One year ago today, we made a change. It was a minor change on the face of it, but in reality was probably the biggest we’ve been through in the history of ISL.  

After 15 years as ISL Recruitment, we woke up on Monday March 14th 2022 as ISL Talent.  

A subtle change in name and a bold change in our visuals, we launched ISL Talent to the world, hoping it would make a substantial impact.  

So one year on, how’s it been?  

Before I share some reflections, a quick recap on why we rebranded.  

For a while, we’d felt that the way we talked to clients one-on-one about our focus and how we’d add value was working, but not reflected in our external positioning. We wanted to signal that as well as the task of recruiting for our clients, we were helping them with planning, advice, insight, retention and so much more. We were focused on tech startups and scaleups, but our brand visuals weren’t reflective of that. So, after 15 years working with a name thought up in a pub, it was time for a change! 

365 days later, have we felt a difference?  

Without a doubt, the answer is yes.  

The team had been involved in forming our new brand, so come launch day it was already familiar to them, but from the first day as ISL Talent it was amazing to see the energy and buzz it gave them in talking to their networks. No more apologising for the website, or saying we understood venture-backed scaleups without the collateral to back it up.  

It would be a bit of a stretch to say that all our clients cared about our rebrand, but they all became clearer how we could add value in so many other ways than simply being a service provider to call when they need some CVs. 

So what did our clients really think about the rebrand?  

I’d invited a CEO to an event for scaleup leaders in Bristol that we host once a quarter, someone that didn’t know us at all. When chatting to him that evening, he mentioned our website and how strongly it spoke to him. Particularly around the team building aspect over simply CV sending, and how it demonstrated that we had credibility working with companies looking to scale. One reason he decided to come along was his incoming £3m seed funding and a need to hire, and I’m happy to say we’ve since hired a key role for him.  

An investor I’d had a few brief chats with over the previous year referenced some of the content we’d been sharing as part of the rebrand, and said how it was only then it had clicked how we could help some of his portfolio of seed and Series A stage funded businesses.  

Some great examples of how the rebrand impacted others externally, but what about our own team?  

“Our brand now mirrors the type of businesses we want to work with, and it’s much clearer how we can help those businesses grow". - Jack Davies, Associate Director  

“Since the rebrand, our mission, goals and focus on startups is crystal clear, and companies can really relate to us”. - Teagan O’Donovan, Managing Consultant  

“The rebrand has refreshed and reinvigorated me, as well as helped to differentiate us from other recruiters”. - Henry Keeys, Co-Founder & COO 

Even though the rebrand was a whole 365 days ago, I still feel excited to leverage the work we did, and to show prospects how we can partner with them to help their growth ambitions. My hope is that from here it will be clearer than ever to our network how we can support them in building great teams.  

That might be more referrals from VCs who know the founders they’re working with need help getting hiring right. Maybe it’s more seed and Series A stage founders who see the benefit in engaging with us to de-risk their team building plans. It’s also a continued confidence from our team in how we can make a real difference to the startups and scaleups we’re partnering with.  

Rebranding has always been much more than a marketing exercise to us. It was a re-imagining of our business that will be a key milestone for ISL Talent no matter what the future holds.