The Let’s Talk Talent Manifesto

A review of 2019 and what it will mean for us in 2020

When Let’s Talk Talent was founded five years ago, one of the first things we did was to establish a set of core values. Values that would help us achieve our purpose of supporting organisations that truly wished to bring about positive change for their people. Those are at the core of everything we choose to do, from the associates we work with, to the clients we support. So as the end of the year approaches and we get ready for 2020, we first wanted to take a step back to review what we’ve achieved in 2019. All this of course using our very own benchmark. No, not our balance sheet; we wanted to measure our success against our own manifesto.

1) Life’s too short for beige

For those of you who know us, you will be aware that our approach to HR isn’t conventional. We steer clear of creating policies that will sit in a drawer or initiatives that have no real impact. We’re proud that this year has brought us a ton of opportunities to use our creativity and help clients achieve real meaningful results. We’ve worked with organisations truly intent on being a great place to work, giving us the canvas needed to flex our creative muscles. We have also started new working relationships with clients across the globe, such as Dubai, with new cultural angles to add to the mix.

Objective reached then? We can go and retire in the sun? Well no. This year has enabled us to work with great clients who don’t want to be beige either. Therefore, we want to do more of this in 2020. We want to dial it up and find more organisations willing to add colour to their employees’ professional lives.

2. Kind people are my kinda people

We’d like to think that by being kind, we will attract kind people in return. This has definitely been the case in 2019 and we are proud to have worked with several organisations in the charity and education sectors, such as Origin Housing & Kings College.  On top of this, we have supported some businesses struggling in the current economic climate and done some pro-bono work.

We’ve also launched our mentoring programme. Using our own network to connect people, we’ve matched several HR Directors with high potential candidates for them to exchange and learn from each other. The benefits for both sides are clear to see. So much so that we aim to launch the same initiative in Dubai during 2020 and will continue to find ways to be both kind and altruistic in the year to come.

3. I respect people that tell me the truth, no matter how hard it is

We do pride ourselves in being kind. But being kind isn’t the same as being nice. Kindness sometimes means having difficult conversations, being open and sometimes painfully honest. We are a no-bullshit, transparent and collaborative organisation.

This year, this has sometimes meant walking away from clients when we thought the efforts put in wouldn’t lead to impactful change. Whilst this isn’t something we wish for, we are proud that when we’ve done so, we’ve always left those businesses in better shape than before we arrived.

Throughout the last five years, we have worked hard to make LTT into a lifestyle. And we want everyone that comes into contact with us to sustain that lifestyle. For 2020, as we grow both the organisation and the panel of clients we work with, one of our biggest challenge will be to motivate this growing network of partners to live and breathe that same values as us.

4. Get shit done

2019 has been our most rewarding year to date. We have grown hugely as a business and we are both incredibly proud and thankful to have had the opportunity to work with over 15 clients. But this amazing growth does come with a new set of challenges.

As an organisation, we are extremely agile and creative. And we get stuff done. That’s something we don’t want to lose by adding lots of processes and complexity. So we are in the process of reviewing our operating model to accommodate that growth in a way which sustains our values. This will be key for us in 2020; building on our agile ways of working to scale up our operations and continue to get shit done for our clients, partners and associates.

5. The best is yet to come

2019 has left us in a fantastic position to launch from, as we are very optimistic about the future. But whilst optimistic, we are also realistic enough to know that success requires investment in the right areas. For us, that’s sales. We will be investing to support our growth ambitions in and out of the UK, as well as moving to an account-focused model. That’s for the business side.

But we also have other goals. Non-revenue-based goals. For the past few years, we have poured everything into making LTT a successful business. Now that we’ve come out of the start up phase, we want to achieve a better work-life balance for our own people and move to a more sustainable way of working. Starting in the New Year with a well-earnt holiday to Swedish Lapland for Jo.   

So whilst the end of the year has certainly brought a well-deserved opportunity to celebrate, we are glad that we are entering 2020 with a clear set of new goals, strongly aligned with the core of what makes us unique. And we hope you are in the same position, going into the new year with purpose and enough energy to create change and continue to strive towards being a great place to work. But in any case, we’ll check back in regularly to let you know how we’re doing in this new uncertain, sometimes scary and exciting climate. Truly and honestly, without any bullshit.