Success is built on action: work and life at CTE Trailers

We are consistently involved in initiatives aimed at contributing to the professional and personal development of those we work with. We always strive for excellence and seek to build a healthy and balanced work environment, where human dignity is respected, work is valued, potential is nurtured, and opportunities are equal for all colleagues. The success of a company is primarily driven by people’s passion for their work and the confidence that they are in a place where they can grow.

Adriana Costea, HR Department Manager, goes on to share more about the ideas behind the initiatives designed to improve and enrich the working environment at CTE Trailers.

Q: Adriana, in your opinion, what does the perfect working environment look like?

For me, the working environment needs to be positive and friendly, so I can do everything with pleasure and an open heart, alongside my colleagues. Open and transparent communication is particularly important—based on trust and respect, with no barriers or fears in expressing opinions.

To feel that your work matters and is appreciated—not just materially, that you are encouraged, your contribution is validated, and that your efforts add to the company’s success.

A perfect working environment is one that creates development opportunities, explores human potential, and highlights it. Balance between personal, social and professional life encourages loyalty as an employee and makes you want to stay with the company long-term.

Q: What are the challenges in creating such a working environment in the industry in which CTE Trailers operates?

Fortunately, at CTE Trailers, we are already living in such an environment. The challenge lies in finding a variety of current and flexible methods that best address individual needs.

Q: It’s clear that, for CTE Trailers, life is a team effort. Can you elaborate on what the company does to make employees feel they impact the company?

Mainly, it’s about regularly communicating results, projects, changes, and events going on within the company. This creates little chapters that become and will become part of the CTE Trailers story. Thus, employees feel part of the history of a successful business—a success that is theirs.

These communications give them confidence in the company, help them recognize their own contributions to various projects, their work is respected and appreciated, and they see the end result and have faith in the future of CTE Trailers—a future that includes them.

Q: In what other ways does your work environment stand out?

Our culture is built on trust and responsibility. Every person in the company has the chance to develop their capabilities and achieve objectives with ease. This means maintaining honest dialogue, where promises are always kept, and our employees have the freedom to organize themselves and take responsibility for the work they do.

Q: How important is it for an employee to be independent and able to self-manage within the company?

At CTE Trailers, there is a strong entrepreneurial spirit, generally seen at the department management level, who in turn become behavioral models for all members of the team.

So yes, independence and the ability to self-manage are very important. These skills improve gradually with professional experience as well as with the maturity an employee gains at CTE Trailers.

Q: CTE Trailers invests in the future of young professionals through the Dual System Vocational School project at CTE Trailers. What role does this play in your company’s strategy?

The current shortage of skilled workers on the labor market, lack of vocational schools, and parents’ reluctance to guide their children toward learning a future trade, have created a gap in the qualified workforce over recent years.

CTE Trailers is a company with great growth potential thanks to its vision. Every action that CTE Trailers will take moving forward will be under the banner of sustainability and strategies focused on: workforce quality, environment, social inclusion, and building strong communities—and to these actions, we must attach concrete programs.

Thus, since the 2021–2022 school year, we have developed a partnership with the Pamfil Şeicaru Technological High School in Ciorogârla, where CTE Trailers supports a class of 21 students in the Dual System Vocational School, who will qualify as auto mechanics. These students do their practical training in our workshops, working on state-of-the-art equipment and machinery, and learn the trade from CTE Trailers specialists.

The students we support receive scholarships of 500–1000 lei throughout their 3 years of study, work equipment, free dorm accommodation, transport passes, hot meals, work gear, and at the end of the 3 years, a guaranteed job in our company.

This program doesn’t stop here; it will be replicated every year to support young people who want to learn future trades, such as mechanic, electrician, or mechatronics technician.

Q: If you can share, what are your plans for the future of the work environment at CTE Trailers?

Our work environment has a solid foundation, built over 20 years on the company’s fundamental values: respect, trust, team spirit, professionalism, and courage.

Together, these give us the strength to recognize blocks/obstacles, to make our processes more flexible and adaptable.

It’s important that every employee finds room for development, stays motivated and engaged—the ultimate goal being to achieve great performance in a climate preferred by employees.

Q: Do you have any goals or expectations you wish to achieve in developing the human resources segment?

Yes, I want CTE Trailers to remain the employer of choice, both when an existing employee is faced with an opportunity to change, and as the first option for potential candidates when the company grows and needs more human resources.