Recruitment client

Client: MRL Consulting

Services provided:

• Media relations
• Thought leadership content marketing

Key results:

• 100 million+ people reached via the likes of Sky News, BBC, and WIRED.
• Client continues to be cited as subject expert four years later.
• Six-figure contract secured.
• LinkedIn followers increased to more than 35,000.
• 22.5% increase in visitors to the company website.

Why did they appoint Clearly?

Clearly PR has worked with more than 100 recruitment companies over 10 years, and has an established name within the sector. Our clients include some of the biggest names in the industry, including Reed, Monster, Hays, and Odgers Berndtson, and those who aspire to join their ranks.

MRL was recommended to Clearly by one of the industry’s leading and most influential advisory figures. He knew of us for some time through an online magazine and newsletter that we published which focused on helping recruitment business leaders to learn how to kickstart their own PR activities.

So, when one his advisory clients, MRL Consulting, said they needed a PR firm for their agency, we were top of mind.

Objective

MRL is a specialist recruiter within the niche high-technology market. They have been working in this field for more than 25 years and at the time had 50-60 staff across three offices in the UK, Germany and France (they’re now at over 120).

The business operates within an ever-competitive landscape and persistent skills shortages increased the need for MRL to stand out among its rivals who are vying for the same talent. It is also a sector known for having a long-hours culture and higher than average incidences of work-related stress and associated mental health conditions:

• Staff turnover stands at 43%, which is higher than the national average.
• 74% of recruitment professionals have suffered some form of mental health issues over the past 12 months.

MRL presented Clearly PR with three key challenges to help them overcome:

• To raise awareness of the company’s actions to better address the work-life balance of its people and reduce incidences of workplace stress and associated mental health issues.
• Enhance MRL’s reputation as an employer of choice to attract the talent they need to realise their short- and long-term growth ambitions.
• Position the business as a recruitment provider of choice within their target market.

Timeframe

• 18 months

What would success look like to the client

• Secure media coverage for the business and position it as one of the earliest proponents of the four-day week by promoting the mental and business health benefits of this working model. This was before the post-COVID zeitgeist when the four-day week was more concept than reality for most industries.
• To make mental health a subject that can and should be spoken about publicly in an industry that has struggled either to admit that it was an issue or simply didn’t understand how to talk about it.
• Position MRL as an employer of choice in their own right and attract the talent they need to realise their growth ambitions.
• Boost the profile and reputation of MRL as being distinct to other recruitment companies and in doing so elevate them to recruiter of choice status.

How we delivered value to the client

MRL became the first recruitment business in the UK to introduce a four-day working week. Whilst this was newsworthy in itself, especially in 2020, to keep the interest of journalists and the conversation going over a prolonged period of time, we needed to dig deeper into some of the issues surrounding this decision and the impact it had on MRL as a business:

• The Clearly team secured media opportunities for the client to talk about a range of aligned issues in article, commentary, and interview formats. These included:
  • Mental health.
  • Alternative working practices.
  • Workplace stress.
  • Employee relations.
  • Productivity.
  • Economic trends and predictions.
  • Talent management and attraction.
  • Hiring trends.
  • Workplace issues.
  • Employer branding.
  • Organisational growth.
• The senior and consultancy team had vast experience in the sector. We sought to maximise this by leveraging their sizeable LinkedIn networks and creating shareable insights and opinions on topics relevant to the technology recruitment market, which resonate with their niche audiences.
• We created dedicated blogs for the website, helping to demonstrate the business’s knowledge and understanding of the different sectors. In total, we created over 60 pieces of original content for the client, including:
  • Thought leadership articles and blogs.
  • Social media content.
  • Whitepapers.
  • Long-form industry insights
• These were used to complement the company’s overall marketing activities.

Results we’re proud of

The campaign resulted in a phenomenal volume of high quality and highly targeted media outlets, with in-person or on-site interviews with:

• SKY News
• BBC Radio 4
• Radio 4 The Bottom Line with Evan Davies
• ITV News
• BBC Politics Live
• The Guardian
• WIRED
• Forbes
• The Independent
• Information Age
• HR Director
• Recruiter
• Employee Benefits Magazine

The campaign reached an audience of over 100 million people. To listen to the CEO’s interview with Evan Davies for The Bottom Line, click the image below:

In addition, the campaign:

• Boosted the client’s profile as an employer of choice, with an impressive 95% staff retention rate, 25% increase in productivity, and 87% of employees reporting a marked improvement in their mental health.
• Served as a lead generator with a single six-figure contract secured by the client on the back of one of the white papers that Clearly researched, wrote, and designed for them.
• A lasting legacy was created. Despite the Clearly-led campaign concluding in late 2020, MRL continues to be called upon by the media to comment on each of the areas that we focused their messaging on (as at May 2024).

You can watch the client interview for BBC News by clicking the image below:

Praise for the campaign

Clearly PR is recognised by Global Recruiter magazine as a top two UK PR firm specialising in recruitment. We’ll help you get the results you want from your PR campaign, so get in touch.