So it’s celebration time, as we launch our rebrand today. ISL Talent is born.

And 15 years after the business was formed, it feels we are well overdue a change. 

Jumping back a little, what’s prompted all this? Quite rightly you’d cite the pandemic, and that’s definitely been a catalyst, but it was brewing before that I think. Within a few weeks of masks, hand sanitizers, and lockdowns I’d realised I had a strong desire to do things differently in the future, sensing this was a time to rethink what’s important.

But of course first, in challenging times for recruiters, we had to look after our team and make sure we could survive today to get to tomorrow.

And we did. Once we’d navigated that tricky period, living placement by placement and month by month, it was time to look forward.

As part of our rebuilding process, we realised we needed to be more inclusive about how we could improve the business and I’m pleased an action from that maps through to why we’re shouting about a new name and so much more.

In spring of 2021, we introduced fortnightly Business Improvement Meetings. Our way of gathering feedback from across the business on what we were doing well and what we could do differently. 

At the end of the first one, I asked the 5 people present what we would be doing if we were 10x bolder. How could we move away from the survival mode we’d been stuck in?

How could we start thinking about how we thrived in future?

Emma, one of our Managing Consultants, said we should rebrand. Update our marketing, tell our story, be clear on our focus, pursue the relationships we really valued.

Simple, but not a modest action.

The following week, I shared the 10x bolder ideas with my business partner, Henry, and the rebrand idea stood out to him. Although his initial enthusiasm might have dampened slightly when we I told him it would probably be a five-figure investment, we both agreed it felt the right time to put some serious effort into updating what we wanted the business to stand for.

Our old values weren’t ones we wanted to run away from, but they weren’t drawing anyone towards them either. The green logo might have had some sentimental value, but it looked out of place when sat next to our client logos, and the website wasn’t adding much value sentimental or otherwise.

So we kicked off a rebrand, engaging with a brilliant brand consultant, Sue Bush.

She interviewed 5 key clients, to understand how they felt about the value from our work. They said some things we hoped to hear, but many more bits that helped us understand the depth of our best relationships and excited us about building more like them.

We also did workshops with all 17 of our team, capturing what how they felt about our business and what was important to them about the way we worked.

It was the first day for our content writer, Roisin, and I remember thinking we couldn’t have wished for a better induction.

Recruitment is an industry that so often talks about money, so it was heart-warming to hear much more than that from the team on what made us a good place to work.

The combination of internal and external review helped obtain different perspectives, but also showed that there was strong alignment between each side.

When I was talking to someone about our rebrand, they commented that it was positive to hear that it was an inside-out rebrand. They meant that it wasn’t one directed by marketing, or me and Henry. Instead, it was one that was born from wanting to be clear on how we were viewed and reflect to the outside world what you’d see within.

So what’s staying the same? A business born out of a desire to create a recruitment business about people, not numbers. One with autonomy at its core, and high integrity giving everyone a sense of direction.

But our logo will change. No more lone green! You’ll see a mixture of colours in our branding from today.

Our name of course. We won’t pretend we’re not a business with recruitment at the heart of what we do. But changing to ISL Talent signals that we’re much more than that, helping startups and scaleups with planning, insight, retention and much more.

Our focus will be so much clearer across our digital footprint. It’s startups and scaleups, with tech at their core and with growth ambitions driving them forward.

Our approach will be building relationships for tomorrow over taking pounds today. That doesn’t mean we will ignore sales opportunities but does mean that we’ll offer advice and support to startups because we want to see them succeed rather than doing it solely to convert them to a client.

Our business will value and strive to achieve in metrics like employee engagement, customer retention, and productivity. Headcount and revenue will be consequences of growth, not targets that drive behaviours inconsistent with our values.

Plenty of people have told me that no-one outside of our business will care about our rebrand. And I agree that’s largely true.

But I also think what we’re doing isn’t just a rebrand, because that suggests it’s purely a marketing exercise.

This is a reimagining of our business.

Being really clear about what me and Henry want ISL to stand for. And how that makes a difference to those involved with us as clients, candidates, employees, and partners in the startup community we serve.

Whatever label you put on this process, we hope you’ll join us in celebrating the birth of ISL Talent and building better businesses through people.

And if you’ve got feedback on what you see or think there’s something we can do together I’d love to chat. Drop me a line (alan@isltalent.com) or give me a call.