It is still about people

How things turned out to be different. This was supposed to be a year of celebration.

The Thalento® journey, started in 2010, had entered its 10th year with ambition. We were building our next generation assessment platform and we would grow seriously. No small tasks. We had just started in January, when the first signs of a global pandemic became apparent. Little did we know how different 2020 would be.

Looking back at the past 8 months I can’t but be more proud of the resilience and adaptability of the Thalento® team; the staff in Hasselt, our development team in Poland and our Partners throughout Europe. In working together, we coped with the challenges we faced and reshaped Thalento® for the future.

Like so many of our colleagues and clients we too were affected by the lockdown. Our business too was impacted. We had to rethink the way work. We had to let people go, but are grateful they all found a new challenge.

Over the past months we have reshaped Thalento®. Today we are ready to share how we intend to go into the future.

Remote Centres of Excellence

The future of work will he hybrid. The office as the only place for business was already under pressure. Me, I have always been most productive outside the confinement of an office. In the future, places of  work and private life will merge and flow over in each other. People will embrace a new work/life rhythm. Places of business will no longer be static, they will be dynamic and adaptive. We will no longer spend hours stuck in traffic and videocalls will replace basic meetings. In light of this it seemed obvious that we too, should let go of the one place of business vision. Business is where our clients are.

In the midst of the pandemic it became clear that if we wanted to be successful in the next decade, we had to redesign the way we do business. We needed to rethink our purpose and direction.

Talks with all stakeholders quickly pointed out the focus areas. We started to redesign and reshape the fabric of our organisation. The first area of focus was our international network.

Thalento® International. To achieve international growth you need to think international. But what does that mean? When I looked closer at the way we handled our international business, it was too much inside out. We needed to bring more international into our international business. We decided to open up the way we did international business. We brought it closer to our current and future clients and partners.

Once the idea was accepted, things moved fast. On July the 1st it was a fact. We completed the first step in our renewed  international strategy. Thalento® International, founded and managed by three(3) Thalento® Partners was erected in Warsaw. The objective; to distribute Thalento® in EMEA and support Partners and Clients from their unique international perspective. Over the next two years they plan to grow the number of partners in all European countries. Today, Iwona Suchomska(CEO) and her  7 people strong team are ready to fully engage in this next phase of the Thalento® growth. The first new Partnerships were already signed in Italy, the UK and Serbia, over the summer period.

The next area of attention was to re-think the Training and Development. From day one a Thalento® strength, but somehow an area that never got the full attention it deserved.

Thalento® Academy, Putting training and development in the centre of our activities has always been our approach. Yet this requires a dedicated focus. A level of attention that we were not always able to give. Long talks with experts in Thalento®, experienced professionals and our international partners resulted in the logical solution.

We needed an exclusive strategic Partnership with a highly experienced organisation that could focus on the Training & Development of Thalento® Solutions.

Since September Talent Masters is our exclusive Training & Development Partner for both Thalento® and Thalento® International. In the expert hands of Hilde Lemmens and Nathalie De Regge our training and development will receive all the attention it deserves. Today they are shaping and expanding the way Thalento® Solutions are supported. The offering will include traditional training, online trainings and webinars and a portfolio of interactive e-learning solutions. In the coming weeks they will present their approach to our clients and partners.

Looking Forward

The game and the rules have changed in the past 8 months. How do we as an organisation and as a society deal with this? How do we adapt, how do we prepare for what’s ahead if we can’t predict what’s ahead.

There are no simple or easy answers.

However, I am convinced that the dynamics of business haven’t changed. It is still about People.

People deliver Results and we understand People.