"We work right and we work hard," says partner Mark Stemmett who adds that the emphasis is on equality at work. These are not just empty words as a quick glance around the office show that each person has exactly the same office space.

"Everyone has the same of everything and that's just fair because each person should feel comfortable," he says, explaining that they spend a large portion of their lives at work.

What is even more remarkable than the office layout, is the profit sharing system that has been in place since the company's inception seven years ago. According to Mark, everyone has the same opportunity to make extra money based on this system. The project manager distributes 30 percent of the profit on every project based on the added wealth that each team member creates within that project.

While Mark admits that this is a subjective system, he explains that it is to the project manager's benefit to ensure that they remain fair otherwise they "will struggle to get people to work on their projects in future".

Mark comments on the profit sharing structure: "It was the fair thing to do. Employees can now make extra money because of the trade off that they create somewhere else due to the additional work that they put in.”

Mark believes that this system has helped to create a sense of ownership within the business. "We don't have to tell people to work on a Saturday if they are needed, as each person is responsible for what they do.”

“We distribute the remaining profit on each project by donating 10% to a church of each partners choice on a rotational basis, and then plough back the rest into the company. We have been using this method of allocation since the first cent that we made,” says Mark adding that they used churches to distribute the money fairly based on certain principles.

Expanding their bases
Whichever way you look at it, the company seem to be doing something right. They never have to look for work and have recently established a branch in Knysna where business in this area and in Jeffreys Bay is reportedly booming.

The development of their Knysna office came about quite by accident six months ago. “I was appointed as an Engineer for the prestigious Pezula and Simola golf estates. There is a huge influx of money being invested in this area and most of the work involves private clients. The capital infrastructure that is going into Knysna is currently more than that of Coega,” he says painting a picture of the extensive development.

Apart from Knysna, most of their other projects tend to be focused in the Eastern Cape region. “A recent project include a transportation study for the Coega Development Corporation which will involve the upgrading of an existing plan that include all transport types,” says Mark.
 

Civil Designer is used extensively on projects. One project that has been dragging into its eighth year, is the in-situ upgrade of the Joe Slovo township. "It has taken us eight years to get a PHP agreement signed," he says stressing that they have been involved on the project since only five people occupied the land. "Today there are 3000 families and that is how long it has taken us to get something through the system."

Although the design has been completed and approved, the construction of the sewers, roads and bulk services that have been made provision for, is yet to be finalised. From a technical point of view, the project itself did not present any problems, but it did present challenges in terms of community dynamics.

“In another project where we used Civil Designer, we designed a business and special purpose development called Fairview. It is the biggest development of its kind in Port Elizabeth and has been built on restitution land.”

Mark comments on an interesting occurrence while working on the project: “Tests indicated that the entire area was dry land. On the commencement of construction however, it was discovered that the water level was only 50cm below the surface. As a result of this, a lot of filling had to be undertaken. We used the programs Road’s module to perform all the calculations and found that our estimate was within 1% of the actual quantity of rock fill required to solve the problem.”

"It's great to have that sort of capability. The program allowed us to manipulate huge amounts of data very quickly. There's just no way you would have been able to do that by hand,” he says.

The project is now about 80 percent complete and will be handed over on completion to the Port Elizabeth Land Restitution and Housing Association, a division that was funded by the Department of Land Affairs.

Although Mark understands the importance of training, he feels that it is not viable for a small company such as theirs to isolate one employee to go on training. "It is far more cost effective for me to work alongside someone when sharing knowledge. As such, we tend to allocate people to certain projects based on what they still need to learn and conduct training mostly in-house.”