Every quarter, Sarah Omaya drives to Sagana to spend an entire Saturday with a group of mentees, bringing no slides and no rigid programme, just an open space for honest conversation. Listening, asking thoughtful questions, and drawing insights that often deepen her understanding of people but also inform how she designs organisational systems and policies that are both practical and scalable within the business. She returns to Nairobi having learned something new each time.
Sarah Omaya, director of HR at Acorn, is a proud mum to her son who is almost a pre-teen and someone who describes herself simply as a people enthusiast. Away from the office, she listens to every genre of music she can find, enjoying Afropop on the weekend or whatever the moment calls for. She also dances salsa and kizomba, appreciating the structured movement where the instructor calls the steps and the music takes care of the rest.
“I love cooking, I love family, and I love culture. I’m especially fascinated by the stories behind traditions like the Luo journey from South Sudan and the ‘why’ behind them. That curiosity is central to who I am,” she says.
Grit and early direction
Sarah views grit as a skill built through small daily decisions, such as waking up when you said you would, cooking the meal you planned and showing up when it would be easier not to. This exact instinct runs through the policies she builds at work, representing small, consistent and deliberate choices that look simple from the outside but hold everything together from within.
Growing up as the last born in her family, she was always on top of things, and her original ambition was to pursue aeronautical engineering with her high school subject choices aligned to that goal. However, a passing conversation revealed that pilots needed perfect eyesight, prompting her to redirect her path because she wore glasses.
“I took it in and it stung, and then I turned to my older sister and asked what else I could do, and she said having known me well and the way I love people even in the family, I should try human resources,” she recalls.
Her sister introduced her to a friend who was already working as a HR manager, and when Sarah asked what the job entailed, the simple answer that she dealt with people was enough to convince her. She went to university, majored in human resources, and never looked back.
After starting her career in the government world of paperwork and process, her life pivoted in a way that would eventually reshape her entire professional philosophy when her sister fell ill in Sweden. Sarah dropped everything to spend a year abroad watching her sister navigate a system that was fundamentally built to accommodate life, observing the leave policies, the flexibility and the structures that allowed a sick person with a newborn child to remain both a parent and a professional without having to choose between the two.
“It was a painful season, but I also took lessons because I was able to see the practices that allowed my sister to integrate her life, sickness, her small baby and work,” she notes. “I asked why this could not happen in Africa too, and that experience is why I am so clear about creating environments that accommodate life.”
Building systems that last
That experience also sharpened her perspective on how well-designed systems can enable organisations to remain productive and resilient, even as employees navigate complex life realities.
Following her sister's passing, Sarah returned home and started her career again from the beginning, joining a security company called Jeff Hamilton as its inaugural human resources hire. She then moved to Davis & Shirtliff, where she worked longer than anywhere else and truly built her career, learning the full depth of what it meant to create systems that outlasted individual leadership before moving through life sciences and finally arriving at Acorn.
Across these roles, she has consistently focused on building people frameworks that align with business strategy, enhance operational efficiency, and scale effectively across markets and organisational contexts.
“Along the way I completed an MSc in human resource management, at the University of Nairobi and my passions are specific, focusing on change management, culture, performance management, and building agile systems that evolve with changing workforce dynamics rather than requiring frequent overhauls.” She mentions.
Her approach ensures that systems are not only people-centred but also aligned to business needs, enabling organisations to scale without losing structure or performance clarity.
When reflecting on her professional highlights, two key achievements stand out that both centre on the principle that honest structure removes bias and creates fairness. The first is her work building salary and grading structures in every organisation she has joined, replacing a system where remuneration was driven by favouritism with a clear map that guides everyone.
“Once you have policies, it removes biases, so no one can come and say they just need a raise without me guiding them on how we can get them to where they want to go,” she explains. “Structure also helps the individual because they know where they are, what their gaps are, and what the path looks like, which removes the anxiety and the favouritism.”
Designing for real life
She notes that beyond fairness, such structures create consistency and predictability both critical in supporting organisational stability and informed decision-making.
Her second major highlight involves changing the narrative around performance management, shifting it away from an anxiety inducing event that happens twice a year. She prefers to replace the traditional policing approach with honest monthly conversations that focus on what the manager can do to help the employee succeed.
“We are changing that narrative from policing to enabling, and my monthly conversations with employees are to make sure we achieve what we agreed on,” she says. “I am not looking forward to them failing, I am looking forward to them winning.”
She believes that when performance is managed proactively in this way, it not only supports individual success but also drives stronger team outcomes and overall business performance.
The profound impact of her time in Sweden settled deeply into how she thinks about policy, prompting her to constantly ask, how accommodating organisations and systems are, to real life. She frequently challenges leadership on how they handle situations that the law is silent on, such as miscarriages, divorce and adoption, urging them not to default to the legal minimum when an employee is carrying an enormous personal burden.
“What do we do in areas where the law is silent like miscarriages? Do we default to policy limits, or do we apply judgement and humanity?” she asks. “And when performance declines due to life events such as addiction, divorce, loss, financial strain, or caring for a sick family member do we move quickly to exit, or do we first seek to understand the context? For me, effective HR is about striking that balance between demonstrating humanity while maintaining accountability and business continuity. Ensuring support is provided without compromising performance standards.”
She emphasises that this balance is critical in ensuring that organisations remain both humane and high performing.
Leading with humanity
At Acorn, she has successfully built frameworks that go well beyond the minimum requirements, implementing phased returns for maternity leave and pushing for equal integration periods for adoptive parents.
“There is the normal maternity leave and then there is how we integrate employees back to work, but do we do the same for adoption or do we assume integration does not need to happen for them,” she added.
Sarah notes that layoffs are among the most complex aspects of HR leadership, requiring a deliberate balance between business imperatives and the human impact of such decisions. She adds that how organisations manage such transitions often has a direct impact on trust, culture, and employer reputation factors that ultimately influence long-term business performance.
“While business decisions ultimately guide the outcome, there is still room to shape how those decisions are implemented. Within those parameters, HR can introduce thoughtful measures such as short transition support like extending medical cover a little longer, just until they find their footing or bringing in therapy that helps employees exit with dignity. Those moments matter and are often what people remember most,” she observes.
At her core, Sarah sees HR not just as a support function, but as a strategic driver of organisational success balancing people, performance, and long-term business value.
Before ending the conversation, she shares a final guiding principle that she learned from a woman she deeply admires, Dr Patricia.
“She said something profound that I am telling people these days. We need to live life with a sense
of urgency and intentionality that keeps us away from fear, because it keeps us away from holding
back and keeps us true to ourselves, as we do not know what is next,” she says.
