It’s that time of year again! Do you often find that, come financial year end, you’re left scrambling to ensure that your Broad-Based Black Economic Empowerment (B-BBEE) Verification documentation is all in order? Is your preparation for your year-end compliance assessment always down to the wire? Does this stem from a tendency to merely view B-BBEE as a tick box exercise, one that’s routinely left to the last minute?
“If the above is true for you, you are by no means alone,” says Angie Lanham-Love, CEO of Lanham-Love Consulting. “We find that very many companies, organisations and businesses only begin to focus on their B-BBEE Verification requirements when the due date for submission is drawing near. That said, businesses who leave their preparations until later are, in fact, doing themselves a disservice.”
“Preparing for a smooth year-end compliance assessment should, ideally, be done throughout the year,” says Lanham-Love. “At Lanham-Love Consulting, for example, our annual consulting service consists of a workshop to design and set the “best fit” B-BBEE strategy for the current year. We implement the strategy with you throughout the year, run a high-level gap analysis every quarter, and assess where you are in terms of that strategy.”
“The major benefit of an approach such as this, is that we can adjust and tweak your decided-upon B-BBEE strategy as required,” says Lanham-Love. “Say, for example, you wish to benefit from the Skills Development aspect of the B-BBEE Scorecard. By taking the time to approach Skills Development strategically, you can not only benefit from it as a requirement for B-BBEE Compliance, but also make use of skills development and training programmes to upskill your workforce in ways that empower your employees and meet your business goals.”
“Committing to an ongoing focus on B-BBEE requirements in your business throughout the year has the added benefit of simplifying your documentation process,” says Lanham-Love. “At Lanham-Love Consulting, we, of course, do this for you – the final quarter of our year is the rating quarter, where we prepare all the required documentation for your B-BBEE Compliance rating with you.”
“It’s become somewhat of a truism, as I’m sure many of our parent readers can attest to, when nagging their children to focus on their studies,” says Lanham-Love. “But those who fail to plan, plan to fail. By taking the time to focus on B-BBEE in your business from the get go, and integrating its principles into your business goals and aspirations, you can make the year end assessment process a painless exercise, whilst extracting the maximum B-BBEE benefit at the same time.”
For a truly smooth year-end compliance assessment, speak to our consultants at Lanham-Love Consulting. Our expertise, passion, and commitment to creating solutions that result in additional benefits and increased compliance across multiple elements of the scorecard means that you are assured of peace of mind regarding B-BBEE fronting and compliance.