Reflections on 3XO’s first anniversary 

It’s a year since we launched 3XO and, at a recent weekend event, the team took a moment to reflect on the past year and look forward to fulfilling times ahead. 

Twelve months ago, the Founding Partners, Rupert, Mike and I, recorded our purpose and optimal ways of working: how we saw 3XO helping clients and how we had envisaged working life as a 3XO team member. I wanted to share some of the conclusions of our reflections, one year on. 

When we launched 3XO we wanted our approach to be grounded in our real experience of both what needs to be achieved and how best to get it done. We agreed that our purpose would be to support our clients to develop and deliver their people-related objectives  focusing on: 

  • Reward 
  • Performance 
  • HR policy review  
  • One-off RemCo projects 
  • Implementing meaningful ESG policies and targets 
  • Employee relations 
  • Job evaluation and market benchmarking 
  • Organisation design 
  • Workforce planning 

As I said, it’s been a busy and (happily) successful year! From a standing start, we’ve worked with a great many clients from different sectors, of diverse size, structure, and stage of business development. From privately held entertainment and property organisations to governments and FTSE 10 financial services, the team has enjoyed helping HR functions, Boards and business teams achieve their goals.   

And it’s not just the type of project that has been true to our purpose, it is the way we have worked with our clients. Our deep subject knowledge means that we can develop solutions, advising on what needs to be achieved; but, in addition, where needed, we have rolled up our sleeves and worked alongside our clients, complimenting and augmenting their existing teams to deliver and implement those solutions. We prefer this way of working and we think this is one of the reasons we are gaining new clients every day, mostly by referral.  

Looking forward to 2023, we are doubling down on our purpose. In line with our growing book of business, our Network of Principals and Associates has grown considerably over the past year from we three Founding Partners to a larger, but still close-knit, team of talented individuals. As we expand our Network, we will ensure that we stay true to the other important aspect of our stated purpose: to create rewarding work and a great working environment. We know that there is always room for improvement, but we’ve certainly found that our platform continues to attract high calibre people to work with us. Long may it continue! 

Finally, this article is a very welcome opportunity to say a public ‘THANK YOU’ to our clients, to our great Principals and Associates and to all supporters and friends of 3XO. It’s been an amazing first twelve months and we’re looking forward to another exciting year of interesting, rewarding work with great teams and colleagues. 

Rupert McNeil, Mike Aldred and Julie Elder of 3XO, July 2022

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