ITR is delighted to retain Investor in People accreditation in recognition of its practices for training and developing employees.

An external audit carried out on 6 February 2008 by Capital Quality Limited confirmed that "the Assessor is totally satisfied that ITR International Translation Resources Ltd continues to meet the requirements of the IiP national Standard".

The Standard is underpinned by three main principles:

• PLAN: develop strategies to improve the performance of the company
• DO: take action to improve the performance of the company
• REVIEW: evaluate the impact of this action on the performance of the company

ITR was the first translation company to be accredited to the IiP Standard in 2002 and was audited in 2005 with renewed recognition. During this period, the Standard has evolved and now requires evidence of compliance with a total of 37 indicators.

Examples of indicators include:

• Learning and development is planned to achieve the company’s objectives
• Strategies for managing people are designed to promote equality of opportunity in their development
• People’s contribution to the company is recognised and valued

Established in 1985, ITR has built a reputation for providing high quality multilingual translation services to global clients. The company prides itself on its ability to combine linguistic quality with technical expertise in the use of language technology. This requires continual investment in software and training.

John Fisher, Finance Director, estimates that ITR’s annual spend on training alone is around £75,000. This may seem a high sum for a company with only 52 permanent employees but his view is that "Our people are our most important asset and there are many compelling business reasons for investing in their development. The IiP Standard provides an excellent framework for this"

ITR's people comprise a large project management team, localisation engineers, an editorial team and in-house desk top publishers. There is a strong focus on customer service which also requires investment in training for people to achieve consistency in promoting company values. Managers attend courses on developing their presentation and leadership skills, time management, creative thinking and so on.

Helen Eckersley, Production Director, said of the award "IiP recognition helps us to attract and retain people of the highest calibre and is also a testament to the skills and dedication of our senior managers who constantly practise and promote ITR's core values within their teams. It is a great accolade to be recognised as a centre of best practice in human resource management by this highly regarded national Standard."