Sustainability

Shaping sustainable places to support healthy living

We see a world where sustainability is simply built into living. Together with our partners, we are building for a better society, creating innovative and sustainable solutions that support living beyond our lifetime.

1. Corporate Governance & Ethics

Corporate governance is a fundamental aspect of Niem’s strategic and operational profile. It covers the roles and responsibilities of our Board of Directors, Senior Management and all employees. A commitment to good governance ensures that the correct checks and balances are in place to promote a culture of honesty, integrity, accountability and continuity.

Being ethical is the guiding principle for all governance.

Our business practices are in line with relevant legislation and agreements. We believe that ethical behaviour will give us an inner peace, better quality of life and will contribute towards our long-term sustainability and growth.

Through our Ethics Committee and Performance Management System, regular and annual reviews are done to identify and address ethics issues.

Our Performance Management System includes dimensions such as leadership assessments, internal customer evaluations, external evaluations and culture and climate surveys.

Our Ethics Committee consists of employees from different disciplines and levels. Information sessions take place regularly, and information posters are displayed in all areas of the workplace.

Niem™ is committed to creating and maintaining an ethical working environment.

2. Corporate Social Responsibility

Caring for people is one of the values formulated in Niem’s Purpose and Vision statement. It is through caring that we have succeeded in building a passionate, loyal and proud workforce with a great team spirit. But caring goes beyond the workplace, and has found worthy beneficiaries in Niem’s Corporate Social Investment programme.

Employee Wellness
In line with its culture of caring, the company is concerned about the welfare of its employees and their families and have implemented an Employee Wellness Programme.

Through this programme we provide employees and their family members with assistance when they require help with the prevention, identification and treatment of psychological or social problems, which all levels of employees may encounter from time to time.

HIV/AIDS
Part of Niem’s way of caring for its people is an established and results-oriented HIV/Aids programme. To date, 98% of the staff members have been tested voluntarily. Those whose results will come back positive will be put on the programme and receive the required treatment and hospice care.

3. Training and Development

Our passion towards the training and development of our people has been instrumental in creating an organization that is uncompromising in standards and will always strive to deliver what it promises.

Niem™ is known in the industry for training and skills development of employees and the communities where we operate.

In this regard we focus on various areas of development initiatives to ensure that people get equipped with the necessary skills:
This includes the following:

1. Preparation for the Labour market
Niem™ is involved in various programs that assist the marginalised youth to develop the necessary life skills, mathematical and science requirements to gain access to possible learning and bursary opportunities. These are one-year experiential work placement programmes.

2. Bursaries and Learnerships
Various bursaries and learnerships are offered to train and develop youth in careers as Site Engineers, Technicians, Foremen, Surveyors, Quantity Surveyors, Financial accountants and Clerks.

3. Skills Development
Various trades are offered for the development of Mechanical staff, Artisans and jobs such as Bricklayers and Pipe layers.

  1. Leadership Development and Entrepreneurial skills

All our managers attend set programs to develop skills as leaders and entrepreneurs. Over and above this, the company also assists small enterprises to develop their leadership and business skills.

  1. Local skills development

The company is fully equipped to ensure that all employees are aware and well trained to work in a healthy and safe manor and taking due care with regards to environmental issues.

  1. Health and Safety and Environmental

Through our Human Resources department, we have access to and can facilitate most of the development and training opportunities that may be required by a local community. Various training options can be provided in partnership with accredited training providers as listed:

Technical Skills Training

Any construction related skills, including learnerships, skills programs and short courses including but not limited to: Road works, Concrete, Pipe work and Underground services, Contractual conditions, Productivity and planning for production, Utilisation of hand tools and small plant etc.

Mentoring programmes

Formal mentorship programmes are run and are aimed specifically at University Graduates for a duration of a year after graduation to improve the Employability of Graduates by increasing skills and knowledge in their chosen field of study.

Induction for new employees

All site staff are legally required to complete the Site Safety. Induction before being allowed to go out to site.

The empowerment of women

Niem™ is serious about the empowerment of women and substantial progress has been made in diversifying the workforce. When it comes to employment equity, we have a dream to create a truly diverse workforce without any tokenism. The development of women is a key priority and through personal development plans, their aspirations, competencies needed for present and future positions, as well as the behaviour competencies required, are addressed.

4. SHEQ

Niem™ take safety, health, environment and quality very seriously. Compliance to legislation, global standards and our value of “caring for people” means that we do not compromise on SHEQ.

SAFETY

We strive to ensure that our people are always safe by applying sound safety management principles and operating procedures. This combined with knowledge and accountability of safety issues ensures that our people know what to do to prevent accidents, or in the event of an unforeseeable incident, know how to react.

HEALTH

By minimising hazards or potential hazards in our business, we are able to ensure the health of our people. This is achieved through training and stringent operating practices, which adhere to environmental and legislative requirements.

Health & Safety Policy:

  • Provide a safe and healthy working environment for the well-being of our employees and their families, through staff participation and ownership of health and safety responsibilities.
  • Ensure that the health and safety of the public and neighbouring communities is not compromised by our operations.
  • Meet corporate requirements by complying with health and safety laws and regulations, conducting business according to recognised standards for our type of industry, and committing the necessary resources.
  • Build and maintain a constructive relationship with regulatory authorities, meet all operating permit and licence obligations, and provide prompt advice on relevant issues.
  • Commit ourselves to sub-contractor health and safety during their tenure with us, and to enforce standards and procedures laid down by the use as a minimum code of conduct for sub-contractors and third parties.

ENVIRONMENT

Niem™ maintains a sound balance between resources, environmental care, social responsibility and profitability. Our corporate environmental policy formalises the value we place on caring for the environment. Key priorities include environmental management and educating our people.

In line with our environmentally-friendly reputation, and informed by our experience Niem™ is in the process of developing a formal environmental plan which will apply to each contract

QUALITY

At Niem™ we are proud to produce work of high quality, within the programmed time, to standards expected by our clients, consultants and communities. We embrace the principle of “first time right” and we produce products that are free of latent defects. We are committed to ongoing learning and will continuously improve our standards and work processes. We are pursuing ISO 9001 certification to ensure higher levels of customer satisfaction.