Global multidisciplinary management, engineering, and development consultancy Hatch has achieved a Level 2 Broad-Based Black Economic Empowerment (B-BBEE) rating.

Hatch began its transformation journey in 2001, well before the B-BBEE legislation was put into place. Since then, the company has consistently updated its transformation plan to evolve with the programme’s requirements, and has exceeded the targets in many areas, such as ownership, with black ownership currently standing at 51.4%, and black women ownership standing at 15.6%. Such success is the result of a focused transformation plan aimed at improving all five elements of the scorecard continuously.

“We support the government’s programme wholeheartedly. It aligns with our corporate vision and transformation charter – that we are passionately committed to the pursuit of a better world through positive change. This means striving for meaningful partnerships with our clients to make lasting impacts in the local and regional communities in which we operate,” comments Pierre Olivier, Managing Director, Africa, Europe, Middle East (AEM) region for Hatch.

“The strength of our charter lies in creating an empowering environment, along with improving employment equity and growing our skills development efforts,” Olivier highlights. In this regard, Hatch offers bursaries to students at the seven universities across the country with engineering programmes. Over the past 13 years, Hatch has supported 127 bursary students, and has offered full-time employment to 140 graduates.

It has invested more than R173 million in education programmes between 2004 and 2017. In addition, Hatch is a Platinum sponsor of the African Academy for CAD (Computer Aided Design), which it has supported since 2001 by sponsoring qualifying candidates. Upon completion of one year of full-time study, they are brought into Hatch for a six-month internship.

To assist entrepreneurs, Hatch has developed and refined its award-winning small business transformation programme over the years, based on an Enterprise Development (ED) strategy. Each qualifying ED partner selected for the programme is assigned to a Hatch business mentor, and a unique development plan is designed based on a needs analysis of the partner.

Hatch’s ED incubator houses about six small majority black-owned businesses at any given time. The programme is designed to develop these businesses over a period of between two to three years, and once the project teams start utilising the services of the ED partners, they then graduate and become Supplier Development (SD) partners.

The SD framework comprises both a corporate and project level. At the corporate level, suppliers are selected to become developing partners, and are offered the same benefits as ED partners. These suppliers are invited to include their services in proposals to clients as potential suppliers or joint venture partners. The second level involves leveraging projects to develop and transfer skills, preserve and create jobs, and drive small business promotion and incorporate localisation. Five SD partners are working on Hatch projects at present.

In closing, Olivier says, “As a global professional services provider, we feel we have a responsibility to do what we can to close the skills gap, improve education, and embrace diversity as a catalyst for creating decent work, sustainable growth, and a lasting transformation. We are proud to be a part of building a stronger, more inclusive South Africa.”