Pros
The company is employee owed and has a very attractive share valuation which makes the ownership of shares a worthwhile goal. As a result of this there are a large number of proffessionals in the company that have spent a longer (than I suspect is normal in the industry) amount of time as permanent employees of Hatch (10+ years). This builds a strong network in the company of competant individuals which usually ensures world class teams to be proposed for an impressivly wide range of projects in the metals, infrastructure and energy industries. A single bottom line approach to revenue and profits promotes knowledge transfer as well as "worksharing" accross offices and time zones. Worksharing allows the company to scale up capacity on projects that require this by sharing work with employees in other reigions (Toronto to Brisbane) as optimising the utilization of employees for billable work is a key variable in the company and has a massive impact on profitability. Being employee owned the company benefits from the mind set of a typical shareholder that intimately understands the cyclical nature of the business. This means that seemingly (to people close to the business) rash decisions driven by institutional investors and/or corporate activity or for that matter market sentiment have little to no effect on the company and its strategy. It is felt that a strong focus on quality, honesty, safety and competence in challenging work drives the repeat business the company enjoys.
Cons
With recent (in terms of Hatch's existance) expansion into Africa and Australia and the even more recent resources boom there has been a tendancy to move people around the world to fill positions on projects in other offices rather than employ locals at higher salaries than perhaps their experience warrants. Whilst this is a positive to those looking to travel, it often leads to large gaps in the local offices once the people inevitably & understandably decide to return home after 3, 5 or 10 year stints in other countries. This has created issues in developing local market penetration as continuity and individual trust is a major cornerstone in the repeat work Hatch tries to gather from clients. Additionally it can create a perception to some that unless your career started in certain preferred reigions there is a limited career path in the company. As I say this is a perception and only time will tell if it is in fact a reality as the younger crop of Hatchlings matures. Despite the multidisciplinary environment that the projects we work on provide often individuals report to a "discipline lead" who is recognised as an expert in their field of speciality. Your advancement through the ranks and the opportunites presented rely heavily on the relationship with this person. Unfortunately, your performance on projects is not always reported back to your discipline lead and because often you do not work closely with them on a day to day basis their perception of you is not always as insightful as it could and should be.
