Former agency leaders Naomi Goodman and Laura House have announced the launch of their new employee communications and experience consultancy, the-thread, dedicated to 'connecting your people.'

The global pandemic has driven businesses to think differently about how they operate for the longer term. From changing the customer experience to operating a hybrid working culture, many sectors are gearing up for sustained change. For employees, this brings radical shifts in how they behave, interact and make decisions. Now more than ever, connection matters.

The new consultancy exists to help thread that connection, by delivering insight-led creative communications, compelling content and meaningful experiences that connect employees, to deliver on business potential.

The-thread focuses on four key services: communication, culture, transformation and leadership and offer their clients strategic planning, immersive workshops and events, and campaign and content delivery across all four areas. From creative techniques and change management to storytelling, improvisation and mind training, the-thread’s networked team of specialists bring insights and inspiration from diverse perspectives to create tailored services that disrupt the norm, bring people together and change behaviours.

With over 30 years of combined industry experience working with some of the world’s most exciting brands, the co-founders, former colleagues and long-term friends have a clear purpose; to create happiness through more meaningful experiences. With a background ranging from internal communications audits to large scale transformation programmes, their founding belief, supported by years of industry research, is that happy, productive employees drive a stronger, more sustainable business.

House says, “We wanted to create a consultancy where there was a real sense of possibility, of opening doors, just when it feels as though lots of doors are closing. The-thread is our space to curate, create and do some amazing work for clients without any restrictions. This is a new working world and a lot of excellent people that we’ve collaborated with over the years want to work differently, which is great for us as it gives the-thread a brilliant networked team. We love working in this way because we can tailor-make the team for the client. We can offer flexible, highly skilled teams; and although most of our networked team have big agency backgrounds, as a small and nimble young company, we don’t have the overheads that larger agencies have. This translates into more bang for their buck for our clients.”

Goodman adds, “The pandemic has reminded us that ‘normal’ is a moment in time, not a continuous reality. Yet the pace of our everyday working lives means it can be hard to take a step back and see how to do something differently. Our past experience has shown that few businesses truly break free from the complexities that surround them, so the-thread was born out of our desire to help our clients to do things differently. From the services we offer to the impact we make, we're driven by our client’s ambitions and aspirations. Not only is Laura a valued partner who I’ve loved working with over the years, she’s also a wonderful friend. Setting up together now just feels right.”