LONDON — The managing director of MSL London's employee practice, Ben Jackson, has left the agency after 18 months to return to independent consulting.

Jackson joined MSL in April 2018 after founding a previous agency, TalentPunk, and spells as a director at recruitment consultancies including Deloitte, Capita and GradWeb.

He has now started a new employee experience consultancy, Cogency, to support clients in all sectors at every stage from recruitment to onboarding, performance management, departure and alumni programmes.

Jackson told the Holmes Report: “I’ve got a lot of time for MSL, but in the end I needed more flexibility at home and decided I wanted to go back to running my own business again, looking at the candidate and employee experience and how technology can underpin that.”

MSL London's new CEO, Chris McCafferty, said: "Ben has taken the decision to step down, for personal reasons. We thank him for his contribution to our award-winning employee practice and wish him all the very best for the future.

"We’ve developed a plan to set up the practice for further growth, which involves a combination of senior external appointments and internal promotions, which we will announce in due course. Our employee proposition remains core to MSL’s offer, helping clients attract and retain the best talent, and ensuring client communications start inside out."