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We recently attended the Recruitment International UK Awards 2018, and were thrilled to win two awards! It was incredible to be recognised not only as The Best Recruitment Company To Work For, but also The Best CSR Initiative which is a cause close to our hearts.

When the idea for our group CSR initiative was first shared, I have to admit the sheer scale of it was daunting. But now it’s in full swing, and progressing so well, it’s hard to imagine Morgan McKinley without it. First and foremost, it has delivered the goods for great charitable organisations, both in terms of real cash, and quantifiable, direct value of time and effort given by Morgan McKinley employees via literally thousands of hours of volunteering.  

But it’s also delivered something quite remarkable

or us as an organisation – becoming a central pillar of our culture. Now stitched into the language of our business, it’s a byline for who we are and what we stand for: improving lives together. 

Every month for the past 2 years, a global committee made up of representatives from each of our offices, along with members of the Board meet up, on a sometimes chaotic but always fun and uplifting conference call where updates on progress and new ideas and, of course, challenges and hurdles are thrown around for discussion and debate.

We give all our employees 2 days extra leave to do volunteering for good causes. We support with finding volunteering opportunities in their area of interest, and for each day of volunteering we give a credit of £120 to the Morgan McKinley Million, to drive and encourage everyone to participate and use their days!The involvement of our team across MMK at all levels, including the senior leadership team, has been critical to the success of the initiative, and the Main Board have needed little encouragement to get stuck in. Physical challenges have been a popular way for people to fundraise, and teams of UK colleagues have variously trekked the 165km West Highland Way, run marathons, toiled through triathlons, cycled London to Brighton, done static cycle challenges and had fun dragon boat racing. Recently more than 70% of the UK team took part in a 25km sponsored walk from our office to Richmond along the Thames Path, to raise money for our excellent company charity Young Minds, with all of us wearing the Morgan McKinley Million T-shirt with pride! 

So, how are we doing so far?

• Global Morgan McKinley Million figures since July 2016 = €607,000
• Total global hours volunteered = 8,283
• Number of charities supported = 212

The initiative is well and truly embedded now, it’s become part of the language and culture of the business, it’s a living thing! We have a considerable way to go to hit the €1 Million goal, but that’s fine; we knew it would be extremely challenging, and we’re up for it! 

One of my personal fundraising efforts involved a sponsored climb of Europe’s highest mountainMont Blanc, it was a truly grueling event. At the high altitude above 13,000ft, the air is thin, you feel sick, you’re completely exhausted, it’s -30 degrees of wind chill, you trudge forward one agonizing foot after the other, you look up and think you’re never going to get to the summit – it’s literally, a mountain to climb. Honestly, there were moments when I was close to giving up. But I had a Morgan McKinley Million logo, on a bumper sticker, to pin onto my climbing jacket at the top for the summit photo, and I thought there’s simply no way I can miss that.. 

I think that’s how we all feel about the Morgan McKinley Million target. We’ve simply got to make it! And it’s going to be an exhilarating sense of achievement for us all, when we get there. 

David Leithead | UK COO