Leading search and recruitment company NeilsonYoung Consulting recently went through an empowerment re-rating exercise and improved on an already impressive AAA rating to score the very highest possible accolade, the coveted AAA+ rating, a level one contributor to BBBEE.
The audit was once again conducted by EmpowerDEX.
In addition, the company was recognised as a "Value Adding Enterprise" as defined by the BBBEE codes.
The decision to re-rate was an easy one and in line with a goal set over a year ago.
In September 2006, having recently achieved the AAA rating, the NeilsonYoung Consulting management team set a goal to improve on this, and to aim for the very highest rating, the AAA+ rating.
The year was an incredibly busy one, with many more clients coming on board and the resulting growth in terms of staff and infrastructure.
NeilsonYoung Consulting Managing Director, Dusten Young, comments on the strains and challenges faced in juggling day-to-day operational requirements with putting in place the strategic requirements needed to comply fully with BBBEE codes.
"It was an enormous task, on one hand; the business had to focus on core operations - delivering on client requirements. In our case that involves finding scarce skills in the market and helping our clients recruit these skills. On the other hand, we had to find time and internal resources to work on what is essentially a strategic project. As a small business, that meant every single member of our management team had to contribute on a regular basis to brainstorming sessions, policy meetings and implementing changes to the way our business was structured to comply with BBBEE," says Young.
The actual rating process took less than six weeks, but the planning and implementation was in play for at least the last 11 months, the last two of which required the entire focus of the company’s managing director.
"We have enjoyed increased business as a result of our AAA rating in 2006," commented recruitment Director Caroline Nkosi, "and I believe that the AAA+ rating will see us bringing even more blue chip corporate companies on board. More importantly though, we are doing the right thing, contributing to both empowerment and to our economy"
To achieve AAA+, NeilsonYoung had to score 100% and achieve bonus points in each of the selected BBBEE categories; these included Ownership, Management and Control, Employment Equity and Enterprise Development. In addition, NeilsonYoung would have scored equally highly had they elected to have been rated on Socio-Economic Development or on Preferential Procurement.
There are many benefits for companies in using a level one contributor such as NeilsonYoung Consulting.
One of these benefits is an immediate acceleration in recognition of all spend with the rated entity to 135%. An example would be, if you were to use the services of NeilsonYoung Consulting and the invoice came to R100, then you would be able to claim R135 towards your own company’s Preferential Procurement scorecard, thereby increasing your company’s own rating potential.
In the case of NeilsonYoung, you would also be able to claim a further 1.25% of all spend due to the "value adding enterprise" benefit.
"It does make sense for corporate companies to use our services from a preferential procurement perspective," states Nkosi, "but to be frank, the core reason for our existence is that we work extremely hard to understand our clients’ business issues and then deliver on these requirements. So it`s great that we are an empowered company, but we have not lost sight of the fact that we have to continue delivering a world-class service. Our rating is really just one of the many reasons companies should work with us," says Nkosi.
"I am ecstatic with the result of our empowerment drive and very proud of our team. Proud of what we have achieved and full of optimism for the future," concludes Young.
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NeilsonYoung Consulting was established in 2002 on the premise that specialists with industry experience understand the human resource requirements of ICT companies better than generalist recruitment companies.
Offering a specialised placement service, the company focused on recruiting high calibre IT, executive and solution sales skills. The company has subsequently undertaken assignments for many leading local and global organisations.
NeilsonYoung Consulting counts among its clients companies such as SAP, Cell C, Sun Microsystems, The SAS Institute, MTN NS, Dell, Wesbank and divisions of FirstRand, Faritec, Dimension Data, Bytes Technology Group, ContinuitySA, Accenture, Investec, South African Receiver of Revenue, Cisco Systems and Pebbletree Consulting.
Although the company remains a relatively small organisation, it has grown into a strong team of professional consultants with a world-class support infrastructure.
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