Grupo ASSA Brazil is also recognized as a Great Place to Work

SAO PAULO, August 13, 2010 (Press-News.org) Grupo ASSA, a Consulting and Outsourcing company that helps clients with their Business Process Transformation through Information Technology, was recognized by the Great Place to Work Institute as one of the 70 best Information Technology (IT) and Telecommunication companies to work for in Brazil.

"To be included in this select group of companies in Brazil for the first time is due primarily to our investment in our people, in order to better serve our clients, and, in parallel, to reach our target of tripling Grupo ASSA over the next four years", said Federico Tagliani, regional vice-president for the company and responsible for operations in Brazil. Our growth objectives are aimed at consolidating the leadership position in high value-added IT and outsourcing services that the company has achieved in Latin America.

"Transparent leadership, with open doors, combined with an intense integration and communication program, is part of our winning strategy to attract and retain talent", added Marcela Pastirik, director of Talent Development and Appreciation (DAT) at Grupo ASSA. The area led by Pastirik substituted the traditional Human Resources department in 2009, and is now responsible for over 1,000 employees worldwide.

Innovative program

The Development Program developed by Marcela Pastirik and adopted in Brazil, is applied exactly the same way in every country where Grupo ASSA operates. It is based on a personalized development plan, which "by means of a card, each employee receives a guide of mandatory and suggested training activities, the dates that each activity will be carried out, the objectives defined based on the employee's position in the company, and the dates when the employee will meet for Coaching and Mentoring sessions to receive advice and feedback", explains Marcela. Over 5 thousand hours of training were logged by Grupo ASSA employees in Brazil in the last seven months of 2009, including internal and external training events. Training spans technical capabilities, business practices and individual development activities, including communication skills and the capability to establish relationships with co-workers and clients. Personalized training includes both classroom training and e-learning. Both help in the process of personnel performance appraisals.

Transparency in the relationship with employees is essentially embodied in the detailed corporate performance reports presented during Grupo ASSA's annual Kick Off event, during quarterly company meetings and in the corporate intranet, which has several tools and applications to facilitate integration among employees. In addition, monthly meetings are carried out with the objective of informing on the state of each of the company's business practices and clients.

Integration and ASSA Green

Pastirik also emphasizes the integration and work-life balance programs in the company, which have increased year after year. Today, events are planned to commemorate annual dates such as International Woman's Day, Earth Day and Children's Day, as well as football championships that can help to integrate employees' families. Many of these programs are also linked to social responsibility and charitable organizations. Another point to highlight is ASSA Green, which has the objective of educating employees reduce the use of paper, plastic cups, and to adopt trash recycling, for example, as well as to substitute equipment for "green" hardware such as printers, laptop computers and other electronic devices with reduced energy consumption.

"We are constantly increasing our efforts to maintain or improve the positive organizational environment in Grupo ASSA, so that all employees will feel a part of the company and receive the support they need to grow personally and professionally", states Pastirik and adds: "Recognition by Great Place to Work means that we are on the right track".

Great Place to Work prepares its ranking using the international methodology of The Great Place to Work Institute in San Francisco, CA. The ranking is conducted in over 40 countries in Europe, Asia and America. They evaluate companies with credibility, respect, impartiality, pride and camaraderie. Starting in 2006, Brazil was the first country to develop a ranking specifically oriented toward IT and Telecommunications. This year saw an increase of 19% in the number of companies included in the study. The certificate of the 5th edition of the Best Place to Work in the IT and Telecommunications Industries was presented at an event held on July 21st at the Grand Hyatt Sao Paulo.


OTHER AWARDS: Grupo ASSA has been recognized by IAOP as one of the 100 best companies in the world in the provision of global Outsourcing services, and selected by Global Services magazine as one of the 100 best Technology services companies in the world and one of the 5 best in Latin America. The company has been certified as ISO 9001:2000 compliant by Bureau Veritas International for its Software Engineering Practice (ITS). Grupo ASSA has been recognized by the Great Place to Work Institute among the 50 best companies to work for in Argentina, among the 70 best companies to work for in the Brazilian IT market, and has been identified by Columbia University as one of the 19 Argentine multinationals, and the only one in the IT market.

Grupo ASSA is a Consulting and Outsourcing Company that helps customers with their Business Process Transformation through Information Technology.
Grupo ASSA serves Global Fortune 500, Multi-Latin and leading local companies with a multisourcing delivery model, improving their SAP, Oracle and custom applications and integrating them with leading edge technologies.
Founded in 1992, Grupo ASSA is a client-driven company with a personalized and differentiated approach. Our Business Process Transformation Model is a business approach focused on People + Process + Applications + Technology and delivered alongside flexible Consulting and Outsourcing services that helps companies improve their path to BPM driven SOA.
Today Grupo ASSA serves over 40,000 SAP and Oracle-JDEdwards customer end-users in more than 30 countries with a nearshore-offshore delivery model from our competency centers in Latin America.
Grupo ASSA's clients are primarily from the global manufacturing, consumer product, health care and retail vertical markets, and include organizations such as Kraft Foods, Bayer, BASF, Pfizer, Danone, British American Tobacco, Saint Gobain, Petrobras, Shell and AMCOR, among others. Grupo ASSA also works closely with large Latin American multinationals and leading local companies that are expanding their business across the region and into the world, such as Fast Shop, Pão de Açúcar, Arcor, Grupo Lala and Molinos Rio de la Plata, among others.

For additional information: marketing@grupoassa.com - (54-11) 4510-7200/7300 or http://www.grupoassa.com