Hatch is dedicated to ‘the pursuit of a better world’

The best part of the annual leadership awards at Hatch Ltd., says Montréal-based senior engineer Véronique St-Louis, is that going into the event you know you’ve been nominated by your colleagues, but not yet who has won. “Just like the Oscars!” she laughs, recalling her own award a year ago. “Listening to the description, I was just starting to think, ‘is he talking about me?’ when my name was called.”

St-Louis was thrilled with the recognition, but it paled beside other factors that have fostered her strong loyalty to the global engineering and professional services giant, which she joined straight out of university 20 years ago.

When the chemical engineer wanted to switch her career focus from technical work to project control management, Hatch could not have been more supportive. “If you’re not happy in the job that you are doing now, this company will explore every possible role in their business,” she says. “And if you need more training for something, they are always there for you. Hatch sent me to a project management class held during our work time and paid me during those hours.

“That’s a core part of Hatch culture,” says Mike Fedoroff, regional managing director for Western Canada. “Training employees, not just in technical skills but in how to work together more effectively, is always the key to success.”

It’s embedded within Hatch’s governing manifesto, which declares its passionate commitment to ‘the pursuit of a better world through positive change’ and emphasizes its partnership with its clients, some of whom have been associated with employee-owned Hatch since it was founded over six decades ago.

“And that fusion of common interests cannot be accomplished,” Fedoroff adds, “without an identical relationship between company and employees. We’ve always been a flexible organization. We’ve always cared for our employees. Just as we develop long-term relationships with clients, we have to have those strong – and flat, not hierarchical – connections with each other and have each other’s backs.

“Hatch makes the manifesto part of new-employee orientation,” he says. “A senior staff member will sit down and discuss the manifesto with them, in a way that allows the vision, mission and values that we as a company embody to be captured and foster positive behaviours when working with clients and each other.

“It helps instill pride and dedication in Hatch employees involved in building a port system that is resilient in the face of climate change,” says Saskatoon-based Fedoroff, “or as we in Saskatchewan are, building new potash mines to deliver much-needed fertilizers for the farming community around the world. Or, the project StLouis has just wrapped up, rebuilding an industrial furnace in Sorel-Tracy, Que., while the plant remained in operation.

“When you think about the manifesto, which you do regularly, it changes your way of working, even if not always consciously,” says St-Louis, whose Hatch career has taken her from Iceland to South Africa. “When you consider acting locally but thinking globally, or acting like an owner or as though you are with the client, it affects everything you do.

“You think about your work, you innovate all the time and you say, ‘You know what? I think I’m going to change this practice,’ to better align with the way we want to be.”

This article appeared in the magazine announcing this year's Canada's Top 100 Employers winners, published November 18, 2022 in The Globe and Mail. This article was prepared with the financial support of the employer, which reviewed but did not write its contents.

Hatch fosters a culture of new possibilities

Talita Snyman was already established in the human resources field in South Africa in 2014, when the 33-year-old decided that if she was ever going to move into a more technical career, it was now or never. “I don’t deal with changes in a small way,” Snyman says dryly. “So I packed up, moved to Ontario to attend Sheridan College, and eventually my journey brought me to Hatch Ltd.”

At every step along the way, from her co-op stint to company training, Hatch Ltd. provided exactly what she was looking for. “From the get-go I was saying, ‘I want to be challenged’,” says Snyman, “and Hatch offered those opportunities, whether in the office or to travel. As a mechanical designer I am based in Mississauga, but we do work with clients all over the world. Hatch is such a vibrant place, and management is so accessible, something I initially wasn’t used to, coming from South Africa, which is still very hierarchical.”

“Hatch has a value of being a flatconnected organization,” says Mike Fedoroff, the company’s regional managing director for Western Canada. “This value, among others, creates the culture to challenge people with new and exciting opportunities. Everyone is unique and during their career with Hatch can achieve positive change for our clients, themselves and the communities we work and live in.”

The global engineering and professional services giant is governed by a manifesto that declares its passionate commitment to “the pursuit of a better world through positive change.” Hatch believes, Fedoroff says, “that as the infrastructure, mining and metals, and energy sectors undergo profound change to provide what is needed for electric vehicles, our employees will play a key role in helping Canada and the globe in adapting to what climate change brings us.”

So embedded within the manifesto is a commitment to partnership not only with clients, some of whom have been associated with employee-owned Hatch since it was founded over six decades ago, but also with its workforce.

“The accessible management means there’s no, ‘we’re doing it this way because I say so’ at Hatch,” says an appreciative Snyman. And the committed partnership with employees, she adds, has seen managers “actually go out of their way to ensure I got the training I needed, and to give me the chance to see my designs be implemented in the field.”

One of the Hatch design areas in which Snyman is involved is refractory design – brick linings – for smelting furnaces. That means, she laughs, “I get to play 3D Tetris,” often in real time. “We just recently completed a project in Quebec where I was involved from the initial design and was present for the entire installation. I got to see the first brick go in and watched while they put in the last one. That was very special and very satisfying for me.”

Snyman’s career at Hatch, marked by professional development and satisfying collaboration with other employees – not to mention the 3D Tetris – has fully justified packing her bags and sailing off into the unknown eight years ago, she believes. “I am very happy I had the opportunity to join with Hatch, and I know there is still so much more personal and career growth I can do here.”

This article appeared in the magazine announcing this year's Greater Toronto’s Top Employers winners, published December 9, 2022 in The Globe and Mail. This article was prepared with the financial support of the employer, which reviewed but did not write its contents.

Hatch engineers a variety of diverse solutions

I n 2016, when she was asked to be part of the diversity and inclusion steering committee of Hatch Ltd., a global engineering, project management and professional services firm, Laura Twigge-Molecey declined.

“Back then, I felt I should try and fit in with my peers and not make a big deal about how I was different in a male-dominated industry,” recalls Twigge-Molecey, who has been with the Mississauga, Ont.-based company for 25 years and was recently promoted to managing director for transportation.

Her thinking has changed dramatically since then. “I‘ve realized that as a female leader, I can influence a broad group of people and be a role model, which from my perspective is the most important part about leadership,” says the mother of three. “With role models, people can see a path for themselves.

“Before I started this position in transportation, I was looking after engineering globally. And when I was approached about this job, I was nervous because the group of managing directors was almost 100-per-cent male, and some of them had younger families and most had a spouse who stayed at home. I was always uncomfortable saying, ‘Well, I can't come to a 7 a.m. meeting because I have to take my kids to school.’ ”

But then, Twigge-Molecey continues, she realized, “Everyone has different life situations. It wasn’t my peers pressuring me to do something – I was putting pressure on myself.” Plus, she felt buoyed by Hatch’s commitment to diversity. “The inclusivity part is important, especially when you’re part of a minority group. It helps you feel as if you’re part of the team.”

For Brittany Chubey, a senior structural engineer with 12 years at Hatch in Saskatoon, Sask., the company has steadfastly supported her career aspirations. “I’ve always felt valued and respected,” she says, “and that Hatch has supported me in a way that isn’t just about excelling at my career but also about balancing all aspects of my life.”

Chubey notes that she’s often required to go to project sites to validate the firm’s designs or support construction. “These experiences are incredibly valuable. Hatch has always supported me in my desire to gain more site experience, but at the same time they respect that I’m a mom of three and it takes time to co-ordinate with my family, especially since these sites are often far from home.

“I’ve advanced in my career because Hatch continues to present me with challenging opportunities, leaving me to decide my career path and never choosing it for me based on my family situation or anything else.”

Hatch has also launched a diverse and inclusive design initiative, with Twigge-Molecey as its sponsor. The program ensures diversity and inclusion are embedded in the engineering design methodology. For example, if a client has a goal of 40 per cent for women or a certain percentage for Indigenous workers as part of its current or future workforce, Hatch can influence how a facility is designed to ensure the needs of the workforce can be met.

The next phase, says Twigge-Molecey, is to start measuring female involvement in the firm’s largest projects. “And then, we’re going to expand to other kinds of diversity in the future. We can talk about, for example, how we had had 15 per cent of a project done by people in our Chilean, South African or Indian office, and we can actually track the project performance.

“Whether it’s cost, schedule or safety,” she concludes, “we can use these data to measure the positive impact of a more diverse team.”

This article appeared in the magazine announcing this year's Canada’s Best Diversity Employers winners, published March 8, 2022 in The Globe and Mail. This article was prepared with the financial support of the employer, which reviewed but did not write its contents.

How Hatch attracts youth and youth revitalizes Hatch

After he left a typical Hatch Ltd. gathering in October, Stéphane Raymond, the company’s regional managing director for Eastern Canada, was struck by an elevator screen news flash he saw while returning to his office: only 40 per cent of Canadian employees said they had access to their direct manager.

“It was a breakfast meeting with Hatch’s young professionals employees, and not just direct and senior managers were there but the board of directors. Everyone was mingling,” Raymond recalls. “We cranked up those access stats quite heavily, all on our own.”

One of his newest colleagues agrees. Maéva Chrzaszcz, 24, had more than one reason to join the engineering and professional services giant, which she first encountered in her last semester in materials engineering at McGill University in 2021.

“During my final-year design course, industry representatives came to talk to our class, many of whom were from Hatch,” Chrzaszcz says. “Speaking with them and listening to them showed me that Hatch was engaged in interesting and challenging work – a good environment for me to grow in and learn from as a young professional.” When a Hatch presenter asked Chrzaszcz to apply for a position on his pyrometallurgy team, she jumped at the chance.

Since Chrzaszcz joined Hatch in mid-2021, the company’s other strengths as an employer for young people have come into play. A pandemic hire, Chrzaszcz has been deeply involved with the company’s young professionals committee since she was able to come into Hatch’s Mississauga headquarters for the first time a year ago. “It's been great to connect with my peers in person rather than online,” she says, “and it’s a great place to share young professionals’ ideas and opinions and have open discussions with experienced colleagues.”

Hatch’s global reach has already provided Chrzaszcz with the opportunity to travel to Australia to meet in person with a client to discuss technologies, including biomass usage, to reduce steel-industry greenhouse gas emissions. “Throughout our technical workshops, both the Forge your future client and my team put their trust in me as a professional. This was so valuable to me, coming in with my 18 months experience, to better understand what they want and to provide my input to people who were keen on listening.”

Raymond is happy to describe Hatch’s many formal and informal initiatives with new hires. Those include structured mentorship, the induction process by which, in their first month, new employees meet with a senior manager – in Eastern Canada, it’s often him – to talk about Hatch’s flat, connected workplace culture, and how the company responds with support to individual employee ambitions.

Hatch also provides work that Chrzaszcz and her peers are passionate about. “Our recognition that the economy is going to be driven by climate change for the rest of our careers has a huge power of attraction for the next generation,” says Raymond.

But he always returns to what he considers a core reality: what Hatch offers young employees is matched by what they offer Hatch. “Our culture offers more than working relationships, and it needs to be maintained and cherished, and the younger generation is a big part of that.”

This article appeared in the magazine announcing this year's Canada's Top Employers for Young People winners, published January 24, 2023 in The Globe and Mail. This article was prepared with the financial support of the employer, which reviewed but did not write its contents.