Hill & Knowlton Europe Middle East and Africa tops survey of Best Multinational PR Agencies to Work For

Hill & Knowlton ranked number one among multinationals in terms of employee commitment to building their career with their current employer, whether firms had eliminated unnecessary bureaucracy, whether the firm did a good job of attracting high caliber employees, whether the firm was a fun place to work, whether they felt they could balance the demands of work and life effectively and whether they trusted management to do the right thing.

The Holmes Report singled out Hill & Knowlton's professional development programme as helping it to stand out from its competitors. The programme includes Maestro - a WPP client service skills training course for senior management which was developed originally by Hill & Knowlton and has now been rolled out across other WPP companies. A similar EMEA programme - First Chair was launched in 2006 which included 4 intensive days of training based on a case study which is worked on by teams and individuals with the support of coaches and trainers. 40 people, including 3 from the Middle East, attended this first programme pilot which will be repeated in 2007.

Responses in the Holmes Report Survey from employees at Hill & Knowlton EMEA described the firm as a "meritocracy and as such it's a great place to build a career", "excels in career development", "great breadth of opportunity for employees", "a lot of room for initiative and entrepreneurial behaviour" and "we are increasingly involved in assignments that really matter: the high level consultancy."

Andy Laurence, Chairman and CEO of Hill & Knowlton EMEA commented: "We are obviously proud to be recognized in this way by such an influential voice as the Holmes Report. H&K is very people-centric and we make a great deal of effort to ensure that our colleagues have every opportunity to thrive and develop in the H&K environment. We are very committed to training and development and have been innovative and successful in this area, but we are not perfect and there is always plenty of room to improve and refine our approach to employees. I and my management team across EMEA remain committed to further developing this area and to remaining the employer of choice in the PR industry in the Europe, Middle East and Africa region. The Holmes Report Survey shows that we are heading in the right direction and this is positive, but we should not and will not rest on our laurels."

Dave Robinson, CEO of Hill & Knowlton Middle East said:

"In this region recruiting, retaining and developing quality talent is a crucial part of our business strategy and we work very hard to achieve results in this area. Our Middle East business has been particularly strong in terms of staff development, training and internal communications. We carry out an annual employee satisfaction survey across the Middle East and full 360 degree appraisals for all staff. Our training and HR agenda is largely defined by these activities. We have expanded our training programme significantly in the last 18 months. 2006 alone has seen 8 people from the region attend international training programmes and workshops including 3 people to Hill & Knowlton's First Chair and one person to Maestro, which were this year hosted in Barcelona."

"Locally we have hosted a Middle East training programme in the UAE for 3 days with all employees from our regional offices in the Middle East in attendance, and more than two dozen internal training sessions for our staff in our offices around the region. H&K Middle East has also recently launched an internal magazine for staff to share best practice, business updates and some of the lighter sides of life at H&K. In the last nine months we have transferred several staff to Europe and Asia Pac offices of H&K as well as a number of transfers within the region. We will pilot the first exchange scheme with a US staff member joining our team in the Middle East for 3 months later this year which we will reciprocate in 2007. The Holmes Report Survey is gratifying in that it recognizes the company's effort in this area and also some of the successes we are beginning to enjoy, but this is a never ending commitment - particularly in local markets in the Middle East."