varied interests that keeps people “interested and interesting” and it helps to create an environment that lives the ethos of diversity by inclusion. “It is about creating and maintaining a space where there is more than one right way to be, think or do, with a golden thread running through that connects the ‘how’ we do it,” she explains. “There has to be room to include and celebrate individual aptitudes – it keeps things from becoming too one dimensional and vanilla!”
And vanilla is something René is certainly not. As someone who enjoys the world of wine and food when she’s not at work, the opportunity to host her own cooking show in 2023 for the VIA channel was something she couldn’t say no to! The show was called Skep Nog and it offered her the chance to cook shoulder to shoulder with the incomparable Ina Paarman. René adds, “Television work was always on my to-do list so this was a big box to tick off! It also created other chances to work in front of the camera, with the most recent one being a guest judge on a show called Die Wynmeester.” And, she adds, there’s more to come! But for now, she’ll continue to wrestle Excel and keep things on track in the office.