Our Culture
Work hard. Have fun.
It’s not just a feel-good mantra. It’s how we operate — every day. We’ve created our culture this way because every milestone and every person deserves to be celebrated. At Cerris, we don’t just build things. With each project, gathering, and celebration, we’re building our culture. A culture of pride. A culture centered on employee ownership, and a culture that treats all individuals with respect. It’s one we’ve worked hard to foster, and we can’t wait to share it with you.
Community Involvement
In addition to changing cityscapes, we want to change lives, too. Community Involvement is at the heart of what we do at Cerris. Recognizing what’s truly important, we make it a point to give back, no matter where we’re working. While the structures we create can improve lives, the connections we make can change them forever. Our employees find their passions and turn them into action, helping those who need it most.
Caring Heart is one of our core values, recognizing the longstanding philanthropic spirit of the company. Our team gives with our hearts to the causes we care about, supporting community partners and nonprofits with our time, talent, and financial resources. We volunteer and contribute in ways that provide support and raise the quality of life for those in our communities who need it most.
Cerris Caring Heart Foundation
We launched the Cerris Caring Heart Foundation with the mission to change the lives of those in need by championing organizations that align with our five core areas of giving and supporting nonprofits in which our employees personally invest. In practice, the Cerris Caring Heart Foundation serves this mission in two ways. Employee donation matching is a core function of the Foundation. Each employee is eligible for a donation match every year to an organization of their choosing. We also make 501c3 investments through sponsorships or donations to causes that fall within these five core areas of giving:
Veteran Support
Nearly 7% of the construction industry today, including many of our employees, is composed of U.S. Military veterans. Ensuring resources and quality of life for our country’s veterans is of the utmost importance to us.
Home Improvement And Community Revitalization
We are committed to lending a helping hand in building accessible and affordable housing for our neighbors in need. From working with groups like Habitat for Humanity to organizing debris clean-up for communities affected by natural disasters, we believe everyone deserves a safe place to live.
Workforce Development And Education
In order to be the diverse and thriving industry we want to be, we are committed to partnering with groups to provide sustained support to community college and trade school graduates. We also advocate for student mentorship, providing information about career pathways in construction.
Improvement Of Children’s Quality Of Life
Caring about and supporting the improvement of children’s quality of life is one of the many ways we seek to support growth in our communities for years to come.
Entrepreneurship Investment
In line with our core value of Entrepreneurial Spirit, we support organizations that provide resources to individuals trying to make the world a better place with their business ideas.
National Partners
Cerris has two national charitable partners: Ronald McDonald House Charities and Folds of Honor. We surveyed our employees nationwide to gauge their areas of interest for philanthropic giving, and children and veterans rose to the top. Therefore, we made sure those not only became two of our areas of giving, but we also chose national charities that do great work to improve the quality of life for children and honor the families of fallen soldiers.
Ronald McDonald House Charities
We are proud to have built many large and mid-size healthcare facilities and children’s hospitals across the country that serve their communities. It was no surprise that Ronald McDonald House Charities emerged as a national charity for us, as their mission is to financially support families with sick children by providing homes away from home for families who have traveled far to receive care.
Folds of Honor
Our company has a long history of working on military construction projects, going back at least 25 years. Supporting the mission of Folds of Honor — to provide scholarships to spouses and children of America’s fallen and disabled service members — felt like a natural fit for our company.
Collecting Goods for Local Families
Our Cerris Systems – Las Vegas team came together to adopt a family supported by the Nevada Children’s Cancer Foundation. The team donated gifts for the family and spent time wrapping everything before making a delivery ahead of the holidays.
Connection and Supporting Charity
The Cerris Builders teams in Austin and Kansas City have supported the local chapters of our national charitable partner, Ronald McDonald House Charities. Our team in Austin had two groups donate their time preparing meals for families in need through RMHC’s “Meals From the Heart” program. Together, these groups from Austin contributed meals to 50 families in their time of need.
Supporting Our Nation’s Veterans
Our team was privileged to donate $125,000 to our national charitable partner, Folds of Honor, on behalf of our people nationwide. We couldn’t be prouder to champion Folds of Honor and their dedication to providing educational scholarships to the families of U.S. military personnel wounded or killed while serving their country and the families of our country’s first responders. Funds for the donation were raised at the third annual Cerris Purchasing Summit banquet and golf tournament and supplemented by the Cerris Caring Heart Foundation.
Introducing Young Adults to Construction
Our Kansas City offices recently hosted a booth at the annual Society of Women Engineers – Kansas City Introduce a Girl to Engineering Day. This event hosts hundreds of high school-aged girls from around the Kansas City metro area and introduces them to a variety of engineering disciplines through hands-on activities, panel discussions, keynote presentations, and the opportunity to talk to representatives from local A/E/C companies.
