Siyanda Mngaza is an Inclusive Recruitment Project Co-ordinator at Kier Group. Siyanda’s feature highlights the importance of inclusivity and intersections with attention to systemic barriers that marginalise diverse groups. Siyanda reflects on her career journey as someone who has health concerns and prior convictions. Her journey into the construction industry was as a result of Kier Group’s ‘Making Ground’ engagement programme with prisons, and where she now delivers on inclusive recruitment initiatives.

Siyanda Mngaza: My Journey

I am a Black, African and Caribbean woman who grew up in Birmingham. I moved to Wales when I was 8 and then moved back to the West Midlands at age 23. I’m also disabled, so have spent a large portion of my life sitting opposite consultants and discussing my next surgery. This coupled with being black in a majority white area, meant that I didn’t have the best experience growing up.

Growing up, I frequently dealt with racism, which affected my attendance at school, my confidence and my self-worth.

I always wanted to be a journalist when I grew up, my mum always had the news on and I would dream of travelling to different countries, finding out information and reporting it on the news. Through my teenage years, this slowly faded to the back of my mind as I just didn’t have the confidence that I would actually be able to do it.

I left school at 16 and went to college, however, I just couldn’t get into it. So, after my first year, I decided to leave and get a full-time job in a call centre. I used this time to figure out what I wanted out of a career and decided on HR. To achieve this, I decided to go back to work part time and go to college part time to gain my CIPD qualification. It was during this time that I was hospitalised and had to have brain surgery.

I spent 3 months recovering from this surgery and missed out on a lot of lesson content and coursework. I could have deferred the year however I was determined to catch up. Because of my efforts, I was awarded the CIPD ‘student of the year’ award.

After obtaining my CIPD qualification, I then struggled to find a job in HR. I realised after many interviews that I had customer skills but no administration skills to put on my CV. That prompted me to go back to the drawing board and I got an administration job through an agency.

After one year, the team I was in was made redundant. So,  I took this opportunity to start applying for HR roles, I was successful at my first interview for a temporary HR administrator position and began my HR journey. After a while, I interviewed for a permanent HR admin role that came up and was successful. Shortly after, I was promoted to HR Officer – everything was going amazingly well, and I was so happy with what I had been able to achieve.

My world changed in 2020, when I was sentenced to a short time in prison for defending myself in a racially-motivated attack.

Although I found myself in a situation I would never of dreamed of, I always had hope in the back of my mind, that this wouldn’t be the end for me. I was determined to learn from this experience, and go on and make a difference.

It was while I was in prison that Kier came to talk about roles that they had available. I originally wasn’t interested in this as I didn’t want to work in the construction industry. I had preconceived ideas that working in construction was all about the physical and demanding work.

I had no idea how wrong I was!

The team from Kier, in particular my now manager, Kim, saw something in me that I hadn’t seen in myself for some time and encouraged me to get in contact with them once I was able to work outside of the prison on Release on Temporary Licence (ROTL). A few months went by and I moved to an open prison. As soon as I got there, I asked the Information, Advice and Guidance team to reach out to Kier to see whether there were any opportunities and that’s where my journey at Kier began!

It was great! I never thought I would be able to get back into an HR role but I was successful in an interview and became a Recruiter for our Emerging Talent team. As a recruiter, I loved getting to know my candidates and advocating for them. I became well-known for having difficult conversations and providing access to opportunity, to as many candidates as possible. Due to this, I was asked to do a lateral move into the Inclusive Recruitment team, where I still am today.

Working with Kier was exactly what I needed to be able to reintegrate at my own pace. I have found Kier extremely supportive. If it wasn’t for the company providing opportunities, I wouldn’t have been able to be working in the role I am in now; a role which provides so much fulfilment.

This isn’t to say that I wouldn’t have still excelled, but I have definitely been very fortunate to be surrounded with such supportive and encouraging colleagues and managers, in a time that I needed it the most.

My proudest achievements in this role are ones where I have been able to support candidates with convictions, back into their previous careers or where candidates have got into roles that they never thought possible, because of their transferrable skills. I’m very open about the circumstances that I have come up against and it’s great to know that, by doing this, I’m helping to break down the stereotypes people may have around people that have been to prison.

I’m also so proud of the work I’ve done to promote ethnic diversity and inclusion. It’s great to finally be in a place that welcomes challenge and uncomfortable conversations, because we’re all working towards the same goal: making the business we work in inclusive to all. I am co-lead of our Racial Inclusion Network, and we have lots to do but I am excited to see where conversations are taking us.

My biggest achievement is still being here, doing the good work in my career and being able to take my own life experiences and turn them into something positive.

I firmly believe everyone should have an equitable chance and platform for roles in the corporate world, which can be quite exclusive.

If we want to make changes, we have to all play our part to be the change that we want to see. We need allies to push these initiatives also. Diversity of people, diversity of thought and how that drives innovation is what makes a business thrive.

On a personal note, growing up in Wales, where I was one of a handful of black girls in my school, I didn’t have anyone that I could look up to, aside from my mother. Now, I embrace my race instead of trying to mask it. I don’t want anyone to have to go through life, second guessing themselves because of the colour of their skin – it’s such a lonely and dark place.

My first piece of advice from my own career journey is that anyone can do anything they put their mind to, regardless of what others are saying or when there are challenges to overcome. Even though you may lack confidence, believe you can, and you will achieve your goals.

Secondly, if you are ever in a situation where you are not feeling appreciated, heard or  seen for your true self, then you should leave that situation. Find another place or another set of people that do make you feel validated. Don’t settle for anything at the expense of your happiness or your worth.

Thirdly, it is so important that we continue to support each other as women and women of colour. No matter what is thrown at us, if we are united together, we will always come out on top.

This interview was conducted by Michelle Aboagye and Priya Kondola