A Bespoke 360° Leadership Development Journey

As cross-divisional collaboration and internal mobility became increasingly vital, RELX saw the need for a unified leadership framework to connect teams across units and regions, moving beyond its traditionally decentralised approach.

“The BeTalent 360° helped us show that leadership excellence isn’t just an HR concept... it’s embedded in hiring, performance, and culture.”

— Stuart Freeman, Head of Leadership Capability, RELX

Global provider of information-based analytics and decision tools

  • 37,000 employees in 40+ countries

  • 4 business divisions: Elsevier, LexisNexis, RX, Risk Solutions

  • 3,000 enabling leaders

  • Focus: Cross-divisional leadership development

Driving Leadership Excellence at Scale

Challenges

  • Encourage voluntary engagement with leadership development tools, including 360° feedback, without triggering resistance or performance anxiety

  • Ensure the new approach was scalable, pragmatic, and culturally embedded, not a generic HR initiative

Our Approach

BeTalent partnered with RELX to design and deliver a bespoke 360° feedback tool aligned with their newly defined RELX Leadership Excellence (RLE) framework.

This framework identifies 3 core capabilities and 12 consistent behaviours relevant across all levels from new joiners to senior executives.

Key aspects:

  • Customised 360° feedback aligned to RLE behaviours, with questions mapped to specific leadership expectations for RELX’s ‘Enabling Leader’ stage

  • Rigorous psychometric validation to ensure feedback gathered would be credible, balanced, and behaviourally anchored

  • BeTalent coaching support for each participant, ensuring meaningful interpretation of their feedback and a strong developmental focus

  • A confidential and individual-centred approach, where reports were not shared with HR or managers unless voluntarily disclosed

Deployment and Impact

Launched as a proof of concept for RELX’s 3,000 enabling leaders, the 360 tool was offered both programmatically and individually, with volunteers gaining line manager support.

Over 200 leaders took part in 18 months with approximately 70% voluntary signups, who had the highest completion rates showing strong engagement.

  • The tool helped shift perceptions of 360° feedback from performance management to development

  • Confidentiality and external coaching boosted trust and engagement

  • Early insights are now shaping Relx’s learning strategy, highlighting shared strengths and development needs at the enterprise level

Why it Worked

  • Co-designed with RELX, the 360 tool felt relevant, credible, and psychologically robust

  • Tailored language boosted engagement and external coaching drove deep reflection and action

  • A scalable digital platform ensured global accessibility and future growth potential