McLaren Construction Case Study

1. CLIENT INFORMATION

Client Name: McLaren Construction

Industry: Construction

Location: Canary Wharf

Contact Person: Elaine Porter (candidate turned client)

Position: Senior Communications Business Partner

2. BACKGROUND

Company Overview:

The McLaren group of companies operates in construction, property, development and investment in the UK and UAE, offering integration of these services to meet client needs. McLaren Construction applies sector-leading expertise in sustainability and digital construction to build commercial offices, mixed-use, residential, retail, education, health, distribution and logistics, data centres, hotels and leisure, for both private and public sector customers. Established in 2001, McLaren has become one of the UK’s most successful privately owned businesses, with around 1000 employees.

3. CHALLENGES

Initial Challenge:

The Employer Branding Communications Specialist is a role than spans Communications and HR and is McLaren Construction’s first Employer Branding role. As that specialism didn’t exist within the business, they required someone to steer the team and develop their employer branding proposition to attract, and retain, the talent they needed to resource the projects they were winning. Stopgap placed Elaine in a role with Pembroke Real Estate back in 2015 and had kept in touch ever since, so Elaine knew where to turn when recruiting for this role.

4. OBJECTIVES

Key Objectives:

Supporting McLaren Construction’s growth by developing a compelling employer brand to continue to attract and retain talent. Due to their agile approach, McLaren Construction are winning a lot of work and big projects. In 2023 the company grew 10% and recruited over 300 new hires.

Finding a candidate who had developed an employer brand from scratch and who could steer the team and embed the employer brand holistically across the organisation.

5. STOPGAP’S SOLUTION

Our Approach:

Arranged a meeting at McLaren’s offices in Canary Wharf to get a feel for the culture, team structure and workplace environment in order to be the best brand ambassador for McLaren and bring the role to life when talking to candidates.

Talking through the brief to understand what is important to the business to determine best fit in terms of skillset and culture.

Elaine was key to our success by entering into a true partnership with us, built on trust, transparency, clear communication and responsiveness. The time Elaine dedicated to working with us to fill this role contributed to our success in filling it.

6. RESULTS

Outcomes & Impact:

Since bringing Charlie on board, we have developed a distinctive Employer Value Proposition that has helped us embed our company values. We've also launched a new Employer Brand with a suite of supporting materials and introduced a Corporate Induction program, which has already been completed by over 80 new starters. In 2025, we aim to double that.

7. FUTURE PLANS

Looking Ahead:

As the business continues to grow and diversify, the demands on the Comms team will evolve as well. If that happens, I wouldn’t hesitate to work with Caroline and Stopgap again.