How a small company can be BIG in people.
Why does every STAan get up in the morning, have a cup of coffee, greet their loved ones, and confront rush-hour traffic to get to work? Why do we face the same noise and heat generated by more or less the same machines as everyone else in this industry? Because we care. We care about ourselves, our families, and our colleagues.
People matter. We are all human and at STA we aim to live a better life, for ourselves, our family, friends, colleagues, and customers. This is at the heart and soul of everything we do. We work to have a better life.
This HR strategy was implemented in 2016 and is now recognized with a silver award from the prestigious ALES European Lean Managers Society. The Award recognizes effective implementation of HR practices resulting in significant company performance improvement. The Award competition aims to stimulate the successful implementation of leadership and engagement.
This shows that it is not the depth of company pockets, balance sheets, or HR budgets but genuinely caring about people that make a difference.

The reason why we are doing what we are doing is because we want a better life. For our customers, our colleagues and of course for ourselves. But not every day is the same and sometimes it is hard. Things happen in life, at work. It does not matter how often you fall off the horse, what matters is if you get back on it.

That is why today was a perfect day to learn to sail headwind. Wind from the north is strong this time of the year. 3 boats and 15 STA sailors left the port in Vila Nova de Gaia heading north.

What did we learn? Not only we experienced what the 13^th century Portuguese sailors must have gone through on their caravels returning with a shipload of spices from the east. We also realized that many hands make work light. They all agreed; no one would have made it back if he or she was sailing solo. Not in this wind.