Ascent Group and Oxford Process Excellence expand collaboration for building AI capabilities

Ascent Group and Oxford Process Excellence strengthen their strategic partnership started in 2023.

“We are living through times of rapid and profound change, especially with the rise of AI reshaping the workplace. As employees struggle to adapt, the key question is: Are we taking the right steps to support them?”

The beginning of the year marks for Ascent Group the conclusion of a strategic partnership with a leading global organisation in the field of international recruitment: EPSN Workforce.

The national Emergency Committee published the new list of measures and restrictions for the next 30 days.

Ascent Group continues its expansion plans, and November 2021 marks the conclusion of a strategic partnership, an agreement that is covering the Greek and Cypriot markets.

Ascent Group is continuing its regional development through an important partnership with LMPC Consulting in Sibiu.

This week, the Emergency Ordinance 10/2021 (amending the OUG 224/2020) was published, which established the new State aid scheme for HoReCa.

”A time of crisis is the best moment to innovate” has become somewhat of a cliché lately. But is this really the case?

Process automation is a concern for all companies today. At Ascent Group, this process started some time ago, before the current crisis, and we have chosen from the very cutting edge solutions, based on artificial intelligence.

Expected by an entire country, the extension of the emergency situation was published on 14 April 2020 in the Official Gazette of Romania n. 311, by decree of the President of Romania n. 240.

As of 15 April 2020, the state of emergency will be extended by 30 days throughout Romania. It had been established previously, even for a period of 30 days, from 16 March 2020.

The new decree supplements the first emergency measures directly applicable in a number of sectors. In this article we will focus only on those that have an impact on the business environment. We will report them below, structured on areas, as they were also included in the regulatory document.

In the economic field

• the validity of documents issued by public authorities which expire during the state of emergency is maintained;

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In the recent days we have received many questions from customers, partners, collaborators, but also from people outside our contacts, on how anti-crisis measures are applied within companies.

In order to cope with the large number of requests, but also because most of the questions are repeated, we are drawing here a list of quick questions and answers, grouped by category, a mini-guide to help companies and employees navigate more easily through this difficult period. Consider it a crisis survival kit.

This evening (25th of March 2020) the order for issuing the Emergency Certificates for the companies whose activity has been affected by the SAR-cov-2 pandemic was published in the Official Gazette.

Which are the rules?

• the Emergency Certificates (EC) will be issued by the Ministry of Economy, Energy and Business Environment;

• the Certificates are released, on the basis of the applicants’ request, which are the business entities affected by the SAR-cov-2 pandemic;

• The applicants are the legally authorised persons of the business entities under the provisions of OUG 30/2020 and OUG 29/2020, respectively:

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We are living these days an exceptional period, in which all things happen differently than we were used to. But on how we will all mobilize to overcome this moment will also depend on the future evolution of things. And at such times, we believe that we must prove solidarity and contribute with everything we can to provide support to those around us.

At Ascent Group, our main resource is know-how. And these days we receive an avalanche of questions related to the latest legislative measures, the declaration of the state of emergency, the alternatives that employers have to make work more flexible during this period, medical leave, quarantine, fiscal measures to mitigate the impact of the crisis, etc.

In the context created by the coronavirus (COVID19) pandemia, employers play a major role in reducing the risk of employee contamination with the new virus.

Apart of the implementation of additional hygiene measures and the correct information of employees on how to protect themselves, companies can adopt, in the framework of labour relations, solutions that make work schedule and the way of work more flexible.

One of the measures may be the decaling of the work programme, as state Secretary Raed Arafat recommends in the middle of last week.

 As a result of the courses suspension in pre-university education in Romania, between March 11 and March 22, 2020, the public authorities have decided to take measures to help parents who cannot leave their children unattended.

Therefore, the Chamber of Deputies adopted on 12.03.2020, by unanimous vote, the legislative initiative that obliges all employers, both public and private, to grant paid days off to one of the parents in the situation of temporary closure of the schools due to adverse weather conditions or other extreme situations decreed by the competent authorities with responsibilities in the field.

The law also applies to single persons from the single-parent family, to the legal representative of the child and to the person designated to exercise the rights and fulfill the parental obligations towards the child.


Therefore, free days are granted for as long as the authorities decree the closure of schools.

The summer brouth a new Human Resources Manager in Ascent Group’s team. Starting in mid-June, Florina Băbău joined the Ascent Group team to coordinate the human resources activity of the group.

Florina is a graduate of the Faculty of Economic Sciences of the Western University of Timisoara and holds numerous certifications in the field of management and human resources. Being very passionate about learning and discovering new ways of developing people, Florina is currently continuing her education at the School of Psychology and Psychodrama.

Professionally, Florina has over 15 years of experience in human resources, both in multinational and local companies, in various roles such as: Improvement Coordinator, and subsequently Training & Development Coordinator for Leoni Wiring Systems Arad, HR Manager within ARED group, or HR Recruitment & People Development at Coficab Eastern Europe.

Ascent Group continues it’s expansion plans, and July 2019 marks the opening of a new office, in  Piatra Neamț.

The expansion decision is based both on Ascent Group’s strategic plan to be present in all Romanian’s regions and the business potential of Romania’s North-Eastern region, which is growing mainly on the IT&C serivces and shared services centers. An important role in the office opening decision played also identifiction of the right local partner. 

In case you have heard of Service Design and Design Thinking but do not know exactly what they are, this article is for you.

Have you ever entered a store, hotel or restaurant and felt that something was not entirely how it is supposed to be? That what you are looking for is not in the right place, that it takes too long for you to be served, or that many of the employees’ actions or operations are useless? Have you ever accessed a certain website and felt it was very complicated to find what you were looking for, doing unnecessary mouse movements and countless clicks until you found the button you needed

Have you ever felt that the people inside your organization who provide you with internal services (legal, HR, purchasing, ICT, etc.) do not always respond promptly and efficiently enough to your needs? Or that your whole experience in the organization is far from desired?

2017 was a year of business growth and consolidation for Ascent Group, which was confirmed by the reported financial results. With a turnover increase of 14.9%, the group exceeds its own growth forecast, estimated at the beginning of the year at 10%, and for the first time in its history it has reached an annual turnover of EUR 3 million.

Not only the turnover shows a positive development, but all the main indicators of the group registered increases in 2017, respectively all types of services provided by the companies within the group had positive dynamics.

The year 2017 represented also a key year in the recognition of Ascent Group as a global training programs provider. This year, the training and coaching division of the group has won several important international projects, thus engaging in the formation of management teams in different countries in Central and Eastern Europe.

Even if it seems hard to believe, in Romania, we will get rid of the stamp requirement!

This provision actually already existed from 2015, when a paragraph of the Law 316 already eliminated the corporate obligation to stamp the claims, declarations or other documents in relation to institutions or public authorities. However, a large proportion of the public sector employees continued to request abusively the application of the stamp on these documents.

In order to improve this situation, on 30 June 2017 it was published in the Official Gazette no. 507 a Government Ordinance that not only reaffirms the lack of stamp obligation, but also qualifies officials`demand to apply the stamp as being abusive.

From September 1, 2013 several changes to the Tax Code and its implementing rules shall take effect. Among them, are worth mentioning :

Introduction of the reduced VAT rate TVA of 9% for backery products

This will apply to the following products:

• all kinds of bread
• croissants, rolls, sticks, pretzels, minibaghete, batons and braids ;
• white wheat flour, milled wheat flour, wheat flour and dark rye flour ;
• triticum spelta and meslin wheat – CN code 1001 99 00, and rye – CN code 1002 90 00

Excise tax will be extended to more products.

New categories of luxury products will be subject of the excise tax, such as:

The recently discussed chenges regarding the minimum wage in Romania became a fact. Thus, in the Official Gazette (Part I, no. 52.2013) was published the Decision no. 23/2013, which states the minimum gross base salary guaranteed in Romania.

The new rates are:

• starting with February 1, 2013, the gross minimum wage is 750 lei per month for a full-time program of 168,667 hours in average per month
• starting with July 1, 2013, the gross minimum wage is 800 lei per month for a full-time program of 168,667 hours in average per month

The beginning of the year brought some changes related to the legal and fiscal status of the microcompanies in Romania. Specifically, based on the Government Ordinance no. 8/2013, published in the Official Gazette no. 54 from 23 January 2013, the article 1121, c) of the Fiscal Code was modified, it’s new content being: „obtained revenues that do not overcome the amount of 65.000 euro”.

In other words, the 100.000 eur limit for revenues that allowed a company to qualify as microcompany, valid until last year, was reduced to 65.000 euro.

Tuesday, August 28th 2012, the Government Decision no. 16/2012 was published, modifying and completing Government Decision 92/2003 regarding the Fiscal Procedure Code.

Modifications will apply starting August 31st 2012, except dispositions regarding closing of debts (pct. 3), which will apply starting November 1st 2012. 



Most important changes:



Ascent Group continues its expansion plans by opening a new office in Romania, in Sibiu.

Ascent Group’s office in Sibiu will offer clients all types of services the consulting group Ascent is offering, but also aims to become a catalyst for enhancing business relations between the central part of Romania and other countries in the region.

Not last, Sibiu office aims to provide support to all foreign investors intending to start a business in Transylvania.

The office in Sibiu is the 7th office opened by Ascent Group, after those in Bucharest, Arad, Chisinau, Limassol, Sofia and Belgrade.

The contact details where you can find our new office are:

Ascent Group Sibiu
Revolution street no. 1, apt. 15
Tel: +40 269 211090
fax: +40 269 211722

We look forward to see you in Sibiu!