The Casais Group was yesterday distinguished with the award for the best company in the Construction, Infrastructure, Transport and Logistics sector, in the 4th edition of the organizational climate and human capital development study “Excellence Index 2019”, it was announced today.
The company was distinguished in a ceremony that took place at the Pestana Palace Lisboa Hotel & National Monument, in Lisbon, ranking 9th in the category of “Large Companies”.
In a statement sent to O MINHO, the group stresses that this is “the fourth recognition awarded to the Portuguese construction company in just three months, rewarding, this time, its human resources policy”.
In November 2019, the company won two newspaper awards Ramp up – “Sustainability Award” and, for the third consecutive year, “Best Construction Company of the Year” – and the Millennium Horizontes Internationalization Award, in which it was recognized for its activity in 16 foreign countries, from which 74% of its turnover comes.
“The Casais Group has been implementing a vertical strategy that allows us to respond to the current market, to our geographical dispersion and to the difficulties that the sector faces after a severe and prolonged crisis, namely, the lack of manpower. Internally, we implemented ‘Cultura Casais”, which is essential to ensure cohesion and alignment with organizational strategy in a company with 4,500 employees, spread across 17 markets. We encourage the mobility of our workers, continuous training at the ‘Academia Casais’ and the sharing of experiences between them to face the shortage of labor. Externally, we are focused on projects that allow us to maintain our high quality standards ”, explains António Carlos Rodrigues, CEO of Grupo Casais. “These awards are the recognition and product of this strategy and, therefore, they come from the most diverse areas”, he adds.
Essentially, the strategy followed by the Casais Group in recent years, the group says, is to invest in human resources, verticalize operations, focus on the core business of construction, reinforce internationalization and, above all, invest in creation, conservation and dissemination of the knowledge produced in the company is reflected in the distinctions it has been adding.
In 2020, the Portuguese market is expected to grow
Currently present in 17 geographic areas – in addition to Portugal, Germany, Angola, Algeria, Belgium, Brazil, United Arab Emirates, Spain, United States, France, Ghana, Gibraltar, Holland, Morocco, Mozambique, Qatar and the United Kingdom -, the Grupo Casais reached an aggregate turnover of 514 million euros last year, 74% of which came from its international activity. Thus, it registered an increase of 8% compared to the previous year. Angola and Portugal are the two main markets for Casais, but António Carlos Rodrigues anticipates that, in 2020, the volume of business on national soil should grow.
“We are growing in Portugal, driven by the increase in demand in the private sector, and we are particularly involved in everything that is building, namely in the areas of offices, residential and hotels. Everything points to this year that we can solidify our activity in the same geographies in which we are present, with Portugal being able to become our biggest market again ”, points out Casais’ CEO.
Global Organization Excellence of 71.9%
António Carlos Rodrigues does not hesitate to point out the “good team” as one of the pillars of the Group’s success. “Today we have employees from 23 nationalities and, in the company, several languages are spoken. However, there is only one culture. This is because we have a good team, which ensures a great capacity for demultiplication ”.
The conclusions of the study “Excellence Index 2019”, developed by Neves de Almeida | HR Consulting, in partnership with Human Resources Portugal and INDEG-ISCTE, in which the Casais Group participated for the first time in the Large Companies category, point to a Global Excellence Index of 71.9%, above the average recorded by the 18 large participating companies, 70%.
“This distinction confirms the answer to a question that we are constantly asked: what did Casais do differently to overcome the crisis that affected the entire construction sector? Casais overcame the crisis because it stopped being a construction company and became a people management company. When we passed the threshold of 1,500 employees, we became a company that builds people and it is people who build works. We build leaders in all functions and that is what allowed us to overcome the crisis ”.
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