Our Work

The dilemma

Established 70 years ago, construction and engineering firm Murphy were struggling to stand out in a tough market. With no recruitment brand and a brand-new graduate scheme to launch, they faced fierce competition. Murphy needed to capture the imagination of a new generation of diverse engineers.

The solution

To attract talented future engineers, we aimed to capture the firm’s family essence.

Our award-winning animated website, tailor made with bespoke-illustration and a dynamic manifesto is a visual introduction to the spirit of the business.

Alongside this we launched bespoke early careers content on new Facebook and Twitter channels, all aligned to our new proposition. We also delivered experiential events on campuses across the UK, enabling students to explore the wonderful world of Murphy through a virtual reality experience that brought Murphy’s offices and construction sites to life.

The results

Six months into the campaign, we’d made phenomenal progress. For a campaign aiming to hire fewer than 50 graduates, we saw 7,091 new users, and an average session duration of 3m30s.

Overall applications rose by 824%, and applications from females rose from 7% to 32% – in just one year.

How did we do it?

We made sure the whole Murphy team was bought in, individually consulting with each of the firm’s senior leaders. Together, they agreed we’d truly brought Murphy to life.

The new campaign has been fantastic. It’s brought us applications from a wider breadth of universities (even beyond the UK); it’s had a positive impact on diversity; and it’s generated real curiosity among students – leading to some really meaningful conversations.

Amy Foster, former Murphy Emerging Talent Manager

FCDO Services were relatively unknown as an employer. More than a few people confused them with the Foreign & Commonwealth Office. Clearly, they needed to get their message out there. But first, we needed to know what that message should be.

We started with thorough research. We spoke to FCDO Services’ people right across the business, to find out exactly what they felt about the culture, benefits and challenges. We did surveys externally too, to capture perceptions, misconceptions – and what (if anything) people really knew about FCDO Services.

What we discovered was something amazing: that, with FCDO Services, your global impact is genuine, and the pride is real. This in-government team work with friendly governments worldwide to provide secure construction, IT, logistics, and more.

What does that mean? Constructing embassies overseas. Restoring ancient government buildings. Protecting servers that store visa applications. Delivering equipment securely, to governments in isolated, sometimes volatile countries.

They even provide emergency response – from repairing embassies damaged by hurricanes in the Caribbean, to providing IT when a heatwave melted government laptops in Sierra Leone.

Ultimately though, the skills FCDO Services need are the same you’d look for anywhere. HR professionals and HGV drivers. Finance experts and IT specialists. The different here? You’re making a tangible impact on the world, protecting people, assets and information everywhere. In short?

It’s your job, bigger.

Our core message, based on months of research is backed by eight pillars, making the EVP flexible for different markets, from apprentices to experienced hires; project managers in Milton Keynes to engineers working overseas.

Resonating across the organisation, employees have taken it to heart. And to help with adoption, we’ve rolled it out far and wide, from the careers website to the organisation’s digital onboarding tool; from national apprenticeship campaigns to day-to-day job listings, to our brand new Virtual Embassy.

Legal careers can be near impenetrable for outsiders – especially when you consider that commercial law is so often behind the scenes. We  set out to establish Simmons & Simmons as the firm to guide our students through it to help them uncover the world of law.

How? Well, with our knowledge of the graduate market and the legal sphere, we modernised the firm’s existing illustrative branding and gave it deep meaning through the messaging behind it. We created the firm’s first fully-responsive graduate recruitment website. And we helped them go out to campus with the brochure that students voted the 2018 Times Top 100 Best Graduate Recruitment Brochure.

Highlights of Hello Energy 2017-2020.

The challenge

Faced with unprecedented disruption and the greatest challenge imaginable – climate change – the energy industry was calling out for leadership. DNV GL Energy, an established international energy consultancy, should have been that leader – but in 2016, it wasn’t there yet. Multiple mergers had created a siloed culture and low employee engagement. They needed a message to wake people up to new ways of working; content to energize a global organisation; and a format that would reignite employees’ passion. Here’s how Stafford Long helped 2,400 people to say ‘Hello Tomorrow’.

Our solution?

An ambitious 4-year programme of cultural change, marked by tentpole annual ‘Hello Energy’ events and invigorated by creative communications, videos and interactive tools.

It all centred around a powerful, precisely-worded manifesto, created from surveys and 30 in-depth interviews, alongside a simple name for the programme that encouraged forward-thinking: ‘Hello Tomorrow’.

At events, employees gathered, connected and engaged with 140 up-and-coming internal influencers. Each high-tech annual get-together brought peer-to-peer interaction, external inspiration and out-of-the-box creativity. Every year, we meticulously plotted the message and topics in order to shift people’s mindsets; we premiered new videos for creative talking-points and introduced new speakers; we even created an entire fictional world, brought to life across the four years through a series of interactive iPad-led team exercises.

Even when the pandemic hit and cancelled our planned final event, it didn’t stop the engagement.

With an uncannily prescient theme of ‘Be Ready For Anything’, we took all our creative content and messages online, creating a bespoke event platform that housed a main ‘stage’ (live broadcast), branded in-browser team chat, and all manner of inspirational content distributed via three short live modules.

And the results?

Engagement soared. From a low-point in 2016 of just 25% engagement with comms prior to events, we saw overall employee engagement reached 7.4 our of 10 in 2020. It even rose to 8.4 in the pandemic, when most companies saw a drop.

Just as importantly, the business saw a phenomenal shift. The customer relationship score skyrocketed from 64 in 2016 to 79 at the end of 2020. And DNV GL Energy went from underperformer of the DNV GL group to its engine for growth – smashing all its targets, and recording the best year in its history. All of which the CEO attributes to the vast change in mindset driven by Hello Tomorrow.

Happier staff. Happier customers. Happier planet.

Newton is a business consultancy completely unlike others: purposefully disruptive, with a culture that’s vibrantly individual. To compete for the calibre of students they needed – with less budget and less brand recognition than their competitors – Newton had to be bold. So we undertook research and highlighted eight attributes that set Newton apart. Then, we created a campaign as distinctive as their business, using a series of bespoke illustrations that depicted each attribute. We even designed a video-based ‘quiz pod’ to take onto campus. The result? A record number of job applications, expressions of interest and attendees at events.

It’s a well-worn phrase, but with FCDO Services, your global impact is genuine. This in-government team work with friendly governments worldwide to provide secure construction, IT, logistics, and more.

What does that mean? Constructing embassies overseas. Restoring ancient government buildings. Protecting servers that store visa applications. Delivering equipment securely, to governments in isolated, sometimes volatile countries.

With a complex offering and an unusual mix of teams, the organisation struggled to explain themselves so that potential candidates could understand, and see themselves working there.

We needed to capture the reality of these diverse roles – and how they protect people worldwide. Plus, we had to meet some tight restrictions. We couldn’t show real colleagues or real government buildings, because of the secure nature of the organisation’s work.

Enter the Virtual Embassy. Our new tool puts wide-ranging FCDO Services roles in context. Within a fictional embassy, users can explore diverse teams’ day-to-day work and impact – all without giving away the security of existing government buildings or colleagues.

Our 14-room embassy and 100+ hand-drawn furnishings are inspired by real embassy architecture, fictionalised for security purposes. With seven guides to choose from, all 276 hotspots tell detailed stories of real work, based on meetings with 50+ colleagues.

Plus, the Embassy helps the organisation tackle privilege and encourage diversity. Using straightforward language, the embassy is accessible for those without pre-existing public sector knowledge. And, meeting best practice in accessibility, it works for both mobile and desktop users.

Explore for yourself here: https://virtual-embassy.fcdoservicescareers.co.uk/

The results:

80+ roles covered
50+ colleagues interviewed, from mechanics to architects
276 hotspots, signed off and cleared with security
30,271 lines of code in 3 languages
Super-low bounce rate: 38.89%
Embraced by users, with calls to add it to UK diplomatic training

Stafford Long was engaged by DNV GL Energy to develop an internal communications strategy and a programme of change management.

Over a period of a 4-year strategy, the purpose has been to bring inspiration and focused energy to DNV GL’s people – to align with the organisations core values and overall strategic business need. We called this programme ‘Hello Tomorrow’ – a clarion call to embrace the challenges that the future brings and the opportunities that are here today.

We started by gathering, connecting and engaging with a group of 140 up-and-coming employees – our internal influencers. We gave them a comprehensive and varied programme of events, resources, platforms and multimedia to inspire them to lead change.

We then produced a series of comms that reached out the wider organisation through film, interactive training, collaboration & discussion.

Within the ‘Hello Energy’ framework, managers were able to share content and themes with their teams that they learnt through the change events. Exercises and discussion sessions are held via Microsoft Yammer and Teams – facilitated by the Executive Leadership Team.

Disability. Ethnicity. Gender. LGBTQAI+. Our specialist D&I services are designed to bring together employers and the diverse talent they’re looking for.

We offer D&I consultancy, marketing and training, as well as events that we end-to-end manage and market – including screening applicants based on specific criteria. This results in a high return on investment for the participating organisations, and we’re very proud that our work has led to award wins including:

2017:
Winner – ‘Best Diversity & Inclusion Initiative’ – CIPD Awards – Diversity Solutions Events

2015:
Winner – ‘Best Diversity Initiative’ – CIPD Awards – Diversity Solutions Events

You can find out more about what we do at our dedicated diversity solutions website.

Founded in 1951, Murphy are a family-run engineering and construction firm that packs an impressively global punch. Holding onto their values for over sixty years, they’ve worked on projects from Crossrail and the Channel Tunnel to the water supply of cities across the UK. But how do they instil those values in every new experienced hire who joins their rapidly expanding team?

We created a one-stop shop induction package that would make everyone feel welcome; part of the company’s vision and values. We created an introductory animated film that showed every employee how they could contribute. We shot interviews with the executive board (including CEO John Murphy). We created extensive content that would help everyone from construction site workers to new starters in the HR team. And we even gave them everything they needed to get started on the Murphy Academy – the firm’s elective training programme.

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Cushman & Wakefield is one of the world’s top three commercial real estate services firms, with 250 offices in 60 countries worldwide. To position them as a leading employer in the sector, we needed a new identity that would demonstrate their culture and the investment they put into graduate careers. It also had to be something to appeal to a diverse range of students – particularly females. Working with them, we created the candidate-driven message, “Your future is a big deal to us”, which was launched with a high impact creative style across multiple marketing channels and established through a new careers website.

Winning the 2018 RAD Award for Graduate Recruitment Literature, the Norton Rose Fulbright brochure was something a little bit different. With current trainees heavily involved from creative concept stage onwards, we learned what they liked, what they didn’t like, and what they really needed from graduate law career literature. Then, with their preferences in mind, we set about making a brochure of real substance; a long read you could dip into, with the feel of a high-end magazine. Instead of saying ‘our firm has a great culture’, the culture leapt out from every page. Vacation schemers, trainees and partners contributed their own articles, photography, and travel guides to secondment destinations. They told us about their first achievements with the firm, from the inspiring to the downright funny. And they gave us real honesty too – like what it’s like to get your first late-night taxi home, so that we could set realistic expectations about the long hours of the legal industry.

How do you create a fresh experience for new starters that leaves them energised and ready to make an impact? That was the conundrum for Capgemini, a global technology and consulting business. Previously, they’d held a series of uninspiring two-day inductions (dubbed a “festival of PowerPoint” by one of their employees); we turned it into a one-day, high-energy event filled with variety and interactivity. We branded the new induction, worked closely with Capgemini to carve out a structure for the day, conjured up exercises and games for the attendees, and even created a bespoke iPad app. We also provided training for our clients on how to deliver the content, use the technology and inspire the people at the event. The result? Scores in the high 90s from virtually everyone who attended.

The legal profession – from barristers to solicitors, paralegals to judges – can seem completely inaccessible, especially if you’re a student from a non-privileged background. State school students are less likely to get the initial teaching, experience, and opportunities to open their eyes to career in Law. That’s where PRIME comes in; an alliance of major UK law firms, offering work experience to students from state school backgrounds.

Working with PRIME, we designed a brand with appeal for students, parents, teachers, and prospective participant law firms – enabling everyone to get involved and get experience. Our brand new website was researched carefully with each group, making sure each audience had exactly what they needed to know. Animations – requested and guided by the students themselves – helped introduce what PRIME is all about (and even explained a little bit about the legal world itself). And our new geometric branding now adds a memorable twist to every PRIME event.

Stafford Long was engaged by DNV GL Energy to develop an internal communications strategy and a programme of change management. As part of the internal comms activity, one quarter was focused fully on teaching colleagues about “customer centricity”.

So, we created a digital tool. Within the tool, a scenario unfolds. ‘Sørens International’ is a leading portable consumer technology company with lofty ambitions. Expanding on innovations in wireless smart-watch charging, it now wants to bring under-pavement wireless charging infrastructure to its home country: Catalysia.

Who better to use as our customer than the mercurial billionaire, Gustav Sørens?

Users must win over the notoriously difficult-to-impress Sørens by listening to his questions and comments, and offering the best response.

Each option is scored as “bad”, “average” or “excellent”. Only an “excellent” answer progresses you to the next stage, but the scores of your initial answers are recorded, and a different ending is played depending on how customer centric you really were.

A taste of our work

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Encouraging and retaining women in technology roles is an ongoing challenge – and one we’ve got a lot of experience with. Take our work with Blackrock. We developed a targeted attraction campaign, screened and selected 40 high-calibre female STEM students from leading universities, and then delivered an Investment Management Technology event that combined education, insight and networking, held at the client’s offices. From the event, nine female students were hired onto their internship programme.

Capgemini Consulting needed our help to establish a unique employer proposition in a highly competitive market. After we had conducted some rigorous research, we developed our EVP findings into a compelling creative campaign that talked to both existing consultants and those in specialist industry sectors who hadn’t considered consulting as a career. Our multi-channel media plan and creative executions combined to produce a campaign that focused on the attributes of the new employer brand – which led to a totally new pool of talent.

Our engagement programme is helping James Hay, a leading Financial Services provider, empower their employees and inform business-critical decisions at the highest levels. Needless to say, it’s an incredibly useful tool.

We run a range of online, UK-wide surveys and then benchmark the results. We base our analysis and recommendations not only on robust quantitative data (85% of the organisation regularly provide feedback) but also on insights gleaned from a variety of one-to-one interviews.

Results are rapidly shared across the business and bespoke reports are produced for managers. We also offer support, presentations and Q&A sessions to make sure everyone benefits from the new insight.

Newton’s not your usual business consultancy. Their model is purposefully disruptive; their culture vibrant, individual and nearing cult-status.

They look for unusual experienced hires too: strong personalities, but team players – intellectually sharp, incredibly experienced, but importantly – fun to be around.

Our call to them?

You’re surrounded by people who pursue brave ideas. There are no unwieldy processes. And no one ever utters ‘that’s not my job’. You’re encouraged to ask tough questions. To be a bit left field. Meet the Newton You.

Our monthly social strategy, our experienced hire brochure, and our series of videos would help Newton find exactly the consultants they needed. Plus, we’d enable the new consultants to find their ideal work environment, and become exactly who they want to be.

Hogan Lovells are a law firm with a clear message: they are the Global Game-Changers. But what does that actually mean for students? How do we get this message far and wide? These are the questions that shaped our campaign.The key objectives were to:

Promote the firm’s global reach, career opportunities, and world-renowned clients.
Boost brand awareness, leaving no doubt in students’ minds that Hogan Lovells are an elite law firm doing high-profile projects all around the world.
Grow an organic audience for long-term promotion of careers and the overall Hogan Lovells brand.

Enter the Global Game-Changers Challenge: a four-week competition hosted on Hogan Lovells’ graduate Instagram page. We also did organic promotion on Facebook and Twitter, and paid social across Facebook and Instagram – including on the feed and in-story.

Each week for four weeks, we posted a film clip of a Hogan Lovells lawyer asking a question about their world. All the answers can be found on their graduate careers site, which students submitted via Direct Message. The prize? £150 in travel vouchers. We revealed the answer at the end of each week with another film clip, and chose our winners.

Each week had its own theme: international secondments, global interconnectivity, their Global Citizenship Programme, and global clients. All our questions and posts were tied to these themes, so students were getting insights about Hogan Lovells’ world at every turn. In short, we were boosting brand awareness in the very way we designed the competition.

Visually, we used Instagram’s grid feature to do something really distinctive. The grid displays three posts side by side – but we went one step further. We seamlessly knitted together the posts with a striking image of a Hogan Lovells international location, a different one per week.

Metrics and results

Results for in-feed competition content on Instagram only (organic)

4,188 views across question and answer videos
654 engagements (14% engagement rate) on Instagram feed posts
300+ competition entries via Instagram DM from law and non-law students from wide-ranging universities
30% increase in Instagram followers

Results for paid promotion – traffic driving to Instagram