Agnes Wachira believes great HR is about leaving organisations better than you found them. Through strategic transformation, employee experience initiatives and practical support systems, she has helped businesses build cultures where people can perform and belong.
Agnes Wachira walks 15 kilometres four times a week, partly because she finds it very therapeutic, and it is her way of keeping fit. It is in these moments that she reflects and often finds the ideas and solutions that later influence her work and life. This year, she has added hiking to her routine, aiming to climb at least one hill or mountain every two months.
She is a mother of two girls, one sixteen, and the other nine. She started her motherhood journey young, she says, and has grown up together with her daughters in many ways, building a relationship she describes as rooted in friendship. Her daughters have given her an easy time as a mother, which she counts as a blessing.
Agnes serves as the senior human resources manager at CYBER RANGES, a global cybersecurity firm with operations across Europe, Africa, North America and Asia. She joined the organisation during a period of rapid international growth, where scaling the business meant simultaneously building the systems, structures and culture needed to support that expansion.
Building better workplaces
“Every time I get into a new organisation, I begin by understanding what is already working and where opportunities exist to create greater value. My goal is always to strengthen the business while creating an environment where people can perform at their best. It gives me a lot of fulfilment to leave organisations better than I found them,” she says.
That instinct, to walk in, take stock, improve and build has shaped every role she has held. It also gave rise to one of the most meaningful initiatives of her career, one that had nothing to do with systems, frameworks or strategy documents but everything to do with people.
It was centred on mothers being reintegrated back to work from maternity leave.
This is a moment, Agnes says, that many working mothers experience but organisations rarely acknowledge.
“You have been away from work for months, work projects have moved on, and new people have joined or left the organisation. You return, physically present, but you are quietly trying to find your place again in a world that kept moving without you. You feel like an old newbie, first day of school, all over again,” she says.
During her time at Anjarwalla & Khanna, a pan-African legal firm, Agnes realised that while organisations often had clear maternity leave policies, very few had thought about what happened after a mother came back to work from maternity leave. She decided to do something about it. Rather than commission a policy review or launch a wellness programme, she chose to focus on simple but meaningful actions that transformed the employee experience. She made sure every returning mother felt seen.
“Whenever a mother returned to work from maternity leave, I would walk her through everything that had happened during her absence - bringing them up to speed with the organisational changes, who had joined, who had left and the new initiatives that had been introduced while she was away. I would then pair her with a mentor, a female leader within the same department who had been through maternity leave before, who had experienced the transition herself, someone who could answer questions without judgement and create a safe space for her to adjust back without feeling like she had to navigate it alone. I also made it clear that my door was always open. I always tell them that whenever they have a question about reintegrating back to work, or simply need someone to talk to, they should just come and ask me,” she says.
Agnes ensured that the entire team understood its role in making the transition successful. Managers were encouraged to lead with empathy and intentionally support the employee as she settled back into the workplace.
“And on the day, she walked back through the door, the department would gather with a bouquet of flowers, a card and a welcome that was more than procedural, it was about making her feel that she truly belonged,” she points out.
For Agnes, the initiative was not solving a complex organisational problem; it was about filling a gap that existed but had been overlooked. What makes Agnes' approach distinctive is that it did not stop at warmth. She understood that the anxiety of returning to work after maternity leave is not only emotional, but also logistical, physical and deeply personal.
She ensured that every returning mother knew that there was a dedicated, private and well-equipped space where she could comfortably express and safely store breast milk.
“I also ensured that new mothers were offered flexible working arrangements during the reintegration period, their goals and deliverables were reset so they were realistic for where a returning mother actually was, not where they had been before she went on maternity leave. And that each of their milestones were recognised, making visible what would otherwise pass unnoticed,” she says.
Beyond maternity leave
Agnes also gave practical advice. Like encouraging the returning mothers to ask their nanny to start their day earlier than usual, so that by the time they left home, the nanny had freed up their time to give their child full attention.
“I also mentioned to them that if a nanny was exceptional with the baby but less perfect with the housework, it was okay to let the ball drop on the housework sometimes or bring in an extra hand to assist. Your child is your greatest priority,” she adds.
She also encouraged mothers to form support groups among themselves, not as a corporate initiative, but as a practical network of women who understood one another's realities.
“If a nanny disappears without warning, who do you call? What do you do? These are the questions that completely derail a woman's first weeks back at work, and I wanted them to have answers before the crisis hit. Creating a very collaborative and open environment where if someone is going through a challenge, they can be able to speak out,” Agnes says.
Agnes is clear that the anxiety mothers carry back to work is real and, up to a point, unavoidable.
“The thoughts that run through your head while on maternity leave. Three to six months of maternity leave doesn't feel like enough. You're not sure you're ready to leave your baby. You question whether returning to work is the right decision.But those emotions are part of the transition. They are part of the process of adjusting to a new chapter in your life,” she adds.
What changes, she says, is not the feelings but the environment around them. When a mother knows that her return has been thought about, that someone took the trouble to prepare the team, that she has been assigned a guide and that her goals have been reset to reflect reality, the adjustment becomes less overwhelming.
She also challenges the tendency for working mothers to be too hard on themselves.
“I always remind them to give themselves grace. Returning to work after having a baby is one of life's biggest transitions. You do not have to have everything figured out on day one. It is okay to adjust, to ask for help and to grow into your new normal,” Agnes points out.
Agnes trained as a teacher, a background she still draws on and her first stint in a classroom lasted four months before an opportunity in HR presented itself.
“I took it without overthinking. When you are launching your career, you become very open to possibilities, and you do not put yourself in a box. My first opportunity was in HR, and I was able to tie my experience as a teacher to come into HR and train, transform,” Agnes says.
A career built on impact
Her career began at KPMG, where she built her foundation in how a HR function should operate. She describes it as the experience that enabled her to gain exposure to the full employee lifecycle and learn what it takes for human resources to become a trusted strategic partner to the business. From there, she moved to Anjarwalla & Khanna, which is where the maternity reintegration initiative was born.
At CYBER RANGES, she introduced the firm's first full-suite HR information system, instituted a performance management framework that strengthened a culture of accountability and recognition, recruited over 50 hires across multiple jurisdictions and developed globally compliant policies among many other initiatives to support a company operating across four continents.
“Last year, I was recognised as one of the top leaders driving innovation and impact. Earlier in my career, at one of my previous employers, I was also recognised as one of the top three most people-oriented women in the company. Those recognitions mean a lot to me because they reflect the kind of leader I strive to be,” she says.
She has also recently completed a course in business sustainability management, adding a systems-thinking lens to leadership, broadening her perspective on how organisations can create long-term value by aligning people strategy with sustainable business growth.
Agnes thinks about HR the way she thinks about hiking.
“When you are preparing to climb up a mountain, you begin by assessing the terrain and you carefully pack what you will need for the journey ahead. But as you ascend, and as you make your way back down, you quickly realise that every stage demands something different. You learn what to carry with you, what to leave behind and what new tools you need to navigate the changing terrain and weather conditions. Leadership is no different. It requires adaptability, resilience and the humility to keep learning as the landscape evolves,” she explains.
For Agnes, success has never been measured by titles or recognition. Instead, she measures it by whether the organisations she has served are stronger than she found them, and whether the people she has influenced leave believing a little more in themselves. To her, that is the true legacy of leadership.
“HR, for me, is not simply a function, it is a form of service. The real opportunity lies in helping organisations build on their strengths, unlock the full potential of their people and create environments where individuals and businesses can flourish together. When people thrive, organisations grow,” she says.
