2024 Silver Public Sector

Agency: House 337

Client: Ministry of Justice

Entry Title: An Extraordinary Job

Executive Summary

The Government announced a goal to create 20,000 new prison places across England and Wales, with a resulting increase in staff recruitment targets. Despite attempts to recruit new staff, low awareness, consideration and retention rates meant the service was fighting an uphill battle.

Strategy

HM Prison and Probation Service (HMPPS) was facing significant challenges. Overcrowding and the Government’s plans to build more prisons created a growing need for staff recruitment, yet low retention rates, awareness and consideration of the prison officer role meant new recruits were leaving quicker than they could be replaced.

Research commissioned by Ministry of Justice with prison staff discovered that the solution wasn’t just about recruiting new people but getting the right people for the roles. Working in a prison isn’t for everyone but for the right people, it can be incredibly rewarding.

Insights showed those who thrived in the roles tended to share a unique set of skills: they are resilient, a team player, and a people person. The campaign aimed to change the perception of the job by addressing existing misconceptions and conveying an accurate depiction of the role.

Creativity

The work highlighted the range of skills and individuals that HMPPS requires, helping to attract the right candidates, who could then see their inherent abilities as a match for the role.

The job is hard, an understanding the team couldn’t shy away from. The execution needed to be honest with a good dose of grit. This would help the right audience to self-identify while reaffirming for the wrong audience the job wasn’t for them.

A 30-second ad, 60-second cinema and four 15 second cut downs touched on a different aspect or required skill of ‘An Extraordinary job’. Executions showed the challenging aspects of the role as well as some of the lighter moments. Media was planned around the prisons with the greatest and most immediate need for recruitment.

Results

The campaign generated 288 million impressions and reached 97% of the target audience. The number of people searching for prison jobs more than doubled, showing awareness was starting to convert into real-world action.

Of those who viewed the campaign four in 10 said it made them self-identify with the job and 50% would consider the role. There was a 15% increase across the target audience who said they were actively looking at becoming a prison officer; resulting in a 328% increase in visits to the prison officer homepage and a 71% increase to the vacancies page.

Overall applications for prison officer roles more than doubled from the start of the campaign, and the application conversion rate for prison officers improved by 50%.

The Team

Ministry of Justice - Keith Coni, Marketing Consultancy - Michelle Boulden, Senior Recruitment Marketing Manager - Ben Rochelle, Deputy Head of Recruitment Marketing Manager - Tanaye Reid, Senior Recruitment Marketing Manager - Ben Stack, Deputy Director, Recruitment and Retention Communications - Chris Coward, Project Delivery Lead - Emily Vickers, Deputy Head of Recruitment Marketing - Mick MacCormack, Head of Insight and Evaluation - Jane Buswell, Deputy Head Strategic Communications & Campaigns

HM Prison and Probation Service - Katherine Smith, Head of Digital Communications - Harvey Fryer, Senior Content Producer

House 337 - Richard Williams, Business Director - Marianne Roberts, Senior Account Director - Siena Singh, Account Manager - Charlie Johnson, Creative Director - Jack Tibbs, Creative - Michael Arthey, Creative - Jasmine English, Junior Producer - Felicity Cruickshank, Producer - Trent Webster, Junior Producer - Isaac Blackbourne, Senior Startegist - Rachel ODonovan, Strategy Director - Marina Supernova, Senior Designer - Jon Saunders, Senior Project Manager - Penny McNally, Senior Project Manager