BEST IN HR
SITESTOGO, Beechlawn, Cloncrane, Clonbullogue, Co Offaly.
Tel: 046 9730147. www.sitestogo.biz
Awebof
intrigue
Acommitmentto
empoweringitsemployees,
givingthemflexibilitytocarry
outtheirroles,hasbeen
integralinensuring
SitesToGo’ssuccess
‘Our people are carefully
chosen and we have had
zero staff turnover, largely
because we believe in
investing in them’
Maggie Bowen
F
INDING the right people has been critical to with her, and Bowen contracts out up to 200-hours of areaofonlineadvertisingandwebergonomics.“Everyone
the growth of 2020 Strategies, the company graphic design and development a month. on the team is aware of how to build a website well. We
behind the website builder SitesToGo, which “Our people are carefully chosen and we have had zero bring in people with the right technical skills, so we can
has had a year-on-year growth rate of 30pc over staff turnover, largely because we believe in investing in punch above our weight,” says Bowen.
the past three years in terms of turnover. them. Our policy is that 5pc of working time is spent on Build of websites is undertaken by a team of web com-
To date, the company has built and hosted over 600 learning,andwetakeaflexibleapproachtothisrightfrom munications, project management and best-practice
small to medium-sized enterprise (SME) and community the beginning,” she explains. experts,ratherthantechnologists,resultinginmorecost-
groupwebsites,providedtrainingandbusinesscoachingto Someofthetrainingwouldbeinformalcoursesontech- effective and usable websites, she adds.
companies under county and city enterprise board and nology and the implementation of websites and this is “We have approached site building from the ergonom-
LEADER schemes. It is currently contracted by Fáilte Ire- alignedwitheachindividual’spersonaldevelopmentplan. ics point of view, which deals with how the design works
land to provide supports to SMEs until the end of 2010. “One of our developers is currently doing a master’s intheenvironmentforusersandsearchengines.Theinno-
Maggie Bowen launched SitesToGo in 2002, following degree, while another is a Google-qualified professional. A vation that counts is in the way people use a site.”
a fast-moving consumer goods marketing background lot of businesses take the view that if you train people, all SitesToGo’s philosophy is that an SME’s site won’t suc-
and 15 years at board level in national and international you’redoingistrainingthemtofindanewjob.Butmymotto ceedunlessitgetsfivethingsright.Bowenexplains:“First
tourism organisations. is‘alwaysexpectmorefromeverybodythanyouexpectfrom it has to be found; 80pc of web visits start with search
“Forabigpartofmycareer,Iwasin‘corporatesort-out yourself’,” says Bowen. engines.Nextyouhavetogenerateclickthrough,bydraw-
mode’.Irealisedwhilesolvingvariousonlineproblemsfor Inadditiontotheemphasisonpersonaldevelopment,free ing people in with whatever appears on screen after the
organisationsthatitshouldbeeasyforthemtocontroland health insurance comes as standard for each employee search. It takes an average of seven seconds for someone
update their websites themselves,” she says. andthepayisaboveaverageforthemidlandsarea.“Wehave to engage with a site after entering it. We encourage
“Ididmyownfeasibilitystudywhileworkingforclients a flexible working policy — if the weather is bad, for exam- touristsitestoremovelargegraphicsorflashmovies.After
around Ireland and by then the alarm about the dotcom ple,thebusinessisorganisedsothateveryonecanworkfrom this,yoursiteneedstopromoteanactionsuchaslogging
had subsided. I was granted four employment grants homeandhasmobilebroadband.Iacceptthatpeoplehave intodosomethingorclickingonadatasheet.Finally,you
from the local enterprise board. I turned down two, differenttimesofthedaywhentheyworkbetter,andifthere’s needtoclosethesale,butthismostlystillhappensoffline.”
because I think if you grow too fast you’re in trouble.” achildcareissue,forexample,thattheyhavetogosometimes. When not working on client websites and internet mar-
Bowen and her two recruits started out from the front Because of this, we have built up trust.” keting from her base in the Bog of Allen, Bowen trains
room of her house, and three years ago the company Themainskillsinthecompanyareprojectmanagement, small businesses in web marketing. She is also a regular
receivedagrantundertheLEADERinitiativetorenovate graphic design, content management and search-engine speaker for the Irish Internet Association, as well as inter-
anoldcowbarnattheback.Eightpeoplenowworkthere optimisation. More recently, it was acquired skills in the national audiences abroad.
30 SFA NATIONAL SMALL BUSINESS AWARDS WWW.SFA.IE/AWARDS
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