Recruit Public Affairs Professionals
We recruit the professionals helping organisations to assess and navigate the political landscape.
Discover our approach to appointing Public Affairs professionals
Government, public and private sector organisations rarely align on key issues.
Public affairs specialists work to influence policy change, advocating for the most favourable environment for their sector or organisation. This might be from a position within a company, charity or as part of a trade body, which seeks to further the interests of an industry as a whole.
As organisations pursue growth strategies in an environment comprised of disruption, regulation, increased public scrutiny, and political uncertainty, public affairs professionals are on-hand to help navigate the landscape. Specialists in this sector are required to build and manage relationships with key stakeholders within Government Departments, arms-length bodies, and Parliament to raise awareness of key issues.
Successful public affairs specialists are agile, with the ability to assimilate and communicate policy. These professionals will have strong interpersonal skills, enabling them to build relationships with decision-makers and maintain a network of trusted contacts.
Our consultants understand the value of aligning decision-makers with strategic placements. Working with our clients, we implement an in-depth search of the market to secure and place the right candidate.
Through our understanding of the industry, we develop core partnerships within our network to produce high quality candidates each time.
As one of the few recruitment consultancies in the UK specialising in public affairs, we have access to a diverse network of specialists. It is our advanced understanding of the sector that positions our consultants well to support our expanding network. The specialists that we place give our clients considerable influence in their industry.
We continue to follow our ethos of truly ethical and research-led search and selection consultancy, showcasing an unparalleled insight into the public affairs marketplace. Our consultants work with our vast network to successfully generate referrals and identify the ideal candidates for clients. We can help you to find the right people, with the skills and experience you require.
The value of aligning decision-makers with strategic placements has never been greater. It is through our understanding of the discipline that we secure candidates who will give you an influential voice in your sector. Our consultants have unrivalled insight and awareness of the challenges and opportunities across a range of organisation sizes and sectors. Through this understanding, we develop long-term, successful partnerships with our clients.
We will use the retained search again as they demonstrated that their network and market mapping process uncovers a strong selection of candidates.
We have recently placed our Head of Public Affairs using Murray McIntosh, an important hire for us as we are about to enter a period of transition for the organisation so the role is key support to our Director of Policy and Public Affairs. We had engaged another agency but did not see the quality of candidate we needed.
Lauren talked us through the retained search method and explained how this ensures a thorough search, tied to a timeframe. Our PPA Director found this particularly useful, as we could work around his diary in advance.
We met to brief the role and define expectations on both sides, including a check-in point halfway through the market mapping process to ensure a relevant shortlist was coming together. Lauren was insightful, reliable and very transparent throughout and the process proved to be very efficient.
We started in January. The role was placed 6 weeks later after seeing 6 video interviews on The Lobby platform, inviting 3 candidates for first stage interview, and seeing 2 for a final stage.
We will use the retained search again in future as they demonstrated for us that their network and market mapping process uncovers a strong selection of candidates. That being said, they only introduce those who have demonstrated their interest and commitment to the role, so our time wasn’t wasted by dropouts and the offer process for our favoured candidate was very straightforward.
HR Manager - HR Manager at London chamber of Commerce and Industry
Multiple successful placements across our Public Policy team as well as our Communications and International department.
We started working with Murray McIntosh in 2016, and have since made multiple successful placements across our Public Policy team as well as our Communications and International department. From Economists to niche Tech and Innovation policy roles, to our first permanent Government Affairs hire based in Brussels, they’ve shown a real understanding of the market and our organisational needs,
The MM team always make the effort to understand requirements thoroughly and beyond that, appreciate the importance of culture fit, too.
Working on a retained basis, they develop their process to suit our timescales and always produce shortlists of talented individuals who are well qualified on skillset as well as motivation.
Of our most recent process for a Senior Policy Manager, working on trade policy, our Head of Policy commented on an extremely strong shortlist of stand-out candidates from which it was tough to make a choice!
Katie Milbourn - Director of Group HR at The Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders Ltd
It was critical that we engaged an agency that could work efficiently and knew how to promote us to a competitive market.
Energy UK has recently been through a restructure and this resulted in a number of key vacancies across our policy and communications teams. This not only presented a challenge for volume candidate attraction but also put pressure on internal administration and interviewing- made even trickier with the challenges the energy industry was facing, resulting in extra time pressures on our managers.
It was critical that we engaged an agency that could work efficiently and knew how to promote us to a competitive market. Having worked with Murray McIntosh for over 7 years, we knew that they had a great network and we put a project plan in place to deliver 10 roles in 10 weeks.
Following a salary benchmarking exercise, we developed a schedule for shortlisting, interviews and even 1st stage interview questions that allowed for unbiased assessment.
Candidates were screened by MM and shortlisted using recorded video interviews which really helped to reduce the impact on managers’ time.
MM understood not just role requirements but our values, including our commitment to D&I. The process was account managed, with regular updates and feedback.
We’ve successfully hired talented and enthusiastic new employees that we are confident will help us provide the best possible service to our members.
Nicola Rowland - Head of HR at Energy UK
Complimentary Specialisms
Our work across closely linked specialisms has allowed us to build a network and knowledge base that informs our work, improves our delivery and has given us insight into strategic and granular delivery.
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Our consultants understand that the policy sector is a fast-paced, dynamic environment and much like policy development, our process involves research, consultation, and evaluation to identify high-calibre candidates.
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Our successful retainer solutions
A retainer is a three-part process based on the key milestones of an assignment; commencement, shortlist and appointment.
We are accountable for a time-conscious, structured process which guarantees results.
Finding you the best in the market, not on the market.
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