Publication: IMIESA
Issue: June 2017

Adaptability, professionalism, excellence, sustainability, and teamwork are all core values that define the way Knight Piésold engages and grows its presence in the engineering and environmental sectors. These values also form the basis for the company’s talent acquisition strategy, as well as its training and development programmes at all levels, with a major focus in South Africa on selecting, mentoring and growing young engineers through to professional registration. “It’s an exciting journey for our young candidates and we have structured programmes in place to get the best results,” explains Mevashnee Naidoo, human resources director, Knight Piésold.

Stakeholder Engagement
“Clearly defining our values is important, because it provides stakeholders with a key insight in terms of our operating model. Let’s start with adaptability,” Naidoo continues. “At Knight Piésold, we have the ability to learn from experience and we realise that market needs are constantly changing. The way in which we recruit the skill sets we require has evolved and our talent-selection processes have changed to suit this.

“As a company, professionalism is an overriding priority. We are considerate and we respect others (i.e. clients, staff and competitors); however, excellence is a value that all our staff practise and live by in terms of our service offering and project delivery. “Our workplace and employment practices are very future oriented when it comes to sustainability, both in terms of minimising environmental impacts and from a business perspective. We offer employee well-being and career development programmes, which drive employee engagement. Our people are our assets and are central to our plans on engineering the future.

“This all comes together through teamwork. We build effective and efficient teams by giving all staff the experience they require to develop. We don’t work in silos and that is what our young leaders appreciate.” Mentorship is at the heart of Knight Piésold’s success and permeates throughout. Naidoo believes that it should be reflected as Knight Piésold’s sixth value. “We are a learning organisation and there are no glass ceilings. Our registered ECSA mentors are committed to a formalised programme where their mentoring time is logged and measured. Our mentees are registered on the same programme and relationship building starts here. You don’t have to be a formal mentor at Knight Piésold to make a difference. Our directors, managers and senior specialists mentor all the time.”

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