We all know that our industry is experiencing record volumes while dealing with challenging market conditions. Our incredible team has been navigating these challenging waters for our clients and customers, while continuing to give back to the global community and improve our business practices. We are excited to break away from the madness of our desks and share a few highlights with our valued clients and partners.
At IOR, people are our prIORity. We have added amazing new talent to our team – in the last 12 months, we have nearly doubled our team of employees! In 2022 alone, we have hired 17 new employees and 3 interns, and we have also significantly increased our team of Destination Consultants across the US and Canada. The growth of the business has created development opportunities for our team, and we are thrilled to announce 7 promotions in the first half of 2022. We also created new roles, including two Destination Services Operations Managers (Anna Dabrowska and Irena Lovrinovic) and Senior Manager of Destination Services (Andrea Gullickson).
Despite record high volume, our quality processes have remained strong, and we were honored to earn our recertification of the EuRA Global Quality Seal (EGQS) through 2024 this past May. The 2022 EGQS standard included an audit of IOR’s Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion and Sustainability policies and practices which remain top initiatives for our organization.
With the strides we’ve made in the Sustainability space, IOR recently achieved a Silver Medal on its EcoVadis Sustainability Assessment which covers the environment, labor and human rights, ethics, and sustainable procurement. EcoVadis is the world’s largest and most trusted provider of business sustainability ratings.
For the fourth straight year, IOR has been named one of the Best Places to Work in Illinois by the Daily Herald Business Ledger, which recognizes outstanding places of employment in Illinois. IOR was recognized as the 25th Best Place to Work in the Small Business category (up to 100 employees) for 2022.
Finally, IOR and our employees have continued to focus on giving back to the broader community. This year, we launched a program to provide pro bono Cultural and Language Training to companies with employees leaving Ukraine. IOR has led several group programs that have helped employees and their families who have had to leave their country because of the war. Sadly, the war in Ukraine has continued for many months, so we remain committed to this effort and have more programs scheduled for this summer.
