London, 07 July 2008 – StepStone, a leading provider of total talent solutions, today announced strong momentum for both Online and Solutions businesses during Q2.

Colin Tenwick, CEO of StepStone, commented: “We have been encouraged by worldwide demand for our Talent Management solutions throughout Q2.  Our Online business continues to show strong year on year growth, with the traditional summer seasonality pattern establishing itself, particularly in the Nordic markets. Meanwhile, demand for Solutions broke all previous records with over 100 new customers selecting StepStone in the quarter, with every geography performing well.”

Key highlights and company milestones for Q2 include:

  • Increased demand for solutions products in all markets in which we operate. The record number of new customers included: Ericsson (Germany); Adidas and Birra Peroni (Italy); SAAB (Sweden); UMOE Group (Norway); Canadoil Group (Thailand); Grant Thornton (UK); Tefal (Turkey); and Saft Power Systems (France)
  • Continued recognition by industry analysts: StepStone remains the only European headquartered talent specialist to be positioned in the Leader’s quadrant in Gartner’s 2008 E-Recruitment Magic Quadrant
  • Sustained demand in Online, with new customers including Swarovski and Motorola in Italy and Deutsche Bank and Sat-1 in Germany
  • Partnership with Raet in the Netherlands now bearing fruit, with four new customers signed during the quarter, including one of the country’s main water suppliers.

Tenwick continued: “Overall demand remains strong with an average year on year growth in excess of 30%. This is being driven by our balanced portfolio of products and services delivered across multiple geographies.

We remain positive about the outlook for the remainder of the year and will continue to deliver to our current business plan.”

StepStone will announce its results for Q2 on 25 July.

ENDS.


About StepStone
StepStone was founded in Norway in 1996 and pioneered the development of online recruitment. Today, StepStone is a leading global provider of Total Talent Solutions, ranging from careers websites to on-demand software for e-recruitment and talent management.  StepStone’s portfolio of Total Talent Solutions ranges from recruitment through on-boarding, training, career and succession planning, performance management and more. In addition, StepStone is Europe’s number two operator of careers websites (based on ComScore data).  Covering 13 European countries, its portfolio of online properties allows recruiters to source candidates quickly and effectively through individually focused campaigns.

Thousands of organisations, including Amey, Aviva, AXA BMW, British Airways, Fiat, Royal Bank of Scotland and Xerox use StepStone's products and services to help them recruit qualified staff globally. StepStone is the only European-headquartered vendor to be recognised as a ‘leader’ by Gartner, Inc’s "Magic Quadrant for E-Recruitment Software, 2008” report and has also been awarded the highest rating for Employee Performance Software by Bersin and Associates.

For more information see: www.stepstone.com

Contacts:
Ian Clapp, Director of Investor Relations
Tel: + 44 7850 128094
Ian Cole, CFO
Tel: +44 7808 946404

Dave Mutton, StepStone
Tel: + 44 (0) 1483 739 450
Email: dave.mutton@stepstone.com
 
Robin Grainger / Catherine Moran
Brands2Life
Tel: +44 (0) 207 592 1200
Email: stepstone@brands2life.com