Category Archives: Management

Bigmouthmedia has announced the appointment of Lastminute.com CEO, Ian McCaig, to the company’s board in a non-executive role

Bigmouthmedia has announced the appointment of Ian McCaig to the company’s board. Joining bigmouthmedia, Europe’s largest independent digital marketing agency, in a non-executive role, the lastminute.com CEO brings a wealth of client side international business experience to the position.

“Digital marketing plays an increasingly important role in the success of online commerce and it is a particularly exciting time for this growth sector,” said McCaig. “The industry is set to take an even more prominent place on the global stage and, as a leading-edge brand with a great history and pan-European footprint, bigmouthmedia is perfectly positioned to remain at the forefront of this fast evolving industry.”

McCaig, who will remain in his lastminute.com post, has a history of involvement in companies poised to make a major impact on the international markets. He was appointed COO of lastminute.com in 2003 and has been responsible for the group’s operations throughout Europe. Since joining he has worked on the growth and development of lastminute.com and has successfully led the integration with Travelocity since its acquisition in July.

Aged 41, Ian was previously Vice President of 3G operations at Nokia and spent seven years overall in the telecommunications industry.

“We are particularly excited by the addition of Ian to our board”, commented Steve Leach, CEO of bigmouthmedia. “While his extensive experience in the online and technology sectors will deliver obvious benefits, his mastery of the mergers, acquisitions and integration process will be of great value as we enter the next phase in bigmouthmedia’s development.”

Bigmouthmedia GmbH was formed in 2006 with the merger of bigmouthmedia limited and Global Media GmbH to form the largest privately held digital marketing agency in Europe through the backing of The Carlyle Group. Nazo Moosa, a director at Carlyle who sits on the board of bigmouthmedia, said: “We believe these challenging markets provide an opportunity for the leaders in each industry to consolidate their position. We are committed to supporting bigmouthmedia in its aim to lead the fragmented digital marketing sector in Europe, and are confident Ian will play a key role in achieving this.”

About bigmouthmedia

Founded in 1997, bigmouthmedia is Europe’s largest independent digital marketing agency. With a team of over 200 staff across 13 offices in 10 countries on 3 continents, the company maximises exposure for major brands online through a variety of fully integrated digital marketing channels: Search engine optimisation, PPC, Online Media Planning, Affiliate Marketing, Social Networking, Brand Monitoring, Online PR and Web Analytics. Bigmouthmedia also provides up to date daily digital marketing news to ensure clients are fully informed and aware of all industry developments.

Leading the digital marketing strategies of a third of the UK’s most trusted brands, bigmouthmedia services over 300 big-brand customers globally including: Adidas, Hilton, British Airways, Tesco, Aer Lingus, BP, Barclays, Castrol, Conrad International, Dorling Kindersley, Early Learning Centre, , Fasthosts, Jumeirah, Canon, Samsung, Starbucks, Top Man, Debenhams, Which?, Lacoste, Euler Hermes and Wall Street Institute.

 

Via EPR Network
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Eva Jenkins Shows That Workers Who Trim Pounds May Also Reduce Their Weight On The Corporate Bottom Line

Eva Jenkins has found a new intersection for personal and professional success: weight loss. The respected business consultant and personal coach believes that corporate support for employee weight-loss programs

can pay off in bottom line savings. “There’s no denying the strong link between obesity and workers’ compensation claims, so bottom-line conscious companies must take note,” she observes. “So work-based programs designed to make employees healthier can give a booster shot to a business and inoculate it against rising healthcare costs.”

A Better Way to “Insure” Employee Health

Healthcare and insurance costs remain at the center of the economic and political debate, especially in light of recession worries. “If you pay health insurance for your employees, obesity is affecting your bottom line,” says Jenkins. “It has a direct relation to your economic health and smart businesses are finding that investing in a little preventive medicine can pay off with significant savings.”

Healthcare and insurance costs remain at the center of the economic and political debate, especially in light of recession worries. “If you pay health insurance for your employees, obesity is affecting your bottom line,” says Jenkins. “It has a direct relation to your economic health and smart businesses are finding that investing in a little preventive medicine can pay off with significant savings.”

According to a recent study out of Duke University Medical Center, obese employees cost companies more money than their fit counterparts—in lost workdays, higher medical costs, and more workers’ compensation claims. “The researchers found that obese workers filed twice as many workers’ compensations claims as workers who fell within the recommended BMI range,” reports Jenkins. “Those claims translated into medical costs that were seven times higher ($51,019 per 100 employees.)”

An article in The Wall Street Journal reported that an obese employee costs General Motors approximately $1,500 more in health services each year compared to an employee who is height-weight proportionate. “If you apply the national average for obesity (approximately 25%) to the company’s active workforce and their dependents, GM is spending nearly $1.4 billion more in healthcare costs each year than it would if all its employees were fit and trim,” says Jenkins.

The Chicago Tribune reports that per-worker healthcare costs increase by more than 80% in the past 8 years. Given the alarming rise in obesity in American workers and the relationship between weight and a wide range of diseases and illnesses, “it’s not hard to connect the dots and see that it’s in the interest of businesses to help their employees maintain their weight.”

Healthy Teams Win

Jenkins is an advocate of team effort. “No one can fully achieve their dreams alone. Not people and not companies.” She is a strong advocate for onsite weight loss support groups led by an experienced facilitator who can also provide one-on-one counseling to individuals.

Jenkins notes that team wellness efforts should include everyone in the corporate hierarchy. “When managers and supervisors share in the fight to lose weight and stay healthy themselves, they send a powerful message up and down the line. “Weight loss efforts create tremendous bonding,” says Jenkins. “Everyone feels like they’re part of the same team, working hard to support one another’s success.”

The magic, reports Jenkins, is that “the spirit of shared success spills over into other business functions.”

A Permanent Framework

Jenkins is quick to point out that her approach to employee health goes far beyond calorie restriction and exercise. “As a personal success coach, my job is to help each person clarify and refine what he or she wants out of life,” says Jenkins. Clarity, however, is just the first step.

“Creating a plan is how the journey to success begins, but it’s a series of small steps that actually get you there,” observes Jenkins. “Unfortunately, many people simply run out of steam.” The antidote is a consistent, continuing framework of support, and the workplace provides an ideal setting.

“Learning opportunities about health and wellness that are presented as an integral part of business life send an important message to employees.

Additionally, weight management sessions offer equal parts of inspiration and accountability. “A regularly scheduled Office Wellness Check makes it harder for team members to ignore excess weight, so they’re more likely to be ‘nudged’ into taking action and literally trimming the fat..”

Building Dreams

“To become reality, a dream house needs to be designed, engineered, and constructed with an eye towards maintenance and longevity,” observes Jenkins. “The same is true for a dream life.” She believes that a blueprint for weight-loss that includes support in the workplace will yield positive results on all fronts.

Via EPR Network
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Hays has been proclaimed as the Best Performing Plc at the Recruitment International Awards 2008

Hays, the UK’s leading specialist recruitment consultancy, which has a number of offices throughout the country, has been proclaimed as the Best Performing plc in a national awards ceremony. The recruitment consultancy managed to beat strong competition to win the highly acclaimed category at the Recruitment International Awards 2008.

To win the highly coveted award of Best Performing plc, Hays successfully demonstrated that it was continuing to perform extremely well and manage to outperform its competitors, despite the current economic climate. The awards were judged by 14 of the top industry professionals and sector specialists, including analysts and brokers. The ceremony took place at Madame Tussauds and was attended by over 200 special guests, comprising of senior directors from the UK’s top recruitment companies.

Tim Cook, Managing Director of Hays said: “We are delighted to have won this award. We are always looking for new ways to better meet the needs of local employers and employees and pride ourselves on strong customer service levels, an extensive database and innovative recruitment methods, which allow us to achieve this. An award for best performance is a strong accolade, particularly in the current climate.”

The Recruitment International’s Awards are particularly highly regarded within the recruitment industry because they are won entirely on a company’s merit following selection by a panel of judges and a day of intensive debate where each judge selects their own top three for each award category, before the points are calculated and a winner emerges.

About Hays

Hays is part of Hays plc, the leading global specialist recruitment group. It is market leader in the UK and Australia, and one of the market leaders in Continental Europe. By the end of June 2008, the Group employed 8,872 staff operating from 393 offices in 27 countries across 17 varied specialisms including recruitment for engineering jobs, nursing jobs and admin jobs.

For the year ended 30 June 2008:
– the Group had revenues of £2.5 billion, net fees of £786.8 million and operating profit before exceptional items of £253.8 million; 
– the Group placed around 80,000 candidates into permanent jobs and around 300,000 people into temporary assignments; 
– the temporary placement business represented 49% of net fees and the permanent placement business represented 51% of net fees.

Via EPR Network
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A Good Recruitment Consultant Can Help You Identify Your Options And What It Would Take To Make The Change

Even when work is just a means to an end to pay the bills, it’s important to enjoy as much of it as possible as it’s where most of us spend the bulk of our waking hours.

Most people feel they are in the wrong role, underpaid and undervalued at some stage in the week but the hardest thing of all is knowing what might make things better.

Sadly, the laugh a minute job doesn’t exist for most people, and the scope to be a racing driver or a supermodel is severely limited. But no-one should routinely dread getting up in the morning on weekdays, and if they do, they are probably in dire need of a change.

The secret to getting the most out of your job is knowing what’s important to you, according to the experts at leading recruitment agency, Search Consultancy. For some this might mean freedom, and for others it might be routine. Some like personal challenge and some thrive on teamwork.

Sadly, many people are reluctant to leave the devil they know to explore what else might be open to them. But the consultants at Search argue that a good recruitment consultant can help you identify your options and what it would take to make the change.

Sarah McParland, Director with Search said, “A good recruitment consultant is not in the business of putting round pegs into square holes and will spend time with candidates exploring their strengths, skills and ambitions before putting them forward for a role.

“Just as importantly, they will have taken a clear brief from their client about the job on offer and what sort of person would do well there. This takes into account the culture of the organisation and the make-up of the team in which the candidate would be assigned.

“There’s no point in putting a quiet, methodical character into a lively, unstructured environment if that would make them unhappy. And that holds true whether they have the technical skills for the job or not.

“At Search, we don’t just look for a match of paper qualifications, we look for the best fit available between the candidate and client.”

To achieve this, Search offers one to one interviews to prospective clients at all levels. They can also use psychometric or other testing methods to assess candidate suitability, always with the aim of finding a good match.

A good recruitment consultant helps individuals to be realistic about their options and will advise on any skills gaps which the candidate might need to work on to achieve their goal. There’s no point in just wishing for the moon and it can be a revelation to some people just how easy it is to make a change which suits their current circumstances much better than staying in the same old rut.

McParland adds, “It’s not unusual for people to investigate their options and decide that all they need is a change of firm or culture to give them back their drive. Sometimes, a different boss or change of hours and conditions is all that’s required. At other times, a radical revamp of lifestyle and goals is in order. No two people are the same”.

Via EPR Network
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Dubai International Capital Named In Top Ten Percentile Of The World’s Top Employers

Dubai Holding, has announced that Dubai International Capital LLC (‘DIC’), its international investment arm, has been ranked in the top ten percentile, against regional and global benchmarks, in the TRI*M 2007 Employee Satisfaction Survey. TRI*M is a global leader in customer stakeholder management research, and part of TNS, a global market information and insight group.

H.E. Mohammed Al Gergawi, Chairman of Dubai Holding said: “DIC made outstanding progress in 2007 under Sameer Al Ansari’s leadership. Sameer Al Ansari and the Dubai International Capital team have built a highly profitable international investment company in a remarkably short time and these exceptional results reflect DIC’s high standards of corporate governance and high levels of employee satisfaction. The results reinforce the UAE’s status as a career destination for talented professionals in the financial sector and also demonstrate its position as a leading global financial centre.”

Sameer Al Ansari, Executive Chairman and CEO of DIC said: “DIC has achieved a great deal in a short time with a significant investment push into Asian markets this year and the closing of several major transactions in 2007. We are building on this momentum with an ambitious recruitment drive at a senior level with a target of 130 employees by the end of 2008 compared to 85 in 2007. We are hiring the resource and senior talent we need for the next phase of DIC’s ambitious growth strategy.”

The assets under management of Dubai International Capital now total over US$12 billion with a target to double assets under management to US$25 billion within the next two years. DIC has been profitable since its inception in 2004 and has earned global recognition as a world class investment company.

DIC Emerging Markets division made its first direct investment in the region with the family-owned Rivoli Group, a luxury retail chain based in the UAE. DIC’s Jordan Dubai Capital, a US$300 million fund, acquired a 51% stake in the Central Electricity Generating Company through its energy investment arm ENARA Energy Arabia. DIC recently announced the launch of China Dubai Capital, a $1billion fund to invest in China in partnership with First Eastern as well as Saudi Dubai Capital, a $1 billion fund to invest in KSA.

About Dubai International Capital:
Established in 2004, DIC is an international investment company focused on both private equity and public equity. A wholly-owned subsidiary of Dubai Holding, DIC manages an international portfolio of diverse assets that provide its stakeholders with value growth, diversification, and strategic investments. Assets under management total over US$12 billion. DIC was named MENA Private Equity Firm of the Year in the 6th annual Awards for Excellence in Private Equity Europe 2008, organised by Dow Jones Private Equity News.

About the survey:
The survey results were measured by the TRI*M model which gives a single number score representing the level of employee commitment including overall satisfaction, recommendation, rejoining, motivation of colleagues and market strengths.

In the findings, 85% of DIC employees believe DIC has a strong reputation in the market which reflects that staff are proud to be working for the firm. 83% of employees would recommend DIC as a company to work for, compared to 74.5% in 2006.

Via EPR Network
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Quest CE Promotes Patrick Torhorst To Vice President Of Information Technology

Quest CE President and CEO Alan Krenke announced the promotion of Patrick Torhorst to Vice President of Information Technology.

“We are very pleased to promote Patrick in recognition of all that he has done for Quest,” Krenke said. “Patrick has been instrumental in the building and growth of our Learning Management System along with our corporate website and our internal IT systems, including Quest’s proprietary administration tool ‘questtrak’.”

Torhorst joined Quest in July 2005 and acts as the company’s Chief IT Officer. Prior to joining Quest, Patrick worked for SC Johnson in Racine and Harley Davidson in Milwaukee. Patrick is a graduate of the Milwaukee School of Engineering.

About Quest CE:
Quest CE offers customized continuing education and online compliance management programs to financial service firms across the country. With over 100 clients in the insurance, mutual fund, and banking industries, Quest has the resources and expertise necessary to create and administer successful training programs for organizations of all sizes.

For more information about Quest CE you may also contact Quest CE at 877-593-3366 or visit their website at www.questce.com.

Via EPR Network
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Welcome to EPR Human Resources News

EPR Human Resources News is a new blog, part of EPR Network, that is going to be focused on and will be covering the human resources news and stories from press releases published on EPR Network.

EPR Network (EPR stands for express press release) is one of the nation’s largest press release distribution networks on Web. The EPR’s nationwide network includes 12 State based PR sites, one major PR forum and a number of industry specific PR blogs and what started as a hobby on Internet years ago turned out to be a rapidly growing business today. EPR Network is also known as one of the most trusted (human optimized, published, edited and monitored, spam/scam/low quality PR content free) PR sites on the web with more than 10,000 company and individual press releases distributed per month. EPR Network is putting your press releases on top of all major search engines’ results and is reaching thousands of individuals, companies, PR specialists, media professionals, bloggers and journalists every day.

EPR Network has thousands of clients around the world including global 500 corporations like Hilton Hotels, Barclays Bank, AXA Insurance, Tesco UK, eBay/Skype, Emirates, just to name a few. The network’s PR web sites are currently reaching from 150,000 to sometimes 500,000 unique visitors per month while our viral reach could possibly go to as much as 1M people per month through our presence across various social media sites. EPR Network was established in 2004 and as of May 2008 it had more than 800,000 press releases (pages) published on its network.

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