Management Team of the Year Winner: Roc Search


SPONSORED BY Conor Roughneen (4th left), Roc Search, collected the award from Robin Barnes (right), NatWest


Nadine Dereza explained that this category winner needed to have a management team that had driven its business forward using knowledge and creative ideas and developed strong leadership and teambuilding skills.


There were six talented contenders:


Black Swan Analysis: Based in Maidenhead and founded in 2007, Black Swan is an analysis practice specialising in the healthcare industry. It is growing fast and has six of the top 15 global pharmaceutical companies as its clients.


CV-Library: One of the UK’s largest online job sites, with a database of 9.3 million CVs and over 125,000 live vacancies at any one time. CV-Library attracts 3.5 million jobseekers every month. It has just launched a sister company in the USA.


Roc Search: Based at The Blade, Reading, Roc Search has outgrown all local recruitment companies in both turnover and profit, within just eight years. It is a regular Virgin Fast Track 100 contender.


Roc Technologies: – similarly named but nothing to do with Roc Search – was previously nominated in the TVBMA award-category for SMEs, and is the Newbury-headquartered business transformation company working with names like Tecso, Centrica and Mercedes.


Thomas International: Experts in people assessment through psychometric testing, Thomas International is proud of its level of employee engagement. It now operates beyond business in the spheres of sport and education.


FISco (UK) had already gained one TVBMA title during the evening. As procurement specialists in


www.businessmag.co.uk


facilities management, could it procure and take back another to its Winnersh headquarters?


NatWest regional director Robin Barnes announced the awards, teasing the audience with a description of the winning team as “a business that the Thames Valley can be especially proud of given its growth to £20 million turnover since 2007, along with successful expansion to London, Germany and the US.”


The enthusiasm with which all the management spoke about their current business, future opportunities and especially staff, particularly impressed the judges.


“It was obvious the business prides itself on its staff development and has many examples of employees successfully progressing from entry level roles right through to senior management.


“Management’s ambitious growth plans underpinned by innovation in the sector, along with its refusal to be bound by geographical


borders, ensured this management team stood out.”


Barnes announced the winning company – Roc Search – whose managing director Conor Roughneen received the overall category award.


CV-Library took second place, FISco (UK) took third, while the remaining finalists – Black Swan Analysis, Roc Technologies and Thomas International – received Highly Commended certificates.


Roughneen of Roc Search explained afterwards that his management team had been created largely from within.


Having founded Roc Search and suffered recessionary setbacks, Roughneen admitted: “I knew early on that I couldn’t do it all on my own and had to find a key group of people who could work with me and grow the company organically. But, we did recruit quickly, finding good young people, and investing in them to enable them to become the managers they are today.”


All too aware that talent is in short supply and recruiting can be very difficult nowadays, Roc Search focuses internally on employee engagement and attractive employment benefits.


His management team have shares in the company, rewarding their efforts, aligning their objectives and giving them a vested interest in growth. “Retention is key to the growth of any business.


“From a recruitment point of view, if you haven’t got good people in your business, you haven’t got a business.”


THE BUSINESS MAGAZINE – THAMES VALLEY – DECEMBER 15/JANUARY 16


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