Did you know that 80% of all accidents occur when you take your eyes off the road for three seconds or less? At highway speeds, a look away can have you traveling half a football field blind. 

Stevie Award winner Drop Stop is the Original and Patented Vehicle Seat Gap Filler and one of ABC’s Shark Tank's most successful and popular selling products in the show's history! Shark Tank investor Lori Greiner offered Drop Stop a deal when its co-founders appeared on Shark Tank in 2013. Since then, Drop Stop has been in retailers across the country and in millions of vehicles, helping to keep people safer on the roads.

Drop Stop prevents items (cell phones, french fries, etc.) from being dropped into that annoying, yet ever so dangerous gap between the seat and center console in your vehicle.

Drop Stop's automotive safety device was created to 'Stop the Drop' and keep your eyes on the road, not in your gap.

Drop Stop's mission is to save lives and put an end to the leading killer on the roads, distracted driving. Due to the product's success, Drop Stop has been able to protect millions of lives across the United States with more than 5 million Drop Stops installed in vehicles and more than $50 million in sales.

Drop Stop has been featured on 11 episodes of Shark Tank, Good Morning America, CNBC, Oprah.com, Howard Stern, The View, The Queen Latifah Show, and more.

As Drop Stop continues to strive to save lives, they have been able to outfit the entire Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD) fleet of more than 3,500 police cruisers with Drop Stops.

In one year after those LAPD vehicles had traveled over 42,000,000 miles with Drop Stops installed, their collision rate with injuries to Officers dropped by 43% and Drop Stop was the only equipment change.

Driver distraction is the number one cause of death for officers on duty; being able to significantly reduce these accidents due to Drop Stop's auto safety device truly ensures that Drop Stop is achieving its mission to save lives by reducing distracted driving.

More of Drop Stop's milestones in 2021 include: 

- Sold over 5 million Drop Stops with over $50 million in sales.
- Drop Stops have become one of the top-selling and most popular products in ABC’s Shark Tank’s show’s history.
- Drop Stops are now sold nationwide in Walmart, The Container Store, soon-to-be Target, thousands of car washes and dealerships, hundreds of grocery and convenience stores, and many more outlets.
- Achieved over 30,000 Amazon reviews with a rating of 4.6+ stars.
- Completed over 200 sold-out appearances on QVC.

Drop Stop won the Gold Stevie Award for Company of the Year - Automotive & Transport Equipment in The 2021 International Business Awards®.

Interested in Entering the 2022 International Business Awards?

World's Top Honors for Women Entrepreneurs, Executives, Employees, and the Organizations They Run Were Presented in New York

Shining a spotlight on women executives, entrepreneurs, and organizations run by women, winners in the 2019 Stevie® Awards for Women in Business were announced on Friday, November 15.

With more than 500 businesswomen and their guests in attendance, the awards were announced at a gala dinner at the New York Marriott Marquis. Nations represented at the event included Australia, Canada, Finland, Indonesia, Ireland, Israel, Switzerland, Singapore, Taiwan, United Arab Emirates, United Kingdom, and the U.S.A., among others.

The presentations were broadcast live worldwide. Photos from the event are available here.

More than 1,500 nominations from organizations and individuals around the world were submitted to the awards this year for consideration in categories including Entrepreneur of the Year, Executive of the Year, Most Innovative Company of the Year, and Startup of the Year, among others. More than 160 business professionals working in eight specialized judging committees determined the Gold, Silver, and Bronze Stevie Award winners.

Grand Stevie Award trophies were presented to six organizations that submitted the best body of entries to the competition, in their own names or in the names of one or more clients. Winners were determined by the number of Gold, Silver, and Bronze Stevie Awards won in the competition. The Grand Stevie Award winners are:

• The Audacious Agency, Coombabah, QLD, Australia (#1)
• Melissa Sones Consulting, New York, NY, U.S.A. (#2)
• DP DHL, worldwide (#3)
• WDS Marketing & Public Relations, Overland Parks, KS, U.S.A. (#4)
• Harman International, Stamford, CT, U.S.A. (#5 TIE)
• Jeunesse Global, Lake Mary, FL, U.S.A. (#5 TIE)

The 2019 Gold, Silver, and Bronze Stevie Award winners reflect a diverse group of large and small organizations from around the globe. Notable Gold Stevie Award winners in this year’s competition include:

• Berna Tan, COO, Arvato CRM Turkey, Istanbul, Turkey — Female Executive of the Year in Europe, the Middle East & Africa
• Brenda Dennis, Vice President, Cisco Systems, Inc., San Jose, CA, U.S.A.— Female Executive of the Year – Business Products – More Than 2,500 Employees
• Oanh Phuong, Regional Head of Customer Support, Asia Pacific and Japan, HP Inc., Singapore — Female Executive of the Year in Asia, Australia, or New Zealand
• Carolyn Tisch Blodgett, Senior Vice President and Head of Global Brand Marketing Peloton, New York, NY, U.S.A. — Most Innovative Woman of the Year – Technology
• Siti Choiriana, Consumer Service Director, PT. Telkom Indonesia, Jakarta, Indonesia — Female Executive of the Year – Consumer Services – More Than 2,500 Employees
• Sarah Konowal, Co-Founder and CEO, Ripshot Enterprises, Toronto, ON, Canada — Female Entrepreneur of the Year in Canada
• Ann DeAngelo, Associate Director, Women’s Business Development Center (WBDC), Fairway, KS, U.S.A. — Women Helping Women – Government or Non-Profit
• Ritu Narayan, Founder and CEO, Zum, Redwood City, CA, U.S.A. — Female Entrepreneur of the Year – Consumer Services – 11 to 2,500 Employees
• Rachael Ferguson, CEO/Podiatrist, Synxsole, Brisbane, QLD, Australia — Female Entrepreneur of the Year in Asia, Australia or New Zealand
• National Association of Women Business Owners (NAWBO), Washington, D.C., U.S.A. — Event of the Year
• Solv by Concentrix, Belfast, United Kingdom — Best New Product or Service of the Year – Business Services; Most Innovative Company of the Year – More Than 10 Employees
• Thomson Reuters, New York, NY, U.S.A. — Communications or PR Campaign of the Year – Multicultural

Organizations that won more than one Gold Stevie Award include CAULIPOWER, Dubai Health Authority, Harman International, INKAS® Armored Vehicle Manufacturing, Jeunesse Global, LabTwin, Oceans 2 Earth Volunteers, Pennsylvania’s Department of Banking and Securities, Solv by Concentrix, The Audacious Agency, and Turkish Airlines.

HCL Technologies, the multinational information technology service and consulting company, sponsored awards in six Red Ladder Women in Technology categories. Among other notable Stevie winners in those categories are

• Jo Abernathy, Chief Information Officer, Blue Cross Blue Shield of North Carolina — Leader in Operational Excellence
• Rachel Barber, SVP & CTO, Gaming and Lottery, IGT — Transformational Sourcing Relations Leader
• Kirsten Davies, SVP and Chief Information Security Advisor, Estee Lauder Companies Inc. — Leader in Operational Excellence
• Kimberly Green-Kerr, Senior Vice President, Sprint Business, Sprint — Leader in Transforming Customer Engagement
• Laura Miller, Chief Information Officer, InterContinental Hotels Group (IHG) — Leadership in NexGen Technology
• Shalaka Prabhune, Head of Corporate IT, TiVo — Digital Transformer of the Year
• Carol Rohl, Executive Director, Global Research IT, Merck & Co. Inc. — Excellence in Transforming Business

For a complete list of Stevie Award winners and more information, visit http://www.StevieAwards.com/Women.

The Stevie Awards staged the second edition of its Women|Future Conference in New York on November 14-15 in conjunction with the Stevie Awards for Women in Business. More than 150 women shared two days of programming highlighted by keynote speeches by Sheryl Connelly of the Ford Motor Company and Selena Rezvani of Be Leaderly.

Entries for the 2020 (17^th) edition of the awards will open in May. The 2020 awards ceremony will be at Caesars Palace in Las Vegas, Nevada U.S.A. on Friday, November 13, with the Women|Future Conference sharing the same venue on November 12-13.

Entries for the 2020 edition of the Stevie Awards for Women in Business will open in May.

Friday, November 15 brings the staging of the 16th edition of the Stevie® Awards for Women in Business, the world's top honors for achievement for female entrepreneurs, executives, employees, and the organizations they run.  

More than 550 nominees and their guests, judges, and others will convene in the Broadway Ballroom of New York's Marriott Marquis Hotel for the announcement and presentation of the Grand, Gold, Silver, and Bronze Stevie Awards.  

More than 1,500 entries were submitted this year by organizations and individuals in 25 nations, for consideration in more than 90 categories including Executive of the Year, Entrepreneur of the Year, Startup of the Year, Women Helping Women and Women-Run Workplace of the Year.  Finalists in the competition were announced on October 3.

The presentations will be broadcast live via Livestream.

The Stevie Awards for Women in Business event will be complemented by the two-day educational and networking event, the Women|Future Conference, also at the Marriott Marquis Hotel on November 14-15. Tickets for both the conference and the awards dinner are still on sale.

Here is the list of organizations that will be represented at Friday's awards dinner.

5W Public Relations, New York, NY
Access One, Chicago, IL
Adrea Rubin Marketing, Inc., New York, NY
Alessia Falsarone, New York, NY
Angles & Insights, Newport, RI
AnswerConnect, Portland, OR
Arco + Associates, Ballwin, MO
Arctic Fox Hair Color, San Marcos, CA
Ashira Prossack - Multi-Generational Workplace Expert, New York, NY
Aspire, Phoenix, AZ
Assiduus Distribution Pvt Ltd, New York, NY
AT&T, El Segundo, CA
Award Winning Accelerator, Gold Coast, QLD, Australia
Bahwan CyberTek, Natick, MA
Bank Leumi, New York, NY
BCM One,New York, NY
Bitvore, Irvine, CA
Black Dress Circle, St. Louis, MO
BlackLine, Woodland Hills, CA
Bluewater Media, Clearwater, FL
Brainchild Studios, Milwaukee, WI
BTL Group Limited, Shipley, United Kingdom
C-4 Analytics, Wakefield, MA
Canadian Cancer Society, Toronto, ON, Canada
Candice Benson, Bedford, NH
Canine Comprehension Pty Ltd, Melbourne, Australia
Caroline Kennedy Group, Melbourne, VIC, Australia
Carson Group, Omaha, NE
Catalyst International, Waterford, Ireland
CAULIPOWER, Encino, CA
CBK Partners, New York, NY
Center for Deliberate Growth®, Mission, KS
CentralReach, Pompano Beach, FL
Children of Conservation, Atlanta, GA
Cisco Systems, Inc., San Jose, CA
Clerk & Comptroller, Palm Beach County, FL
Coast Professional, Inc., West Monroe, LA
CollegeFindMe, Cambridge, MA
Concentrix Corporation, Tempe, AZ
Curo Compensation, Edinburgh, United Kingdom
DarcMatter, New York, NY
DASTrader, Las Vegas, NV
Digging Deep, Cham, Switzerland
Diligent, New York, NY
Dream Catalyst Pte Ltd, Singapore
DRT Strategies, Inc., Arlington, VA
Dubai Health Authority, Dubai, United Arab Emirates
East of Ellie, an events co., Shelton, CT
Elite Tek Solutions, Overland Park, KS
Empire Eagle Food Co., Ltd, Taichung City, Taiwan
Entercom, New York, NY
Enthuse Marketing, New York, NY
Experian Marketing Services, Costa Mesa, CA
FACULTYNY LLC, Brooklyn, NY
First Advantage, Atlanta, GA
Florida Autism Center, Lake Mary, FL
FoundHer Community, Brisbane, QLD, Australia
Forest Hills Financial Group, New York, NY
Forrest Performance Group, Fort Worth, TX
Game On, Bradenton, FL
Global Press Institute, Washington, DC
GoHealth Urgent Care, Atlanta, GA
Graziano Associates, Fairfield, CT
Growth Acceleration Partners, Austin, TX
Harman International, Stamford, CT
HGS, Bangalore, India
Hired, San Francisco, CA
HP Inc., Singapore
Humana Insurance, Louisville, KY
Hunter Plastic Surgery, Charlestown, NSW, Australia
Huntington Learning Center, Oradell, NJ
iAmLife, San Diego, CA
IBM Manufacturing Solutions Pte Ltd, Singapore
IBM, Armonk, NY
Improving, Dallas, TX
INVNT, New York, NY
IRIS GLAM, Chennai, India
iTalent Digital, San Jose, CA
It's a 10, Coral Springs, FL
Jagathi Gururajan, Winchester, MA
Keto To Go, Mumbai, Maharashtra, India
Kiddicutter, Australia
Kurrajong Kitchen, Sydney, Australia
LBR Insight, Philadelphia, PA
Lendio, Lehi, UT
LexReception, Seattle, WA
Lockheed Martin, Iselin, NJ
Lora DiCarlo, Bend, OR
Luma Brighter Learning, Mount Pleasant, SC
MAD-learn LLC, Atlanta, GA
ManpowerGroup Solutions, Milwaukee, WI
Meli Studio, Sydney, Australia
Merritt Group, McLean, VA
MD Management Limited, Ottawa, ON, Canada
Microsoft, Redmond, WA
Mission Control Communications, San Francisco, CA
Motional Multimedia, Wildwood, MO
myWorth, New York, NY
National Association of Women Business Owners, Washington, DC
NationsHearing, Plantation, FL
Newday Media JSC, Hanoi, Vietnam
New Family Organization, Tel Aviv, Israel
Nicor Gas, Naperville,IL
Nuro, Mountain View, CA
PacStar, Portland, OR
Paysafe, Montreal, QC, Canada
Pennsylvania's Department of Banking and Securities, Harrisburg, PA
Picote Solutions, Porvoo, Finland
Plastic Specialties dba PSITops, Salt Lake City, UT
PNC, Tampa, FL
PointClickCare, Mississauga, ON, Canada
Portfolia Inc, Woodside, CA
Pride Cheerleading Association, Salt Lake City, UT
PT. TELKOM INDONESIA, Jakarta, Indonesia
Publicis Sapient, Miami, FL
Purpol Marketing Ltd, Chippenham, Wiltshire, United Kingdom
Quantum Leaps Inc., Arlington, VA
RedSeal, San Jose, CA
ReMAP Network, Toronto, ON, Canada
Ripshot Enterprises, Toronto, ON, Canada
Safal Partners, Houston, TX
Sage Restoration, Overland Park, KS
Scaling Retail, Los Angeles, CA
School District of Palm Beach County, West Palm Beach, FL
ScriptDrop, Columbus, OH
Selligent, San Jose, CA
SkyStem, New York, NY
Soar Aviation, Melbourne, Australia
Solv by Concentrix, Belfast, Northern Ireland, United Kingdom
SOSi, Reston, VA
Spartan Invest, Birmingham, AL
Sportsdigita, Minneapolis, MN
SpotX, Broomfield, CO
Springbuk, Indianapolis, IN
Sprint, Overland Park, KS
Story Rock Star, Sydney, NSW, Australia
Susan G. Komen Chicago, Chicago, IL
Sutherland Coaching and Consulting, St Johns, Antigua
Swiss Post Solutions, New York, NY
Sydney and West Painting and Rope Access Pty Ltd, Winmalee, NSW, Australia
Tangible Words Ltd., Ottawa, ON, Canada
TBWA\Istanbul, Turkey
TetraVX, Chicago, IL
The Audacious Agency, Gold Coast, QLD, Australia
The Bespoke Collection Australia, Sydney, Australia
The Makeup Artist Guild Asia Pacific Pty Ltd, Sydney, NSW, Australia
The Malvern School, Glen Mills, PA
The Painefree Group, LLC, St. Louis, MO
The SheFactor, Denver, CO
The Whitney Reynolds Show, Chicago, IL
Thomson Reuters, New York, NY
Titus, Ottawa, ON, Canada
TourRadar, Vienna, Austria
Trace3, Irvine, CA
Unison, San Francisco, CA
UpSpring PR, New York, NY
Vaco Los Angeles, Los Angeles, CA
Valor Global Phoenix, AZ
Versant Health, Baltimore, MD
ViON Corporation, Herndon, VA
Vitalware, Yakima, WA
Vivid Spring Solutions, Noblesville, IN
Vydia, Holmdel, NJ
Wambi, LLC, Philadelphia, PA
Welfont, Tampa, FL
West Insurance & Financial Group, Kalamazoo, MI
WeUsThem Inc., Halifax, NS, Canada
Wolters Kluwer's ELM Solutions, Houston, TX
Women's Business Development Center (WBDC), Fairway, KS
Y Media Labs, Atlanta, GA

Entries for the 2020 edition of the Stevie Awards for Women in Business will open in May.

For many employees in the corporate world, checking email is the most time-consuming activity of each workday. Despite this, innovation in email has been, arguably, lacking as compared to other forms of productivity software.

That’s where the app Front comes into the picture. The company offers a tool that lets workers combine their multitude of communication platforms, from internal messaging to email, into a single interface.

“By working on the most critical tool people use to get work done, we felt we could improve things on a large scale,” says Front spokeswoman Heather MacKinnon.

The firm, which is based in San Francisco, California, United States, believes it can help users save time by allowing them to access multiple communication channels—including social, SMS, chat, and calls—in a single app. Want quick feedback from your coworkers? By using mentions and comments instead of email, you can reach teammates instantly.

“There are very few knowledge workers who only communicate internally,” MacKinnon says. “From customers to partners, candidates to vendors, external parties have significant sway over what we work on and when.

“Yet these communications today, which largely take place via email, remain in a silo. They’re cut off from the rest of your team, as well as the other tools you use to do your job,” she says. “It’s part of the reason why email is the universal communication tool for work that is also universally hated.”

While apps geared toward internal communication are getting some buzz—the increasingly popular Slack is a prominent example—MacKinnon notes that workers largely rely on tools that have been around for a long time when they want to reach people outside their companies.

“Email hasn’t been significantly updated since Gmail introduced threading in 2004,” she adds. “Despite being the universal communication tool for work, email has only been incrementally improved over the last 15 years and has never been re-architected for the way people work as a team. Front is changing that.”

One of the ways the company is trying to revolutionize communication is by integrating other data sources, whether it’s CRM tools, such as Salesforce, or project management software, such as Asana and Trello.

All-Hands Approach to Customer Service

The roots of Front go back to Paris, France, where founders Mathilde Collin and Laurent Perrin started the business in 2013. The following year, the start-up made its way into Silicon Valley’s famed Y Combinator.

Packed into a home in the Bay Area of California, United States, the initial team of five employees lived and breathed the product for several months. It was a grueling experience, but one the company’s leadership still views as an integral part of the company’s development. The accelerator not only tested the company’s concept but exposed it to business prospects it wouldn’t have otherwise had. In just six months, Front amassed a staggering 3,000 beta testers.

This momentum hasn’t slowed. In 2016, the company was able to secure $10 million from its initial round of funding, and two years later, it gained $66 million of investments from a team led by Sequoia Capital.

Today, more than 5,000 businesses around the world use Front. MacKinnon suggests it’s not just the features of the app attracting those clients. The company also focuses on providing superior customer support in order to ensure users get the most out of their experiences.

Naturally they’re using their own tool to help do that. The team, now more than 100 strong, has shared inboxes in Front for its customer surveys, feedback emails, and support inquiries. All staff members have access to the inboxes, so they’re able to keep apprised of how users feel about the product.

MacKinnon says the company, which was recently named a StevieⓇ Awards winner for Customer Service Department of the Year, also emphasizes a “low-ego” ethos, which encourages workers to keep striving toward excellence. During its regular all-hands meeting, for example, staffers are encouraged to share their “Stumbles of the Week.”

“By encouraging employees of all levels—even our CEO and other leaders—to openly discuss their mistakes, we create a culture of humility and continuous improvement,” says MacKinnon.

The Stevie® Awards, organizers of the world’s premier business awards programs, today announced the Gold, Silver, and Bronze Stevie winners in The 17th Annual American Business Awards®.

All organizations operating in the U.S.A. – large and small, public and private, for-profit and non-profit - are eligible to submit nominations to the ABAs in a wide range of categories, honoring achievement in every aspect of work life, from customer service and management to public relations and product development. More than 3,800 nominations were reviewed in the judging process this year by more than 200 professionals, whose average scores determined the winners.

2019 Stevie winners will be celebrated and presented their awards during a gala event on Tuesday, June 11 at the Marriott Marquis Hotel in New York. Tickets are now on sale. The presentations will be broadcast via Livestream.

Publicis Sapient (Miami, FL) with eight Gold and four Bronze Stevies, and The XD Agency (Atlanta, GA) with seven Gold and one Silver, are leaders among the Gold Stevie Winners with wins in a wide range of categories. They are sure to be among the winners of the Grand Stevie Award trophies, the top overall winners in this year’s ABAs, who will be announced next week.

Among the organizations with the most Gold, Silver, and Bronze Stevie Award wins are ADP (Roseland, NJ), ARIIX (Bountiful, UT),  Comcast Business (Philadelphia, PA), Cvent (McLean, VA), Darktrace (San Francisco, CA), Jeunesse Global (Orlando, FL), LABOV Marketing Communications and Training (Fort Wayne, IN), Lycored (Orange, NJ), Merkle (Columbia, MD), PAN Communications (Boston, MA), Reltio (Redwood Shores, CA), Rimini Street (Las Vegas, NV), and SoftPro (Raleigh, NC).

For a complete list of the Stevie Award winners announced today, visit http://www.StevieAwards.com/ABA.

Every new product or service nominated in The 2019 American Business Awards is included in voting for the People's Choice Stevie Awards for Favorite New Products, a worldwide public vote. Voting is now open at http://peopleschoice.stevieawards.com and will conclude on May 31. People’s Choice Stevie winners will be announced the week of June 3 and will be honored during the June 11 presentations.

“The nominations submitted for The 2019 American Business Awards were outstanding.  The judges found the competition to be intense, and those recognized as Stevie Award winners should be immensely proud of this accomplishment,” said Michael Gallagher, president and founder of the Stevie Awards.

About the Stevie Awards
Stevie Awards are conferred in seven programs: the Asia-Pacific Stevie Awards, the German Stevie Awards, The American Business Awards®, The International Business Awards®, the Stevie Awards for Women in Business, the Stevie Awards for Great Employers, and the Stevie Awards for Sales & Customer Service. Stevie Awards competitions receive more than 12,000 entries each year from organizations in more than 70 nations. Honoring organizations of all types and sizes and the people behind them, the Stevies recognize outstanding performances in the workplace worldwide. Learn more about the Stevie Awards at http://www.StevieAwards.com.

After spending weeks scanning job listings and showing up as your best-dressed self to job interviews, you’ve finally come across the perfect role. You exceed the requirements, and you have a lot of relevant experience, as well as the soft skills the company is after.

All that’s left is a return phone call saying, “Come on by to discuss your employment with us!”

That call never comes though. Why is that? Could it be because your last name isn’t something like Smith?

The immigrant workforce, visible minorities, women, and historically overlooked groups have demonstrated increased success when a company hires more diverse workers.

Attracting—and especially retaining—a diverse workforce should be an important focus for employers in all sectors.

Progressive HR and recruiting companies like career.place aim to remove biases one hire at a time.

Formed in 2016, career.place has been diversifying hiring processes and compliance through a SaaS-based solution that put applicants through an anonymous, consistent, and semi-automated hiring funnel. Using the software, employers advance anonymous candidates who meet the company’s needs and remove those who simply don’t qualify. This technology helps applicants demonstrate they are qualified for positions, and the right people can move forward to the final stage in the hiring process.

Career.Place won three Bronze Stevie® Awards including Woman of the Year in Business Services Industries, Startup of the Year in Business Services Industries, and Entrepreneur of the Year in Computer Software in The American Business Awards®.

The Paradox of Hiring: Anonymity Brings Back Humanity

Melissa Dobbins, founder and CEO of career.place, built the company on the simple premise – bias has no place in hiring. Job seekers and employers are noticing her company’s unique approach; which starts by defining the needs of the job, and anonymously evaluating candidates against those needs, thereby focusing on what matters without the distractions of what is not.

Of course, diversity and compliance are in the news a lot, and this has perfectly positioned companies like career.place to solve the diversity-related problems companies are having now or will potentially have.

Career.Place has created a software solution where applicants are evaluated based on the employer’s criteria, including criteria such as requirements, soft skills (measured by integrated assessments), and responses to job-scenario and situational questions. All unrelated information about the applicants are hidden including name, education, titles, and other biasing information typically found on a resume – think “The Voice” but for applicants. The process is efficient, fair, and eliminates the need for time consuming resume and phone screens.

“Ironically by removing applicant identities, including their gender, age, ethnicity, favorite sports team, and other biasing and irrelevant information, we are giving applicants their voices back.” says Dobbins. “Imagine the great talent overlooked because of details like not knowing the right keywords to get through an automatic filter or having a gap in work history. By removing that information, and replacing it with information like qualifications, soft-skill assessments, and responses to job scenario questions, great talent will stand out because they are great.”

Change agents driving for a better tomorrow

Organizations gain valuable perspectives from diverse talent. There are many reports and studies that show diversity is good for business, but fundamentally, it just makes sense – companies will more effectively sell, support, and engage with a market if they reflect the full diversity of that market. Unfortunately, conscious and unconscious biases get in our way, constantly nudging us to hire others like us, rather than those who are best for the role, the company, and the mission. Dobbins details her experiences dealing with this before starting her company.

“When applying for jobs, I have been asked some very odd questions that I suspect my male counterparts have not had to deal with. For example, probing questions about if I would leave work to pick up my child if she were sick– indecently, that line of questioning is illegal. I have been asked if I could fire people because it is emotionally difficult, if I could handle difficult personalities, and if I would be interested in a single contributor role (i.e. a demotion) before being evaluated for the position at hand. What do you think my experiences would be like if those who interviewed me didn’t know I was a woman? What would your experiences be like if in your next job application the company doesn’t know what you are – just what value you bring?”

“These stories are universal. I have never met anyone who hasn’t experienced bias in one form or another,” continues Dobbins. “For me, I became obsessed with becoming part of the solution – a way for people to be evaluated fairly and consistently based on their skills and qualifications, and not assumptions made based on what they look like or what’s on a resume. And so career.place was born.”

A diverse workforce is good for business, good for communities, and good for the employees. There is no silver bullet for creating a diverse, engaged workforce. It is a future that will take many change agents – from entrepreneurs, like Dobbins, who are creating solutions to support unbiased hiring to those who are engaging and cultivating talent across every demographic group. Together we will succeed and the impact will be profound.

For more information about Melissa Dobbins or career.place, go to www.career.place.

https://www.career.place/single-post/2018/03/19/Do-Not-Hinder-Diversity-with-Bias-in-your-Hiring-Process-Have-a-Plan

RAK SME was established in 2007 by Amiri Decree in Ras Al Khaimah, United Arab Emirates to support young entrepreneurs with start-up projects. They provide small and medium enterprises with everything from quick and easy steps to simplify their procedures, to market entry resources. Their efforts have enabled the youth in their communities to establish and develop projects to enhance sustainable development in the Emirates. This work led them to win the Bronze Stevie Award for Company of the Year in the Small, Nonprofit or Government Organizations category of The 2017 International Business Awards.

Achieving Sustainable Development

In order to provide an attractive environment for Emirati youth entrepreneurs, RAK SME supports a mission to strengthen the national economy through the Saud Bin Saqr Foundation for the Development of Youth Projects. RAK SME is also an initiative of Ras Al Khaimah Chamber of Commerce and Industry by incorporating a wide range of services to the members of their corporation. Rashed Sawaqed is the Business Development Consultant for RAK SME, specifically focusing on Feasibility Studies and Business Development Consultancy which aims to support and develop SME's in Ras Al Khaimah.

“From facilities and exemptions to commercial license fees, industrial and sustainable development, RAK SME makes annual goals for clear and distinctive imprints during the process of promoting and supporting youth enterprises. In addition to encouraging nationals to lead businesses, diversify the economy, and achieve sustainable development.”

RAK SME services provided for its’ members include exemptions from the payment of commercial license fees, economic and legal consultancy, business incubators and business admin services, training and development programs, workshops, discounts on various services (including participation in local and external exhibitions) and free industrial and commercial plots for development.

Playing a Major Role

Saud Bin Saqr Foundation for the Development of Youth Projects is one of the initiatives of the Ras Al Khaimah Chamber of Commerce and Industry. The Foundation aims at developing the business sector and contributing to the government's policy in the development of youth projects in the Emirate of Ras Al Khaimah, where small and medium enterprises play a major role in the development of the national economy. Sawaqed comments on how winning a Stevie® has made a positive impact on achieving their goals.

“Winning the Stevie Award was an enormous achievement for our organization and continues to prove beneficial to our operations. The awards raised our customers’ confidence in our business and our capabilities.”

RAK SME is now organizing a practical training course entitled "Making Financial Decisions for Your Business Project" for entrepreneurs. Those interested in the business community within the framework of the plan can develop and qualify small and medium enterprises under the umbrella of the Foundation.

The 4th annual German Stevie Awards is now accepting entries. Companies and organizations from all industries can now enter nominations free of charge for their best projects and achievements, to compete for the coveted Stevie Awards trophies.

Early-bird entrants will benefit from a reduced winners fee until December 6, 2017.

Since the founding of the International Business Awards in 2003, the Stevie Awards have become firmly established in the global economic world. Since 2014, the German Stevie Awards have been offering companies operating in the German market a competition platform for national benchmarking.

The special feature of the Stevie Awards: “They are not just another industry award for the big players,” says Michael Gallagher, president and founder of the Stevie Awards. “Certainly, many of the world’s largest and best known companies are among our winners. But most winners of the Stevie Awards are small and medium-sized companies that are still growing and are still building their brands.”

The entrants may choose from a great variety of categories, such as awards for entire companies and organizations, that honor the achievements of for profit and non-profit organizations, large and small, private and public. New at the German Stevie Awards in this year are the categories “Entrepreneur of the Year” in 34 industries as well as the title “Solo Entrepreneur of the Year”.

The entry kit and a complete overview of the categories and subcategories are available at www.StevieAwards.com/Deutschland.

There are many other categories to recognize achievement in every major business function, including product development, marketing, customer service, human resources, public relations, technology, and more.  Michael Gallagher adds: “Many categories of the German Stevie Awards also honor great achievements in the field of business-related media and publications.” This includes awards for live events, annual reports and publications, app development, videos and websites.

This year, participating organizations can expect a slightly different way to submit nominations. For the first time, the German Stevie Awards will waive the general entry fees and replace them with a special winners fee. This means that entrants can submit unlimited nominations in unlimited categories free of charge. Instead of paying an entry fee for each submitted entry, entrants will only pay a winners fee per successful nomination.  Each nomination that wins a Gold, Silver or Bronze Stevie Award will be assessed a winners fee of 400 euros. Companies submitting their nominations through the first entry deadline, December 6, 2017 will benefit from a reduced winners fee of 375 euros per winning nomination.

“We have decided to take this step to encourage more organizations to participate in the German Stevie Awards,” said Michael Gallagher. “With the new model, companies will only be charged if their nomination is recognized as a winner by the jury”

The payment of the winners fee will unlock the right to publicly claim Stevie-winner status and the winner will be listed in the official winners list. There are more benefits, including access to all judges’ comments about all of their entries and the right to receive their award on stage at the awards ceremony.

If entrants miss the December 6 entry deadline, they will still be able to submit their nominations through January 24, 2018.

Several juries of leading German business executives will determine the Gold, Silver and Bronze Stevie Award winners.

On April 27, 2018, the Gold, Silver and Bronze winners will be celebrated and honored with their Stevies at a festive awards ceremony in Berlin. New this year: Each award winner will receive a trophy according to his level in Gold, Silver or Bronze. (In the past, only the Gold Stevie winner automatically received a trophy.)

A complete list of all 2017 Gold, Silver and Bronze Stevie Award winners by category is available here. For high-resolution photos of the Stevie Award trophy or the German Stevie Awards logo, visit http://stevieawards.com/gsa/photos-and-logos. We are happy to provide you with more press photos from previous winners and awards shows on request.

Learn more about the German Stevie Awards 2018 at www.StevieAwards.com/Deutschland.

World’s Top Honors for Women Professionals to Be Presented in New York on November 17

Finalists were announced today in the 14th annual Stevie® Awards for Women in Business, the world’s top honors for women entrepreneurs, executives, employees and the organizations they run.

The Stevie Awards for Women in Business are produced by the creators of the prestigious American Business Awards and International Business Awards. The Stevies are widely considered to be the world’s premier business awards.

This year’s Gold, Silver and Bronze Stevie Award winners will be announced at an awards dinner at the Marriott Marquis Hotel in New York City on Friday, November 17. More than 500 women and their guests from around the world are expected to attend the presentations, which will be broadcast live on Livestream.

More than 1,500 entries were submitted this year by organizations and individuals around the world for consideration in more than 90 categories including Executive of the Year, Entrepreneur of the Year, Startup of the Year, Women Helping Women and Women-Run Workplace of the Year.

Organizations with multiple finalists in a variety of categories include, among others: ARIIX (Bountiful, UT, US), Clariti Group (Brisbane, Australia), FIS (Jacksonville, FL, US), Forward (New York, NY, US), Jeunesse Global (Lake Mary, FL, US), Oceans 2 Earth Foundation (Brisbane, Australia), Pink Elephant (Burlington, ON, Canada), Simpson Healthcare Executives, LLC (Old Lyme, CT, US), Songpa-gu (Seoul, South Korea), Tavuu Welfare Association (Karachi, Pakistan), The International Society for Pharmacoeconomics and Outcomes Research (ISPOR) (Lawrenceville, NJ, US), Tropic Skincare (London, United Kingdom), Vaco Los Angeles (Los Angeles, CA, US) and ZingBox (Mountain View, CA US).

Nominations were submitted by organizations in 25 nations including Australia, Bahrain, Canada, Germany, Iceland, India, Italy, Jordan, Kenya, Lebanon, Mexico, New Zealand, Nigeria, Pakistan, Philippines, Portugal, Saudi Arabia, Singapore, South Africa, South Korea, Sweden, Taiwan, Turkey, United Kingdom and the United States.

Visit http://www.StevieAwards.com/Women for a complete list of finalists by category.

Finalists were chosen by more than 170 professionals worldwide serving on five specialized judging committees.  Jurors’ average scores will also determine the Gold, Silver and Bronze Stevie Award placements from among the finalists, which will be revealed at the November 17 event in New York.

All Female Entrepreneurs, Executives and Employees Worldwide Are Eligible

The Stevie® Awards, organizer of the world’s premier business awards programs, has issued the call for entries for its 2017 (14^th annual) Stevie Awards for Women in Business. Entry kits and complete details on the competition are available at http://www.StevieAwards.com/Women.

The awards are produced by the creators of the prestigious American Business Awards and International Business Awards.

REVIEW THE ENTRY KIT HERE

The Stevie Awards for Women in Business honor the achievements of working women in more than 85 categories, including: Best Entrepreneur, Best Executive, Mentor or Coach of the Year, Lifetime Achievement Award, Women Helping Women, Employee of the Year, Woman-Owned or -Run Company of the Year and Innovator of the Year. All female entrepreneurs, executives, employees and the organizations they run, worldwide, are eligible to be nominated.

The final entry deadline is August 23, but late entries will be accepted through September 20 with payment of a late fee. Finalists will be announced on October 4, and the Gold, Silver and Bronze Stevie winners will be revealed at a gala awards dinner at the Marriott Marquis Hotel in New York on November 17, 2017.    

Most categories require the payment of an entry fee for the submission of a nomination, but several categories require no fee, including most of those honoring women in the non-profit and governmental sectors, Female Employee of the Year and the Startup of the Year categories.

Niamh Barker, founder and managing director of The Travelwrap Company in the UK, commented on the impact of her win. “Winning the Stevie Award was an enormous achievement for me and my business and continues to prove beneficial to our operations every day. I had no idea of the impact that winning this award would have on our business until I checked my email from my hotel room the next morning and online orders had flooded in from across the USA. We now have a growing and loyal customer base in America via online and retail outlets. The Stevie Awards have definitely helped elevate our U.S. presence.”

Winners of the 2016 Stevie Awards for Women in Business include, among others: 

• Mina Lux, Founder and CEO, Meelo, New York, NY
• Rakefet Russak-Aminoach, President and CEO, Bank Leumi, Tel-Aviv, Israel
• Yvonne Mei, Executive Vice Chairman of World System Builder, World Financial Group, San Jose, CA
• Ellie Hollander, President and CEO, Meals on Wheels America, Arlington, VA
• Nyree McKenzie, Managing Director and Principal Consultant, Thought Bubble, Brisbane, QLD, Australia
• Astha Malik, VP of Marketing, PagerDuty, San Francisco, CA
• Teresa White, President, Aflac U.S., Columbus, GA
• TAPfit, Queensland, Australia
• Prelude, London, UK
• Humana Insurance, Louisville, KY
• Century 21 Real Estate, Madison, NJ

The 2016 Gold, Silver and Bronze Stevie Award winners reflected a diverse group of large and small organizations around the globe. The 2017 Stevie Awards for Women in Business will be judged by more than 200 leading professionals around the world, and nominees will have access to all of the judges’ comments and suggestions about their nominations: an invaluable resource.