While Sisk have entered and won mainstream construction awards, 2024 is the first year they have taken part in Ireland’s Best Managed Companies.
“When it was suggested to us to have a look at the BMCs this year, we felt the timing was right,” said chief executive Paul Brown. “It feels great to be recognised for the progress we are making as a business. The people at Sisk have delivered great projects for our clients over our 165-year history and it is always good to take a step back and see how others think we are doing.”
The company, working across Ireland, Britain and mainland Europe, and with such high-profile projects as Pearse Station in Dublin, the refurbishment of London’s Royal Academy of Arts and their own newly retro-fitted premises in Citywest Business Campus, their high-profile successes speak for themselves.
And yet, according to Brown, there’s no chance of them resting on their laurels.
“I think it is always difficult to judge your own progress and impact as a board and leadership team,” he said. “It was nice to put the work in and get the recognition for being on the right journey – and it was a great opportunity to get a really thorough and holistic view from external experts on what we are doing.”
Evolving culture
Given it is such a large company – with 2,500 employees spread over three discrete geographies – words like ‘holistic’ and ‘culture’ and ‘journey’ are an unexpected part of the Sisk vocabulary. “We talk a lot about the Sisk way – it’s an evolving culture and we embrace the fact that it should evolve, and that new people bring new ideas,” Brown explained.
“We hold our values very strongly, and we strive to be as consistent as we can be as an employer. The moment somebody receives a job offer, the moment they walk in on their first day, we put our arms around those people, to make sure they understand us, and we understand them, so that they embrace the Sisk way as early as possible.”
The four-pillar framework is the foundation of the adjudication of the BMCs, and Sisk have of course satisfied them all, but additionally seem to embody the interdependence of strategy, culture, innovation and governance. “It was a good fit for us to cover the four categories highlighted here as they were all core aspects of what we are doing,” he agreed.
Their pursuit of satisfying sustainability goals is not always straightforward due to policy and regulatory realities, and has drawn on their abilities to innovate. For example, the growth of the business itself made an absolute reduction in carbon emissions a challenge, but, as Brown explains, “it has served as a further call to action right across our business. Through collaboration with our supply chain partners, we continue to take the challenge head-on.”
Innovation and mental health
As regards innovation dovetailing with sustainability, one need look no further than Sisk’s proactive promotion of Cross Laminated Timber (CLT). “It’s a viable alternative product to steel and concrete,” says Brown, as timber can be managed in a controllable way, ensuring it does not run out; Sisk have partnered with a leading European provider of CLT, Finsa Ireland, to construct a CLT Demonstrator Project in Galway.
Underpinning it all is the organisation’s cultural emphasis on their staff. “We train our people to be thought leaders in all of the things that we think are important, whether that’s modern methods of construction, digital transformation, or sustainability. People underpin Sisk’s ability to deliver this. It’s so intertwined.”
In recent years, mental health initiatives have been another vital focus. “We have invested heavily in making sure that Sisk, and our industry partners, recognise the need to actively promote positive health and wellbeing, and we’ve won multiple awards for our approach to tackling mental health,” Brown explained.
Diversity is also top of their agenda: “Today, we have close to 50 different nationalities working throughout the business. We continue to work to shift the culture in construction in relation to diversity and this points to the critical importance for our senior leaders to be the custodians of our culture, our values and continuously making Sisk a fully inclusive working environment.”
Looking ahead
All of the above circles back to the holistic nature of Sisk, and the leadership team’s commitment to keep the core values of the corporation in play on every level. “Collaboration and engagement are so important to how we work,” Brown said. “The strength we have in our teams is something we are very mindful of, and that we work hard to protect and enhance. Effective teams deliver projects.”
Effective teams also surf the waves of change efficiently and change is the only constant. “This business has been through world wars, and through political challenges not only here in Ireland but also in the UK. Change underpins Sisk’s journey,” he said. “The shareholders support positive change in the business. Don’t get me wrong, they challenge us, they want to make sure the changes we’re proposing are correct – but they understand evolution needs to happen in order to make this business relevant as we go forward.”
Going forward requires time and patience, and Brown recommends, in a playful way, that leaders “take a step back off that dance floor, and look down and ask, ‘are we heading in the right direction despite some of the challenges?’ If the answer to that is yes, then we should pat ourselves on the back and continue. We can keep doing the right things – we can keep chipping away, and the business, the industry, and society will also be getting better.”
Any final advice for companies who are considering entering? “Use the process to hold yourself accountable in the first instance,” he recommended. “Are you doing everything you can in your business to deliver for your people and clients? After that, if it leads to an award it is a bonus – but doing the work or self-reflection is worthwhile for the lessons it brings.”