Vanisha Rajaysur: Among the most influential global HR professionals

Featuring among the 100 most influential global HR professionals and 100 most influential women 2016 in Mauritius, Vanisha is taking the HR field to the next level. A charming and down to earth lady, Vanisha shares the secret for her success to the reader of News On Sunday.

Vanisha is a 30 years old young charismatic HR Manager of a leading financial company in Mauritius. She has more than 10 years’ experience in the field of Human Resources and has worked in various sectors like civil engineering, construction, IT and telecommunications. 

On the 15th February, she made Mauritius proud by being among the 100 most influential global HR professionals organised by the World HRD Congress every year to reward the 100 best HR around the world (both gender). “It was an immense pleasure to get this award. But due to work I could unfortunately not be present personally to take the award. This award recognizes the achievements of impactful HR professionals outside the daily HR routine tasks assigned to them. My contributions have been mostly due to my voluntary work done for society upliftment.”

Moreover, last December, she was also among the 100 most influential women of Mauritius.   “A real surprise that was my first reaction when I heard I was in! I never expected to be in that list where only successful women's name figured. I used to lack trust in myself and participating in such award was a bit far from my thoughts because the competition was a bit too high level for me. I had the real support and encouragement of my close friends and family who always believed in my potentials. Above all what made me happier was that I made my parents really proud of my achievement. This competition has been a rich and fruitful experience as I have been able to build solid and constructive bonds with other likeminded influential women,” she shares. 

Contributions to the society 

Since she was a child, Vanisha was determined to achieve her dreams and drown herself in in societal work. “I have duly learnt this through my dad who is a great teacher. He has always taught me that money does not count as long you are able to do something for needy people. Their blessings will help you to progress in your life but above all he taught be never to expect anything in return of a favour provided. I have helped my dad through free tuitions to kids at home. When I were at Loreto college of Mahebourg, I was very much involved in the young pioneer group, to help in poverty alleviation of the Cite La Chaux kids.”

In 2016, she gave her life another mission by joining JCI City Plus. As an active member, she helps a lot by working on the active citizenship framework and the 17 sustainable development goals falling under the United Nations. “I was project director of Aret Violence campaign in 2016 and helped a lot of women through legal counselling about how to proceed when they are facing domestic violence problem. Above that the main objective was to partner with other liked minded NGO like Lions club of Ebene to work together on this phenomenon. Since 2017, I am advisor of some important projects for women empowerment.”

Vanisha epitomizes perseverance and simplicity but she has the heart of queen as her name symbolizes. She has been inspired by her parents. “I have seen my parents struggling hard to making their life and my life at best and for this I will always be thankful to them. I have been taught never to be too ambitious as when we fall low from higher ends, it hurts a lot. Stay humble and accept defeat were two things I had to work on. I had great aspirations of becoming one of the top HR professional in Mauritius and my dream came true.”

Thorny journey 

Her journey was filled of thorns. She had to face jealousy and overcome repercussions. Today she proudly say that she has been able to overcome the obstacles of her life at every step. “I had faced criticism and people pulled me many times. But in the end I emerged as a winner. I fell several times but I was strong enough to get up again.  Whenever success is at your feet, some people will be by your side just because you are a means to their ends. That is the beauty of life as it forges your personality to deal with every coming situation of your life.”

For her the greatest challenge was to be accepted in this male dominant world. “When you are a successful lady, many will not accept it because you become a threat to them. This was mainly at professional level when you climb up the hierarchy quickly especially. I had to adopt a tough personality and compete with them. I cried a lot of times but I think that my tears helped me forged my character. Another problem was "meritocracy". I think till now I am victim of it. I can still witness that in all spheres there is still nepotism or cronyism prevailing. The best is being left backward and special favour given to less performer.”

She encourages young ladies to put an end to objectification of women and stand for themselves. “We are young ladies with great potentials and if we do not try, we will never know our true worth. Let’s put an end to this "objectification of women" and stand on our feet to live our dreams same like every man does. We are beautiful creatures whom god made be it we are slim or chubby, finally what counts mostly is our "intelligence", what we can do for ourselves, our family, friends and also our society. Let us all step forward and hold hands together to make our Mauritian society the best place to be by leaving our "legacy".”