ISME People: the launch
I am really excited to be finally launching the new ISME People website and brand. Here’s the journey of ISME.
IN THE BEGINNING
It all started back at the start of 2017 when I was on maternity leave with my 2nd daughter. After almost 16 years of working for the biggest recruitment company in the UK, I became thoughtful of wanting to create a better work-life balance that saw me travelling less and being around more for my then two young children (I now have 3). I also felt I was falling out of love with the recruitment seemed to be becoming less personal which didn’t sit right with me.
I then received a call from my manager to say that my current job role was going to be at risk of redundancy but they would find me another client to look after. I could tell my manager had been dreading giving me this news whilst I was off, however for me it felt like a bit of a sign that now was the right time to set up on my own. With the financial security of a redundancy payout to see my family through that first year, where I took no salary. I then started discussing ideas with a good friend and also ex-work colleague, we both felt passionate about creating a business with people at its heart and using our combined experience of over 30 years to develop something we were proud to call our own, that provided an excellent service to our clients and those candidates we were supporting to find new roles.
So the next bit which proved really tricky was coming up with a name. We went through so many options and I am not joking it took 4 months and lots of reaching out to friends and family etc. But eventually with the help of the guy creating the first website we came up with Isme Recruitment. Isme was a combination of both our first daughter’s names, Ivy and Esme. To us that felt important, we were creating a business around our growing families and wanted it to link to this, plus it rolled off the tongue nicely.
THE COVID PANDEMIC
So Isme Recruitment was formed, the business started trading in September 2017, it has been bloody hard work, I will not lie but there has never been a moment when I have regretted my choice in leaving the corporate world and setting it up. Covid hit us in 2020 at a time we finally felt we had a decent client base and we were really starting to establish a great reputation. Our clients came and stayed, we were providing a bespoke service led with people at the heart of everything we were doing but wow we did not expect to be hit by a global pandemic! Overnight all our clients cancelled their roles, candidates due to start had offers retracted and it felt like the business was going to go down the pan. We furloughed ourselves as we tackled suddenly having our children at home and took on the job of their class teacher (not the career for either of us we found, I certainly have a new level of respect for all those amazing teachers out there!). It has been the hardest time to get through and sadly due to personal reasons my business partner had to make the difficult decision to leave the business.
TIME TO REFLECT
Towards the end of 2020 it’s fair to say things were looking pretty grim, however I am never one to be defeated. So, what did I do? I took time to reflect on where I wanted to take the business, I worked with several business coaches who helped me find the answers by asking me the right questions plus I spent a lot of time thinking about my service offering and target clients. I also joined a networking group that introduced me to so many great people, many of which became clients or cheerleaders, helping me when things felt a bit stuck.
“So Isme Recruitment didn’t feel like the right name anymore and I made the decision to re-brand as Isme People, I didn’t want to part with Isme as that’s a name that means something to me and is part of the journey but by switching the recruitment for people it felt like it aligned better with the service offering.”
ISME PEOPLE — THE NEW BRAND
So, this all led to a new website and a re-brand. I decided that the clients I really wanted to spend my time working with were the smaller businesses without their own big HR or Recruitment team. Those that really need the guidance and support of an expert, a true partner. I also wanted to offer these small businesses more than just a traditional recruitment service, so I have created partnerships with HR and Training providers to be able to offer this as part of the ISME service. I also wanted to be able to offer clients behavioural profiling for both recruitment of new hires but also to talent map their existing employees. This felt like the business I was here to provide and something I am truly proud of.
So Isme Recruitment didn’t feel like the right name anymore and I made the decision to re-brand as ISME People, I didn’t want to part with Isme as that’s a name that means something to me and is part of the journey but by switching the recruitment for people it felt like it aligned better with the service offering.
LOOKING FORWARD
So here we are, I am so excited about the future and want to thank every client, candidate and those people who have kept me focused on my ‘why’ throughout the last 4 years, you all know who you are. We are now at a point where we are scaling the business and making things even better. Looking forward to having you on the journey, enjoy the ride.
I want to take this opportunity to thank a few people by name who have massively helped with bringing all this together.
Louise Maggs for designing this fab website, for taking the time to ‘get’ me and what I wanted. Plus for designing a new version of the logo.
Nick Cole for his amazing photography skills and putting me at ease throughout the 3 hours session, I hate having my photo taken. My husband always says ‘Stop pulling that silly face’ or ‘You don’t smile like that be natural’ which ultimately means you overthink it all and look even worse. Nick, you worked your magic on me.
Lisa Talbot who is a personal stylist and listened to the look I wanted to create, looked at my brand and colours, then created outfits for the photoshoot which I loved. This was worth every penny and I would recommend doing this for any corporate shoot or a personal one.
Barry Hunt for creating to copy, taking what I wanted to say but making it sound better. I choose Barry to help me with this as we had gotten to know each other through a networking group and I felt he had heard me talk about my business to members of the group so many time that he would be able to bring this to life and he didn’t disappoint.
Jackie Novels for working with me since the start of the year to create the right brand messaging across the social media channels. For taking our weekly chats about what is going on in the business and creating fabulous content which really helps to position ISME in the right way and aligns to our core values. Jackie will also be helping us to apply for some business awards in the coming months and provides an excellent service to clients around this.