Fiona's Birthday - AND it's a BIG One! 10th Nov 2011
Don’t tell her that we’ve posted this note but for those of you who like to know these things our Fiona is going to be celebrating a significant milestone on November 10th this year. If you want to get in on the act and wish her well we are sure that she would love to hear from you. You can contact her directly by email fiona.vennbrook@purplehousehr.com. Go on, it’ll make her day!Tom Get's Hairy for MOVEMBER 1st Nov 2011
It's Movember, the month formerly known as November, now dedicated to growing moustaches and raising awareness and funds for men's health; specifically prostate and testicular cancer. I'm donating my top lip to the cause for 30 days in an effort to help change the face of men's health. My Mo will spark conversations, and no doubt generate some laughs; all in the name of raising vital awareness and funds for cancer's affecting men. If you would like to support my Movember campaign you can do so by making a donation at http://mobro.co/TomMornement. If you’re really lucky we might even post a picture of the offending appendage at the end of the month….
Autumn Warms Up 10th Oct 2011
After a rather bumpy summer quarter, which actually ended up being quite decent, we’ve moved into the traditionally busy autumn months to find that we are pleasingly, well, busy. There still aren’t enough jobs out there to keep everyone happy but we are pleased to report that there are some good roles despite the doom and gloom that is regularly reported in the press. Unfortunately we don’t have a crystal ball and so we can’t tell you what the future holds but we can tell you there is a future…
Baby News 12th Sept 2011
Just a quick note to say that there still isn’t any baby news – which is a bit of a relief really – although Lindsey’s twins have now had their first Birthday and Sam’s Ellie is thinking about walking…
Summer of Indecision 5th Aug 2011
It’s been a funny old Summer quarter this year. Last year was an amazingly busy time and you may recall that we posted our best ever Summer results – this year looked like being a bit more “normal” but suddenly has really picked up so we’re not quite sure how to report on it for you other than to say that we are still pleasingly busy and hope that the Autumn months maintain that volume of activity. So give a call for a more detailed conversation if you’d like to, we’d be pleased to hear from you.
Lindsey's Return 1st May 2011
After nine months out of the business, bringing the twins into the world “our Linds” is back at work as of May 2011. Just as she did before she went off she’ll be working 4 days a week, although she does claim to work in the 5th day as well! Lindsey would love to hear from anyone who’s missed her and had to deal with Tom and Fiona over the last 9 months.Coaching Seminar Rated a Great Success 29th Mar 2011
Feedback from the Coaching seminar held just outside Wootton Bassett last Friday was very positive. Well we would say that but the stats seem to back it up…
The seminar, which was attended by 43 senior HR professionals, an opportunity to see at first hand the quality of the coaches Purple House have within their pool of associates.
The event was chaired by Martyn Melvin, who heads up the coaching side of the Purple House business, and who is himself a coach. The event featured sessions from Caroline Talbott on career satisfaction drivers, Paul Walton on developing better performance management through coaching and business psychologist Ron Storey on how to improve influencing skills and business relationships.
Feedback forms completed by those attending gave marks in 75% to over 80% instances for all the speakers as either Excellent or Very Good. The whole event, which lasted from breakfast through to lunch either ‘fully’ or ‘mostly,’ met the aims of 83% of those who attended. Brilliant.
If you didn’t get along but would like to know more about executive coaching through Purple House and how it could help your business then please contact Martyn on 0117 957 4100 or email him on martyn.melvin@purplehousehr.com.
Coaching Seminar - Date Announced 7th Feb 2011
Most years here at Purple House we host a seminar or two and this is no different. On Friday 25th March we are going to be hosting a ½ day seminar entitled “Achieving goals, maximising performance and building hot relationships through Coaching.”
The seminar will focus on the benefits that can be achieved through excellent coaching and promises to be packed full with interesting debate and interactive presentations focused on the very best in forward-thinking Coaching. For further information and to find out how to register your interest, click here.
Steady Start to 2011! 26th Jan 2011
With all the doom and gloom surrounding the hike in VAT and negative growth of the last quarter we thought it might be helpful to have a realistic view of what it’s actually like on the ground – for us anyway.
To start with 2010 wasn’t too bad in the end, as a recruitment business we had our own challenges to deal with (namely a glut of babies and an office move) but figures in all areas were up on the previous year, no surprise there I suppose. Going into 2011, there hasn’t been the usual spike of new roles to work on; it’s been more of a hump really – which implies to us that business is steady. There is good positive chatter from various clients in different sectors about plans for the year ahead so there are reasons to be cheerful. All in all the flow of work feels more constant than is has done in recent times, which is hopefully a good thing. There’s no denying it, we are all for a steady supply of vacancies to work on. Good luck in 2011 – let’s be in touch.
NO BABY NEWS FOR 2011! 14th Jan 2011
The title says it all – after a bumper crop last year we at Purple House are delighted to announce that there is no baby news to report – at the moment!
WE'RE MOVING! 3rd Dec 2010
After what seems like ages (oh it is actually ages) Purple House will be moving offices – don’t worry we’re not going far, just to the next barn infact. The difference being that the new barn is brand new, purpose built and heated!
For those of you who’ve been to our offices you’ll know that we are located in a barn on the outskirts of Bristol, in the summer it’s been lovely but in the winter and especially recently it’s been very cold and drafty! Well, the landlord has been busy investing in the site and at long last we are moving into our new surroundings. If you’d like to come and see us and check out our new offices then you are more than welcome – probably best to book early in order to avoid disappointment!
MORE BABY NEWS 12th Nov 2010
Here at last another Purple House baby. Our Sam produced baby Eleanor (weighing in at a healthy 6lb 13oz) on Thursday 11th November. Everyone is doing well and we are all looking forward to meeting the new arrival.
OH NO, SAM'S GOING ON MAT LEAVE NOW! 13th Oct 2010
Regular readers of the Purple House News will know that we have recently had a bit of a glut on the baby front – never one to want to miss out on the action our Sam got involved as well!
Sam is going off on maternity leave later this month and she will be sorely missed by all of us – don’t worry though she is threatening to return! In her place though we are delighted to announce the recruitment of Heather Main who has joined to cover Sam’s maternity. Heather is a recent graduate of Northumbria University where she studied Business with Human Resources Management. Heather did her placement year at Selex Galileo working in the HR department and is keen to pursue a career in HR so a grounding at Purple House Recruitment will put her in great sted for her future career!
GOING TO THE CIPD CONFERENCE IN MANCHESTER THIS YEAR? 4th Oct 2010
Our very own Mr Conference, that’s Martyn Melvin will be attending various conference sessions and taking in the heady atmosphere that is Manchester in November. Unfortunately the rest of us can’t make it, we’ll be back at Purple House Towers keeping warm…
Neither of Martyn’s friends are going either so if you are around and would like to say “Hello” and don’t want to get knocked over in the rush to meet him, then why not drop him line at Purple House and see if you can arrange to meet up to chew the fat on the latest HR topic or just to borrow his umbrella – oh yes, Mr Conference never goes anywhere without one! Happy Conference to you.
PURPLE HOUSE IN THE PRESS ON EXECUTIVE COACHING 29th Sept 2010
Follow the link below to read what was said in Personnel Today about Executive Coaching by Purple Houses very own Executive Coach, Martyn Melvin.
OMG - SAM'S OFF AS WELL 8th Sept 2010
Purple House’s fantastic Office Manager Sam Higgins is pregnant as well and will be going on maternity leave towards the end of October. Here at Purple House Towers we’ve done a little bit of adding up and in 9 years of trading can confirm that Sam’s baby will the 9th one born to PH staff during this time – totally amazing!
Everyone at Purple House Towers wishes our Sam the very best of luck with the new arrival but we need to find a replacement for her. If you’re interested in doing Sam’s job for a year and working at Purple House then please get in touch we’d love to hear from you.
INCREDIBLE SUMMER QUARTER 1st Sept 2010
In amongst all this baby stuff the rest of us at Purple House Towers have been very busy. In actual fact we’ve never been busier during the summer quarter. Normally we expect things to quieten down or at least to slow down during the traditional holiday season but not this year no it’s been amazing and looking ahead into the autumn there are no obvious signs of the work load quietening down which is just brilliant news.
LINDSSEY'S TWINS HAVE ARRIVED! 10th Aug 2010
That’s right all we can talk about at the moment is babies. As you’ll know Lindsey went off on maternity leave last month, moved house and has, we are delighted to report produced 2 very healthy little people Joe and Hattie who were born on Saturday 7th August. Everyone in the Newman household is doing extremely well and of course we wish them all the very best of luck!
NUMBER OF NEW VACANCIES RISING 25th May 2010
Here at Purple House we are very pleased to report noticeable signs of increased volume. Over the last 18-24 months we have seen a very different recruitment market to the one when we started the business 8 years ago.
We have seen rates dropping, permanent roles being pulled and a growing trend in the “try before you buy” interim market. Well, the people who run Purple House have been looking at the numbers again and we are delighted to report that the signs of recovery we’ve all heard about in London are beginning to be spotted down here in the South West. Since “Dave and Nick” got married at the beginning of the month it seems to us that businesses have finally pushed the boat out and are signing off those important hires they’d been putting off – long may it continue!
PURPLE HOUSE SPEAKS TO THE CIPD... 12th May 2010
That’s right, The Independent Consulting sub-group of the Bristol CIPD were treated to a presentation on The Role of the Interim by our very own Tom Mornement.
Don’t worry though he was ably supported by Yvonne Payne, who is a real HR Interim and was on hand to make sure that Tom kept it real! The event was hosted at the ACAS offices on the waterfront in Bristol and appears to have been a great success (that’s what Tom tells us!). Anyone interested in discussing this topic with Tom is more than welcome to contact him at Purple House Towers but please can we ask you to do it out of hours as we’ve all heard it before! You could download a copy of it from his LinkedIn profile www.linkedin.com/in/tommornement.
"ENERGISING ENGAGEMENT" 11th May 2010
At the Marsh Farm Hotel in Swindon on Tuesday 11th May Lindsey Newman from Purple House and Rachel Brushfield from Energise, hosted an enlightening seminar on creative low cost ways to keep talent motivated and engaged
The seminar was well supported and covered a lot of ground in a relatively short period of time. Delegates went away energised and with new insights and ideas as well as clear actions to implement their learnings.
If you are interested in receiving a copy of the slides or finding out more about this event please do contact Lindsey Newman at Purple House Towers.
THE FAT BOY - HE DONE THE RUN 10th Mar 2010
The sporting phenomenon that is Lee Burman successfully completed the Bath Half Marathon last Sunday in a brilliant time of 2h25m. His target was 2h30m so he did dam well and we are all very proud of our man. Oh yes, he also raised over £600 for the Alzheimer’s Society which is excellent. Next up in Lee’s life is going to be the birth of his first child – but he says that he’s already done his bit as far as that’s concerned. We hope Mrs Burman doesn’t read this!
RUN FAT BOY RUN! 5th Mar 2010
This weekend Lee Burman, Purple House’s maverick Public Sector HR Recruitment Specialist and avid Social Media Networker is going to be putting his body on the line in the Bath Half Marathon! Why??? Hell he’s taking one for the team and doing it in aid of the Alzheimer’s Society – good work fella we wish you the very best of luck on Sunday
THE PURPLE HOUSE WELL BEING DAY 1st Mar 2010
On Monday 1st March, in line with the coming of Spring, the staff at Purple House Towers were treated to a day of Wellness by Mari Clack of the Being Well Company.
The day started with a session on healthy eating and diet advice (very useful if you’ve ever been to our office) this was followed by a seminar on stress, what it is and how to avoid or manage it (in recruitment!!!). The afternoon was all about the 1-2-1. Having filled in a personal questionnaire we all got the chance to chat it through and devise how we could be more healthy! All in all it was a very enlightening day and has clearly made an impression on us judging by the amount of nuts, seeds, ryvita’s and smoothie’s now littering Purple House Towers!!!
GETTING BACK TO NORMAL 25th Feb 2010
After what was a very tight and challenging 2009 for everyone, the first quarter of 2010 has started with a bang for us –we might even hit target! We’re not getting carried away with ourselves of course but things do feel a bit better - are we allowed to say that yet, what are the rules on when you can be positive?
The work has come from a mixture of new wins and old clients coming back on line in both permanent and interim vacancies. If things continue the way they have started this year then we could genuinely begin to feel a little more confident about the year ahead (hopefully).
NHS goes Purple 21st Jan 2010
Specialist HR recruitment agency Purple House has been awarded a place on the Buying Solutions Non-Medical Non-Clinical framework agreement.
The three-year framework sees Purple House supply contract HR professionals to NHS Trusts, PCTs and other public bodies.
Lee Burman, Purple House’s public sector lead, says: “Purple House is already a popular and well established brand among the South West HR community, and our clients are accustomed to the tailored partnership approach we take to recruitment as an owner-managed business. When you contact Purple House, you work with consultants who do their utmost to source the best available candidates in the market. We will apply exactly the same format and by securing a place on the framework agreement, will do so at the best possible value for moneyTwitter 6th Nov 2009
Purple House is marching into the world of social media with the launch of its very own Twitter account – you can follow us at www.twitter.com/purplehousehr. Why wouldn’t you?
We’ve all heard of Twitter but what is it? Well, it’s a micro-blogging and networking tool that enables you to engage, inform, entertain and promote all in less than 140 characters per post – so it’s out with streams of detail and in with pithy entries.
So please have a look and see what you think. We’d love your feedback on this.
6 Months ago we said.... 9th Sept 2009
“Whilst we have no control over the Credit Crunch, our customer’s ability to stay in business or the vacancies they’ll have – we also have no idea how business will be in 6 months time…”
Well, back then we said that we would make some changes to try and ensure that we, Purple House, would be here in 6 months time. I’m delighted to say that we are still here, sun tanned, pencils sharpened and ready for the new term. Not only are we still here but we’re also in very good spirits – we’re busier than we’ve been all year so far and feeling more positive than we have done for a year or so. In the press we’ve seen and heard reports that recruitment activity is on the up, well our experience is the same - there are more jobs, more interviews and more placements ……………..long may it continue!!
New Development Programme for HR Professionals July 2009
Purple House have recently partnered with Contact Consulting, a leadership and management development consultancy to develop a business focussed, modular programme for HR Managers/Business Partners. ‘Leveraging HR for Business Success’ is facilitated by professionals that have held senior HR roles in a variety of organisations. The programme will commence in the autumn in Bristol and provides a unique opportunity for delegates both to develop the skills and business solutions they will need for the future as well as to extend their local HR network.
For more details and to book a place on the programme please click on www.contactconsultinguk.com/hrsuccess.html
JOINT PUBLIC SECTOR CONFERENCE LEAVES DELEGATES HUNGRY FOR MORE 29th JUNE 2009
Delegates at a recent Public Sector Conference are already whetting their appetite for more learning after the inaugural partnership event proved to be a major success.
The joint venture saw Purple House, the CIPD, PPMA and HPMA play host to over 90 delegates across Local Government, the NHS, Civil Service, Education and Fire and Police Authorities.
Up for discussion were the themes of Talent Management & Employee Engagement and delegates were treated to 5 very different sessions.
The Talent Pool kicked off the learning by helping us define learning and spotting potential in our organisations. Gavin Jones, Chief Executive of Swindon Council, gave an “inspirational” and “wonderfully refreshing” account of the Council’s journey in recent years. An energetic Fiona Narburgh from Wychavon District Council delivered a superb lesson on engaging the workforce, whilst Chris Bamford from NLIAH described the high-level talent management initiatives taking place just across the bridge in Wales. Finally Raffaela Goodby and Richard Billingham of Birmingham City Council, fresh from winning yet another HR award, wrapped up a successful day by hosting a mini-BEST workshop.
Downloads and presentations are available at www.publicsectorsw.com
PURPLE HOUSE RUNS FREE SEMINAR TO HELP HR LEADERS PREPARE FOR AN ECONOMIC UPTURN JUNE 2009
HR must break with tradition and innovate if it is to help its organisations survive the downturn and ultimately thrive when the economy becomes to recover. That is the message from our speakers Helen Hodgkinson from KPMG and Clair Carpenter from HSBC who gave thought provoking presentations in the seminar we held in Swindon on 25 June. The HR professionals in these global businesses have come up with great ways to tackle the people challenges presented by the recession and to place their organisations in the best position to capitalise when the upturn arrives.
For more information about the events, including slides, please contact Lindsey Newman 0117 9574100
PURPLE HOUSE, CIPD, PPMA AND HPMA LAUNCHES TALENT MANAGMENT AND EMPLOYEE ENGAGEMENT EVENT
Purple House has joined forces with the CIPD West of England Public Sector Forum, the Public Sector People Management Association (PPMA) and the Healthcare People Management Association (HPMA) to deliver a Talent Management & Employee Engagement seminar in Bristol
Aimed at senior HR & OD professionals from across the Public Sector, the event features key speakers from Swindon Council, Birmingham Council and the National Leadership Institute for Healthcare Innovation.
The Talent Pool will kick off the session with an interactive presentation on developing future leaders, which proved highly popular with a Westminster Public Sector audience earlier this year. Gavin Jones, Chief Executive at Swindon Council will talk about the excellent In-Touch behavioural framework that the Council has developed and Chris Bamford from NLIAH will explore the award winning NLIAH ‘grow your own’ strategies in further detail. Finally we will be joined by Raffaela Goodby and Richard Billingham from Birmingham Council to leave us with the inspirational story of Birmingham BEST, a hugely popular employee engagement tool now employed by the largest Council in Europe.
The event takes place on 29th June 2009 at Wills Hall in Bristol.
Contact: Lise Sheridan at the CIPD on 01275 392085 or visit www.publicsectorsw.com for further details
THE END OF QUARTER 1 26th March 2009
Amazingly we are already at the end of Quarter 1. Has it really been as bad as everyone predicted it would be? Have we found a cliff to fall off? What are the trends in the market? We asked Martyn Melvin, Director of Purple House Executive for his views on the year so far.
“I don’t think 2009 is going to be a record year by any standards as employers are clearly cautious about recruiting new people at the moment. We are finding that there are a larger number of interim opportunities around this year and more candidates for each role making the task of recruiting actually easier and more difficult at the same time!
We are meeting our targets for the business for this quarter and still believe that our consultative approach to recruitment is the right way to go in these more testing times and that clients and candidates still value a personal service rather than be bombarded by hundreds of unsuitable CV’s or being put forward for roles that don’t match their skills. We won’t do either of these things and we think that it is important to maintain our standards and as I am always reminding clients that although there is a fee for good recruitment services the cost of poor recruitment is much higher”
STRARTEGIC HR AUDIT/ CONSULTANCY 8th March 2009
How can Purple House help you to improve the effectiveness of your HR function?
Here are two positive suggestions aimed to get your organisation in the best possible shape for (a) surviving the recession and (b) gearing up for the recovery…
Under intense commercial pressure, every organisation needs to know if its HR function is delivering the strategies that align to the business need.
Purple House has enlisted the help of Mike Watts (the former Development Director of the CIPD), to carry out these searching investigations for our clients and contacts. Martyn Melvin, Director of Purple House Executive says “we are very lucky to have someone of Mike’s ability and experience available to our clients. Through his work on the development of the CIPD roadmap, Mike has completed a major review of the way the HR profession works. We strongly believe many of our clients will benefit from his insight”.
Through our extensive network of interim HR Directors, Managers and Consultants we can offer an extremely flexible solution to all ad-hoc HR needs an organisation may have. All of our interims are fully reference checked and bringing successful track records from a wide variety of backgrounds and across the UK.
If you have a one off project that needs managing but don’t have the resources to cope, or simply need a flexible resource, then we can help!
If you would like to discuss any issues in confidence please call Martyn Melvin or your usual Purple House consultant – 0117 957 4100
HAPPY NEW YEAR 19th January 2009
So you’ve started your diet, joined another gym and set your targets for 2009! We’ve made some New Year’s resolutions as well…
Whilst we have no control over the Credit Crunch, our customer’s ability to stay in business or the vacancies they’ll have – we also have no idea how business will be in 6 months time. What we do have though is commitment, passion and the long term approach to ensure we will still be in business this time next year and in the years to come. We have made some short and medium term plans, restructured our costs and really thought about what we have to do to get through this recession. So if you are looking for a new job this year or you’re going to be recruiting HR talent then we will be here to help.
Good luck to all our clients and candidates in 2009.
LEE MAKE'S A NOISE! 9th January 2009
Wow! What a start to the New Year, Lee Burman who joined us at the end of 2008 to set up and run our Public Sector and Not-for- Profit Division has started the New Year with a bang…
As you may remember Lee joined us at the end of last year after an illustrious 6 year career in Public Sector Recruitment for a well known specialist consultancy in London. Well, he’s been working very hard since he moved West and we are delighted to announce that he has not only won new business, met many new candidates and opened new doors but he’s also made a placement. Congratulations to Lee and Good Luck for 2009.
If you are interested in Public Sector or Not-for-Profit vacancies or you have a vacancy to post then you can contact Lee Burman, here at Purple House on 0117 957 4100 or via email lee.burman@purplehosuehr.com.
Jolly Holidays 15th December 2008
With Christmas round the corner we thought let you know nice and early what our Christmas working hours would be. None, nothing, zilch – we’ll be closed from Wednesday 24th at 1.00pm until Monday 5th January 2009! That’s not to say that we won’t be checking emails and messages though so please do feel free to contact us in the normal way just don’t expect us to get back to you straight away!
2008 Christmas Period |
Opening Hours |
Wed 24th Dec - Christmas Eve |
Reduced Hours (8.30am – 1.00pm UK) |
Thu 25th Dec - Christmas Day |
CLOSED |
Fri 26th Dec - Boxing Day |
CLOSED |
Mon 29th Dec – Fri 2nd Jan |
CLOSED |
Monday 5th Jan |
Normal Hours |
Martyn's an Expert! 12th December 2008
Purple House Director Martyn Melvin gave a talk last month to the HR team of one of our clients on “HR’s role in a private equity company”. The company in question was hosting a conference for its entire professional HR staff from around world and asked Martyn to speak to the team about the differences between providing an HR service in a PLC, from which they had just emerged, to a company owned by private equity. According to Martyn there are some significant differences and his session was used as a catalyst for reworking their HR strategy.
Martyn commented “I am always pleased to be able to work with our clients to help them develop effective HR strategies and having been a main board director of a Management Buy Out in the past, I know all too well about how private equity companies work, and there are some real differences in approach that HR needs to understand very quickly.” Martyn has assured all at Purple House that the fact that the conference was in Paris and also involved an evening of eating and drinking in one of the most beautiful cities in the world did not affect his keenness to participate!
So to test his true dedication to spreading HR best practice we would welcome the opportunity to send him out to other less glamorous locations in the New Year.
If you’d be interested in hearing more about what Martyn says and how he could be of help to your organisation then please contact him directly.
The Martket, Our View...... 20th Novemeber 2008
Last quarter we said that the signs going into quarter 3 were positive, that there was good activity in the market and that we were busier than we had ever been at that time of year. As a result we are delighted to report that we posted our “best ever” figures for quarter 3!
October and November have been quieter and the signs are that December, traditionally for us a quiet month anyway, will be the same. But a look at the figures tells us that we have done well given the very real problems facing all of us in the market. It still feels that the media’s persistent “doom mongering” has come home to roost and that we have been talked into this downturn. Many Company’s and sectors are doing very well but clearly there are some that are struggling, this has meant that there has been a rise in the number of candidates coming on to the market. Ultimately there are fewer jobs around and all the signs point to a challenging 6 months ahead.
Lee Burman Joins Purple House........ 27th October 2008
As some of you may have seen in last week’s People Management, Purple House is delighted to announce that Lee Burman has joined us and will heading up our new Public Sector and Not–for-Profit Division.
Lee graduated in Business Studies at the University of Plymouth in 2000, and spent a year travelling before moving to London to begin his recruitment career. In 2002 he joined a national recruiter recruiting HR professionals within the Public & Not-for-Profit sectors. In 2005 and in need of a fresh challenge, he moved to a niche Public Sector HR consultancy where he has spent 3 years recruiting HR professionals for a variety of Health Trusts and PCTs, Local Authorities, Housing Associations and Charities across London and the South East. Past clients have included the James Paget NHS Foundation Trust, City & Islington College, Christian Aid, Camden Council and Hertfordshire Constabulary. At Purple House he will work nationally on HR roles at all levels.
We are chuffed to bits to be welcoming him to the team and wish him every success in his career with us.
Spreading Our Wings 31st July 2008
Purple House is now embarking on its second overseas HR assignment of the summer. Firstly for an HR Manger in Cairo and now for one in Vienna!
Martyn commented “Having successfully completed an assignment in Bristol our client has now asked us to handle a new role for them in Vienna. It’s always a good sign when people come back to you for more work and I particularly like the challenge of an overseas assignment where the cultural elements make it a bit more challenging to find the right fit”. These are not the only international roles Purple House has handled though. Martyn also recruited a senior Director for a company in Düsseldorf at the end of last year. If you are considering any international HR roles we would very pleased to discuss these with you.
The End of Year 6 18th July 2008
Last quarter we reported that we’d had a very good quarter 1 and that the signs were good for quarter 2. Looking back we weren’t wrong – we can now report that Purple House has had its best 6 months ever! That means for the 6 years since we started trading we have never been busier in terms of jobs, candidates and sales so once again we do have a feeling that the media are slightly “over-hyping” the doom and gloom in the economy. Let’s not get this out of proportion though there are clearly some sectors that are really struggling in the current market but because Purple House is not sector specific we have so far managed to avoid any nasty issues.
Looking ahead at quarter 3 the signs are good. Naturally one would expect this to the quiet summer quarter but very pleasingly we have more activity on our books at the moment than we have ever had at this time of the year before! What will be interesting will be how much new work comes on in September and October! More on this later in the year…
Martyn Takes to the High Seas 12th May 2008
Last week Martyn Melvin took the plunge and boarded the “Oriana” for 3 days and 3 nights of what he tells us was very hard work on the high seas! The Human Resources Forum is a long established networking event where c300 senior HR people are brought together for a focussed session of networking, selling, seminars and socialising on board the Oriana – an ocean-going luxury liner. Martyn has gone to great lengths to try and assure us that he did attend all the meetings that had been set up for him and that he did not attend any of the late night drinking sessions or the Freddie Mercury tribute act! For Martyn’s own blog please click here.
Martyn Appointed Chair of the N.Wilts CIPD 9th May 2008
Purple House are extremely proud to announce that our very own Martyn Melvin has been appointed as the new Chairman of the North Wiltshire CIPD Group – seems like he’s doing all the work round here. His role is going to be a broad and challenging one – he says. In his manifesto he has all but promised that his time as Chairman will be far from dull and that he is going to “make things happen” – we are watching to see what this means!
PH Flexible Working Seminar with Morgan Cole 29th April 2008
As mentioned before in these pages, Lindsey Newman, in partnership with Morgan Cole hosted a seminar at the end of April on the subject of “Flexible Working”. The event, held at the Marsh Farm Hotel, near Swindon was a very well attended success, which prompted some lively debate – for anyone who missed it but would like further information about it please contact Lindsey here at Purple House on 0117 957 4100.
Booming 1st Quarter in 2008 31st March 2008In January we commented that maybe the media was “over-hyping” the doom and gloom effect with regards to the economy – we felt that this doom wasn’t being reflected in real terms in the market place but this feeling of ours was based on a strong finish last year and “booming” January figures. Well, our opinion has not changed – Purple House is delighted that this trend continues and that we’ve just posted our best ever financial quarter. The signs for the second quarter don’t look bad either. Hopefully this upward trend is set to continue throughout the market, the economy will gain in confidence and the media will be left firmly with its foot in its mouth.
If it wasn’t enough that Purple House has had a good start to the year then this market research might help any doubters – reported recently in the media, “demand for HR professionals across the UK continues to rise with a 65% growth in the number of vacancies in 2007 and salaries subsequently increasing by approximately 9% to 11%. The number of interim HR vacancies has also risen by approximately 30%.” More soon.
PH Flexible Working Seminar with Morgan Cole 8th April 2008
We are delighted to be co-hosting this free seminar in partnership with the solicitors Morgan Cole, 9.00am on Tuesday 29th April at Marsh Farm Hotel, Swindon.
With the Government’s extension to the current flexible working legislation being almost inevitable, HR will continue to be at the forefront of helping organisations embrace flexible working. The focus of the seminar is to assist HR to meet this key challenge.
For further information and details about attending this seminar please click here. (link to the flyer)
We are Recruiting Again 20th February 2008
Last year was a very busy one for us in terms of team expansion – we almost doubled in size – this year on the back of an extremely successful start to the year we want to continue our development so are currently looking for a new Consultant.
If we’ve learnt anything over recent years it’s been this – we have developed a niche for ourselves which we are extremely proud of but we don’t want to sit back and be smug about it we want to continue growing and developing our offering and service, we want to broaden our horizons and do the best job we can for our clients and candidates.
So if you’re fed up of working for a faceless KPI led corporate and want to take control of your career and job in an out of town barn conversion style office, in a relaxed and informal environment where we take our business seriously but realistically, then we really want to hear from you. Click here to find out more about what and who we are looking for.
Flexible Working Seminar 20th March 2008
We are holding a joint seminar with Morgan Cole Solicitors about Flexible Working on Tuesday 29th April 2008 at Marsh Farm Hotel in Swindon. For more information about this event please click here. If you would like to attend please contact Rebecca Mulliss at Morgan Cole on Rebecca.Mulliss@morgan-cole.com
Forthcoming Marketing Events 8th March 2008
Martyn Melvin, Purple House Executive's Director will be talking about The Talent Agenda in HR at the next prestigious meeting of the Oxen Park HR Business Partner forum in May 2008. For more information on this event please click here. If you are looking for high quality Business Partner Training and Development then you would have to go a long way to match Oxen Park - it is well worth investigating further.
In May Martyn will also be taking our message to the high seas (English channel actually) with our place on the Oriana for the 2008 HR forum. The Oriana is an annual HR networking event where we get the opportunity to meet around 300 HR Directors, this will be a very busy and hopefully productive three days.
Free Seminar – “Winning Hearts and Minds” 28th February 2008
Martyn Melvin HR Director at Purple House, is going to be co-hosting a seminar with the Cheltenham based firm of Occupational Psychologists, JCA on Tuesday 4th March at JCA’s offices in the centre of town. The seminar is entitled “Winning Hearts and Minds: The value of Emotional Intelligence in the workplace”. For further information about this topic and details about the seminar please Click here.
Amazing January 31st January 2008
Maybe it’s just me but it feels like the media are trying their hardest to talk us all into believing that we are doomed and that there is a recession right around the corner. Let’s hope they are seriously wrong because it doesn’t feel like that at the moment.
This time last year we wrote in these pages about what an amazing start to the year we had had – well this year it’s been even better, we have seen a massive increase in everything and have really started the year with a bang – our January Sales figures are the best we’ve ever put together but on-top of that the level of work, both in terms of new vacancies and new candidates, is noticeably bigger than last year. Hopefully this isn’t just a flash in the pan and we will all see a steady increase though the rest of the year. Good luck to all our clients and candidates in 2008.
Martyn Melvin celebrates 30 years in HR – do you know anyone else who’s been in HR this long – please write in and let us know if you do?
This month sees the milestone for Purple House Executive Director Martyn Melvin when he completes 30 years in Human Resources.
“I started in December 1977 as an Assistant Personnel Officer after completing my Post Graduate Diploma in Personnel Management; I went to work for an American Pharmaceutical company in Hampshire on the very decent salary of £70 a week. During the next 30 years I worked in a number of different industries and progressively more complex HR roles and carried out HR assignments in a variety of places from Stockport to San Francisco before leaving my last role as Senior Vice President, Human Resources, this time for a German Pharmaceutical company at the end of May to start up Purple House Executive with Lindsey and Tom”
Martyn is now working on a number of senior assignments and using his in depth HR experience to help a number of Purple House Clients and Candidates – we’d like to take his opportunity to congratulate him on reaching this milestone – because we know its not many who do!
Christmas Card – what Christmas Card? 5th December 2007
A very Happy Christmas and a Prosperous New Year from every one at Purple House! This year though we have decided not to send Christmas cards. Instead we will be donating the money we would have spent on cards and postage to two local charities.
The two charities we are donating to are the Children’s Hospice South West (www.chsw.org.uk) and CLIC Sargent (www.clicsargent.org.uk).
Samantha Clapp – She’s New 28th November 2007
We are thrilled to announce another new arrival at Purple House. Sam Clapp has joined us as our Office Administrator.
Sam joins us at a time when we have never been busier and to be honest she couldn’t have come at a better time. Sam has recently moved to Bristol, to be with her fiancé and is planning her wedding for next year. She is going to be working with Danielle in the running of our office on a day-to-day basis and be covering for Danielle when she’s at College on Mondays and Tuesdays.
We have no doubt that Sam will be a huge success at Purple House.
Purple House – that looks familiar? 28th November 2007
You will have been reading a lot more about Purple House recently and our profile has never been higher. We thought that for those of you who had missed out we’d give you a quick overview of some of the marketing activities we’ve been involved in recently.
Making sure that as many people in the HR community know about Purple House and what we stand for is always one of our of more important roles. By maintaining a healthy level of marketing activity we make sure we are in the minds of clients when they are considering new recruitment activity and that candidates are also aware of us so that they can take advantage of the varied roles we are handling.
In the last 6 months you may have met Purple House staff at CIPD meetings across the South West, read articles in magazines, seen our advertisements in the HR Director or HR Magazine or maybe you noticed the “belly-wrap” in early September edition of People Management! We have also written a new brochure for the senior HR market Positively Different which is available on the website. We’ve also had a number of adverts in People Management over recent months.
Next year we are planning two free seminars (one in Cheltenham and one in Swindon) on topics of interest to HR staff – there will be more details about these seminars soon.
We are also involved in supporting a new and interesting venture. Next year sees the launch of an HR Forum in the South West for senior HR leaders that Purple House will be playing a significant part in it. (For more information about this please contact Lindsey Newman).
Next May we will taking our message to the high seas (English channel actually) with our place on the Oriana for the 2008 HR forum organised by Richmond Events and where we get the opportunity to meet around 300 HR Directors, this will be a very busy and hopefully productive three days.
At Purple House we’ve always put the needs of our clients and candidates first. So back in the Spring of this year when we realised that we were stretching ourselves too thinly to be able to satisfy the customer service standards we had set for ourselves we embarked on a search for a new consultant. We are delighted to announce that Paul Boggis has joined us with immediate effect.
Having started his career in recruitment advertising Paul joined the HW Group (at the same time Lindsey was there – although in different offices) where he spent two years as a consultant recruiting for legal and accountancy firms in London. He decided to give it all up to pursue his life-long passion for mountaineering which he’s done for the last eight years. In 2007 Paul’s priorities have changed and he has decided to go back to the recruitment industry. He can still be found, most weekends, climbing mountains and rocks across the length and breadth of the country.
Paul is joining Purple House as a Consultant and will be helping us to develop our business in Gloucestershire, Herefordshire and Worcestershire we wish him a long and fruitful career at Purple House.
To mark the launch of Purple House Executive in July this year we thought that it might be a good idea to try and make a bit of a splash. So in conjunction with the lovely people at People Management we have put together what is known in the industry as a “belly-wrap” combined with a card “insert” into the 6th September issue of the People Management magazine.
It has gone to over 27,000 HR Professionals and includes an article about Purple House Executive and picture of the team here at Purple House! (If you’ve seen this we’d love to hear your thoughts or comments!) Hopefully you’ll find the magazine interesting and informative as well!
If you did missed this issue of the magazine and would like a copy we do have some spares which we would be very happy to forward, please get in touch and let us know how many you want (we’re happy to sign it of you want!) or click here to view it online.
Back in July we celebrated our 5th Birthday with a Party here at the offices of Purple House. Part of the evening included the launch of 50 helium balloons each with a postcard addressed to us attached and displaying the name of someone at the Party. Rather hopefully we had expected to receive postcards sent back to us by the unsuspecting public from around the country – the idea being that the balloon that travelled the furthest would be the winner.
Never in our wildest dreams did we expect that this would become an International event – the winning card was returned from Holland and belonged to Simon Drinkwater who is an HR Business Partner at Lloyds.
At the time of writing Simon was away on holiday, we will contact him to let him know the good news when he returns and will be making a donation to the charity of his choice.
As you may already know Purple House turned 5 on 1st July 2007. To celebrate we hosted a party at our offices in Bristol. The evening, despite being marred by the atrocious weather, was a great success. We were well supported by a variety of clients, candidates and suppliers, the food was very good and plenty of Pomegranate was consumed.
The evening culminated in a slightly formal moment where Lindsey presented a speech thanking everyone ever involved in or with or at Purple House (think Gwyneth Paltrow). We also had the highly amusing “revealing” of the baby pictures and surprising fact competition – but the best was saved to last with the release of 60 helium balloons – which we are hoping will somehow find there way back to us. Each balloon was sponsored by a guest and there will be a prize for the balloon that reached the furthest geographical point.
As part of our 5th Birthday celebrations Purple House is delighted to announce the launch of a new business venture. Purple House Executive (PHE) is a natural extension of our current company Purple House Recruitment. PHE will focus on the £70k + salary range and will cover permanent and interim management positions – click here to go to the new website.
Lindsey Newman is going to focus on establishing the new business and is being joined by Martyn Melvin. Martyn has extensive HR experience, most recently as Global VP for HR with a German Pharmaceutical company. Click here for a more detailed profile of Martyn and Lindsey.
Amazingly Purple House is celebrating its 5th Birthday this week. Back in 2002 when Tom and Lindsey decided to go it alone they had a 3 year plan, they thought 5 years was a bit presumptuous, but suddenly here we are about to embark on our 6th year in business. As part of our celebrations we are having a small Birthday Party on Thursday 5th July where we’ll be making an announcement about our plans for the future (yes now that we’re 5 we have plans and specific ideas in mind!). No doubt there will be more news to follow – watch this space.
Either, we are doing something right or the market is very good – obviously we like to think that it’s because not only are we lovely people but also that we are doing something right! (What do you think – are we doing something right? We’d really like to know, honestly we would. Click here to send us an email with your views). Having posted our best ever quarterly figures, in the last quarter Purple House is absolutely delighted to announce that we’ve have smashed those figures and set a new high.
Due to the continued success of recent months we have realised that there is a genuine need for us to increase our team. We are looking for a new Recruitment Consultant to join the team ideally over the summer so that we can really focus on a detailed induction whilst it is a bit quieter. If you’re interested in applying or in finding out a bit more about working at Purple House please click here to view the “working for us” pages.
As a consequence of this surge in activity (see below) we’ve recently recruited Jennifer Byrne to work with us as a Candidate Resourcer. Jenn originally from California, where she ran her own recruitment business for nearly 10 years, moved to the UK in 2006 to be with her husband Richard, who she met on-line. Jenn’s role will be to assist our consultants in searching for candidates in relation to vacancies and to re-establish contact with those who may have slipped out of our grasp (!) and also to provide help with a variety of other on-going business related tasks.
Purple House is delighted to confirm that the first quarter of this year has been without doubt the most successful in our first four and a half years. This has come about because of a very busy pre-Christmas period and continued high volumes of activity into 2007 (oh yes and little of luck) - if we are able to continue at these levels of placements then Purple House is going to have at least one great reason to celebrate at its forth coming 5th Birthday - more on this later….
Following her exhausting but extremely successful fund raising trip to India last November - cycling over 425km across the Rajastan region of Northern India in aid of the Women for Women Appeal and raising over £3,000 - she has been invited to the House of Lords by Lord Robert Winston who is the patron of the Charity for a day of thanks, including a tour of the House of Lords and lunch with the great man. She has promised though that there won’t be a repeat of her now infamous joke telling incident which we’re sure is a relief for Lord Winston!
Following a fantastically busy pre Christmas period, Purple House Recruitment is very proud to announce that January 2007 has been our Best Month Ever and if things continue the way they've started in 2007, we are on course to smash our previous best Quarterly total as well.
Purple House are very pleased to welcome Nicky Skinner back following her maternity leave. Nicky has re-joined the team on a part time basis as our new Data Manager.
Fiona has cycled 425km through Rajasthan, Northern India in support of Robert Winston’s Women for Women Charity and raised a fantastic £4,000 to help fund their research.
It was a fantastic experience for Fiona, who battled puntures and potholes to get there! Thankfully she returned to us safe and sound, although understandably exhausted.
We hope that you will share us in congratulating Fiona on her brilliant achievement.
We would like to wish you all a very merry Christmas and every success in 2007.
The data analysed covers a number of HR job categories and levels including HR Generalists, Reward, Training & Development and Recruitment Specialists. We have created a summary of our findings which can be accessed by clicking here.
Should you require a PDF version of the full 14 page report (for which a fee of £100 + VAT will be charged) please do contact us and we will arrange for this to be sent to you promptly. The reason for charging for the full report is the huge time, effort and resources that we have had to put into generate the survey.
In the meantime we hope that you find the summary very useful and informative.
Senior Consultant Fiona Vennbrook is counting down the days to her 425km charity cycle ride through Rajasthan, Northern India. Fiona is cycling in support of Robert Winston’s Women for Women Charity which funds research to improve the health of women and babies. Fiona has done a fantastic job of raising £3,678.08 of her target £4,000, we now need your help in raising the rest and we would appreciate any support that you can offer.
If you would like to support Fiona in her bid to raise those last few pounds then please click here to go through to Fiona's Fundraising page, where donations can be made. We will be keeping up to date with Fiona's efforts and posting details here. Good Luck Fi !!
Are you clued up on the new Age Discrimination Laws? Click here to have a go at this BBC interactive quiz and see how much the law could affect you.
