Mendes Gonçalves, a Paladin holding company, was awarded for the second time and is one of the only two companies in the agri-food sector to join the list of the best companies to work in 2018
Mendes Gonçalves entered the top 100 of the ‘Best Companies to Work for’ in 2018 in the study, conducted by the magazine ‘Exame’, which evaluated employee satisfaction in companies.
The company based in Golegã, which currently has more than 200 employees, argues that the satisfaction of those who work with them is a reflection of domestic policy, in which the main value is the family.
Alexandra Mendes Gonçalves, CEO of the company, believes that “the secret relies in the people”. “If all our Mendes Goncalves family is well, feel happy, we can get people more committed to making the impossible their challenge, like our motto: ‘If it’s impossible it’s for us”, she says.
To promote this same satisfaction, the company presents some practices, such as various activities for employees’ children – “the last one was a trip to a theme park in Alentejo”, recalls the CEO of the company, or the birth incentive, with a kit and a gift cheque. Also the professional development is one of the focuses of the company, that privileges the internal promotion to the hiring of external people.
The official also guarantees that in Mendes Gonçalves “we seek to simplify management, processes and practices”. “We do not want company growth and hierarchy to alienate people and create barriers. We want the company to grow, but grow with the same identity as always and the spirit of mutual help, companionship and proximity that distinguishes us, she assumes.
This study was developed in partnership with the Everis consulting company and the AESE Business School, which made a multidimensional analysis to some companies in Portugal, regarding the satisfaction of employees, as well as the efficiency of the company itself before the society.
Mendes Gonçalves had already been in the “Top 10 Companies in Portugal” last year, according to ‘Happiness Works’, and Mendes Gonçalves products were also honored with some awards such as ‘Gulfood Inovation Awards’, ‘Sial Innovations’ and AHRESP Awards.
