Informa 'transforms' careers for employees

Released : 25 July 2005

New competency framework helps champion individuals and editorial staff and gives a solid basis for assessing and managing performance

Informa, the international specialist information provider, is launching an innovative and interactive career website for all 2000 of its employees in the UK*. The intranet site, called TransFormed Careers, is believed to be one of the first in the media industry because of the complexities of employing a large editorial workforce. TransFormed Careers will enable employees to take control of their progression, plus help the organisation retain its valuable and skilled workforce. This innovation is a part of Informa’s commitment to being an attractive and responsible employer and a fun place to work. The site was designed and delivered by HR specialists, Nhance Consultants.

The TransFormed Careers intranet site will offer 9 sections of information for employees and managers, each with multiple subsets detailing the best ways to achieve professional goals. Among the sections are Performance Management, Careers Centre, Organisational Charts, InFormed Champions, Induction information, plus of course, Vacancies and Recruitment.

Employees can gain advice on how to map their career, review their own performance, set goals both informally and with their managers, plus learn how best to handle interviews. The site is completely transparent so an employee can see how to prepare for an appraisal, as well as see the manager’s guidelines on how to conduct an appraisal.

Keith Brownlie, Group HR Director, explains, “Informa has grown significantly through acquisition, which means employees have enormous opportunity to progress through the ranks. However, people aren’t yet familiar with all of the different divisions and we needed to find a way to help them effectively map out their own career paths.

“The challenge for most media groups is that editorial employees have such different roles and responsibilities and they are not easily defined. So a key structural objective, and the hurdle most of our competitors have not overcome so far, is to provide individual editorial opportunities within a flexible career development process. It is a key achievement that the Intranet site has gained acceptance not only by the editorial teams, but also by their union representatives.”

In setting up TransFormed Careers, a Careers Working Party was created to understand the challenges and construct solutions to consistently help the dramatically growing business. Brownlie continues, “Our employees have specialist skills so we want to help them build an internal career path to help motivation. It’s very important to us to retain and reward key staff, and we have also recently implemented a flexible benefits programme to underline this. We want to make the career progression process fair and equitable to all, as well as foster a culture of cross-fertilisation to communicate the different opportunities available.

Carey Davis-Munro, MD of Nhance Consultants, the HR specialists which created the site adds, "TransFormed Careers will also realise other benefits for the business. Informa is sending a clear message to its employees that they are very important, plus it’s raising awareness of the workings of the larger organisation and the employees’ roles within it. Overall, the competency framework gives structure to career development and gives a solid basis for assessing and managing performance.”

*TransFormed Careers will first be available to UK employees, but it is planned to take it to all global employees. Moves are first underway for the Medical and Health Sciences Division, which also has bases in the US and Scandinavia.

Informa’s Corporate Social Responsibility Programme
Informa’s social initiatives have been in effect for years, ensuring that it makes a difference to employees, the environment, the community and the marketplace. Because of its dramatic growth, Informa is now fully embracing Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) from board level, ensuring it is at the organisation’s core. Current and future initiatives will proceed in a dynamic, sound and transparent way. In short, CSR will impact everything from routine planning to high level decisions, so everyday practices respect social and environmental issues.

Informa has been accredited with FTSE4Good, the accolade from the FTSE Group which gives a clear signal to investors, employees, the community and the marketplace that it is embracing Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) practices successfully.

About Informa
Informa is a leading international provider of specialist information for the academic, professional and business communities. Informa has over 121 offices in 43 different countries and employs almost 7000 staff with major centres in the UK and the USA. Informa is a FTSE-250 company quoted on the London Stock Exchange.

Informa plc has recently announced the acquisition of IIR Holdings Ltd. It is a highly complementary acquisition, adding significantly to Informa’s events business, providing immediate critical mass in the customised performance improvement market, substantially expanding Informa’s existing North American presence and further extending its geographic reach into emerging economies.

IIR delivers knowledge and skills to industry and job function markets globally through conferences, training, seminars, consulting, mentoring and exhibitions. It has 45 companies, 114 operating units and does business in 70 countries.

For further press information, please contact:

Kay Phelps
The PR Department
kay.phelps@theprdepartment.net
M: + 44 7710 043244
T: + 44 1932 789524

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