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 !!
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