Seizing influencer relations’ opportunities

SEIZING INFLUENCER RELATIONS’ OPPORTUNITIES Scott Guthrie

Public relations is the natural home for influencer relations. Working with online influencers offers a massive business opportunity but only if practitioners embrace, evolve and push this fast-maturing discipline forward.

You’ll learn:
•    Why an influencer’s appropriateness trumps the size of their following
•    The importance of disclosing paid-for relationships prominently
•    How the best results come from forging long-term, mutually-rewarding relationships between brand and influencer
 

Influencer relations has come of age. More than a buzzword, it represents a huge business opportunity and should be part of every PR practitioner’s toolkit. 

Four years ago Brian Solis [1], Principal Analyst of Altimeter Group [2], described reach, relevance and resonance as the pillars of influence in his report: The rise of digital influence and how to measure it [3].

A 2015 survey [4] showed 84% of marketers and PR professionals plan to leverage influencers in 2016.

As the discipline of influencer relations matures, it is time practitioners become more considered and data driven in meeting clients’ objectives. Get the balance right between process and passion and influencer relations will become one of PR’s biggest opportunities. 

Figure 1 Snapshot of Google Trends on the phrase “influencer marketing”

Here are six ways PR practitioners can take the lead in nurturing the future of influencer relations.


#1 Cede control

41.2% of communicators cite lack of control over messaging as a challenge of influencer relations [5]. On the flipside, 77% of influencers say creative freedom is a primary factor in feeling likely to work with a brand more than once [6].

Brands turn to influencers because they want their stories to be told with an authentic voice. Often, however, brands also think they can control the message via influencers.

Figure 2 The role of influencer as translator turning a brand’s key messages into content which resonates with a select audience
 

Influencers know their audiences. They know what their audiences like – and what they don’t care for. 

Successful influencers listen to, and interact with, their fans. This leads to forming communities that feel more like friendships than fanships. For example, 70% of teenage YouTube subscribers say they relate to YouTube creators more than to traditional celebrities [7].

The more you try to control the message via a straight-jacket of a creative brief, re-write requests or push for further edits, the more the authentic voice is diminished to a whisper.

Influencers grow their follower base through voicing opinions which chime with people. So, let them speak. Let them speak in their own voice. That’s why it’s so important to ensure you’re working with the most appropriate influencer in the first place.

This is a process which starts by using tools like Traackr to do the ‘heavy lifting’; identifying influencers at scale and sorting them by reach, resonance and relevance. But it is up to the contextual intelligence of the PR practitioner to make sense of the data and to vet each influencer on their best fit to meet clients’ objectives.
 

#2 Go beyond audience size

When selecting an influencer, don’t be seduced purely by numbers. Being popular is not the same as being influential.

Being popular is about being liked or admired by many people. Being influential is an ability to change something; be it altering behaviours, changing opinions or adapting actions.

Influence is context based. Unless the influencer has a strong connection with the target audience, that influencer is creating noise, not action.

Gaining large numbers of followers, impressions or visitors doesn’t always translate into greater influence. A smaller, more targeted following may generate proportionately higher engagement rates.

Reach gives you potential numbers of eyeballs. Influence shows what action is being taken.
 

#3 Abandon the usual suspects

Have a data-driven answer ready when your client asks: “Can’t you just get us Zoella?” 

Influencer relations has more to do with credibility and impact than it has with reach. 

Always link your influencer selection back to your objective. This is dependent on a deep understanding of your audience, their needs and their pain points.

If your influencer relations campaign calls for plenty of eyeballs, you can gain reach by marshalling the power middle, or micro influencers at scale. The added benefit is increased engagement compared with contracting with one heavy-hitter influencer.    

Proportionally micro influencers have the highest engagement levels. Instagram influencers with between 1k & 4k followers have 4.5% engagement rate. This percentage slips to 2.4% engagement for influencers with 4k to 100k influencers. Above 100k influencers engagement halves again to 1.7% [8].

The comparatively lower cost of contracting with the power middle or micro influencers enables brands to think more laterally about meeting their clients’ communications and business objectives.

Brands can harness influencers with different perspectives, working across different categories and territories to carry a brand’s key messages from different angles whilst achieving deeper engagement levels.
 

#4 Turn tactical and temporary to longer term business growth partnerships

Influencer relations programmes take time, organisation, sincerity, effort and money; both in resource and out of pocket payments.

So when working with influencers, it makes sense to shift the time horizon from tactical and temporary to a longer term business growth partnership.

The relationship between follower and influencer is accretive; it strengthens and develops over time. Influencer relations practitioners should value this social currency between creator and following, emulating it in their own dealings. 

Benefits of longer-term, mutually beneficial relationships include:

•    Faster turnaround times from briefing to production

•    Financial savings as the identification and negotiation phases are removed for each campaign and discounted publication rates can be negotiated for multiple pieces of work over the longer term

•    Better results. The influencer’s understanding of your client’s values, product and brand improves over time. He or she can be more creative in developing content which carries your key messages but which feels more relatable to the target audience.

#5 Disclose

Brands, PR practitioners and the influencer are all responsible for ensuring paid-for content is labelled properly and that disclosure is displayed prominently. Yet in the UK just 22% of influencers always comply with the CAP Code, the advertising rule book enforced by the Advertising Standards Authority [9].

In the first half of 2016, the Federal Trade Commission, the United States’ consumer watchdog, settled with Lord & Taylor [10] and Warner Bros. [11] over failure by these brands to meet disclosure regulations with influencer-generated sponsored content.

The issue of effectively making sponsored content distinct from editorial content will become a major one as influencer relations continues to enjoy such widespread popularity amongst communicators.

The bottom line is that all paid-for influencer work must:

1.    Disclose, clearly and prominently, whether content has been paid for
2.    Be open about other commercial relationships that might be relevant to the content; and
3.    Give genuine views on markets, businesses, goods or services.

#6 Embrace video

Tie-ins with vloggers will continue to grow in popularity within influencer relations. 95% of 16-34 year-olds watch video clips online each month [12]. 44% of internet users watch vlogs on a monthly basis [13].

YouTube will increasingly come under fire from other platforms pushing video. 

Over half of Facebook active users watch videos on the network. The social media monolith is making moves to also dominate live streaming video content. It is attempting to woo Snapchat, Vine and YouTube influencers to experiment with its Live Video feature [14].

Linkedin, too, has embraced video for its influencers. The professional network has launched 30-second videos from influencers to capitalise on the B2B market [15].

Influencer relations practitioners must thoroughly understand their audience and where it ‘lives’ online to thrive in this increasingly splintered video-orientated media landscape.
 

Public relations as the natural home for influencer relations

Influencer relations sits naturally within the cadre of public relations. More than a buzzword, PR practitioners have been delivering key messages via third parties since the industry’s infancy. 

Today the vehicle shaping those messages has altered from newspapers, television and radio to include social media influencers. Reaping the highest rewards from influencer relations means building mutually rewarding long-term relationships - a bedrock skill of the PR industry.

But if PR practitioners do not embrace, evolve and push influencer relations forward other marketing disciplines will.

Sources

[1] http://www.briansolis.com/ 

[2] http://www.altimetergroup.com/ 

[3] The rise of digital influence (March, 2012) http://www.briansolis.com/2012/03/report-the-rise-of-digital-influence/ 

[4] The state of influencer engagement in 2015 (June, 2015) 
http://www.augure.com/blog/state-influencer-engagement-20150618

[5] Brian Solis, Influencer marketing manifesto (July, 2016)

[6] Examining Influencer Marketing, Danny Spyra, 
https://yahooadvertising.tumblr.com/post/146015652191/examining-influencer-marketing (June, 2016)

[7] The YouTube Generation Study. November 2015
https://www.thinkwithgoogle.com/infographics/youtube-stars-influence.html

[8] Crunching the numbers on social media influencer engagement (Takumi blog February 2016) 
https://blog.takumi.com/crunching-the-numbers-on-social-media-influencer-engagement-456df91bcee0#.snwrjf6vb

[9] http://www.prweek.com/article/1396166/brands-encouraging-influencers-flout-transparency-rules-paid-campaigns#BQQXec2aEeH1TmUd.99 (May 2016)

[10] Lord & Taylor Settles FTC Charges It Deceived Consumers Through Paid Article in an Online Fashion Magazine and Paid Instagram Posts by 50 “Fashion Influencers” (March, 2016) https://www.ftc.gov/news-events/press-releases/2016/03/lord-taylor-settles-ftc-charges-it-deceived-consumers-through

[11] Warner Bros. Settles FTC Charges It Failed to Adequately Disclose It Paid Online Influencers to Post Gameplay Videos (July, 2016) https://www.ftc.gov/news-events/press-releases/2016/07/warner-bros-settles-ftc-charges-it-failed-adequately-disclose-it

[12] Video is the future of social, Global Web Index blog (May, 2016) 
http://www.globalwebindex.net/blog/video-is-the-future-of-social

[13] Over 4 in 10 watch vlogs, Global Web Index blog (June, 2016) 
http://www.globalwebindex.net/blog/over-4-in-10-watch-vlogs

[14] Facebook to Pay Internet Stars for Live Video, Wall Street Journal (July 2016) http://www.wsj.com/articles/facebook-to-pay-internet-stars-for-live-video-1468920602?utm_source=Sailthru&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Issue:%202016-07-19%20Marketing%20Dive%20Newsletter%20%5Bissue:6607%5D&utm_term=Marketing%20Dive

[15] Y our LinkedIn Feed is Coming to Life with Videos from LinkedIn Influencers, Linkedin blog (August, 2016) https://blog.linkedin.com/2016/08/02/your-linkedin-feed-is-coming-to-life-with-videos-from-linkedin-i

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Scott Guthrie is a digital management consultant specialising in influencer relations. He produces daily comment and curation about the evolution of influencers at http://influencermarketinglab.tumblr.com/

Scott also writes regularly about influencer relations, creativity and organisational health in the social age.

Twitter: @sabguthrie
Online: www.sabguthrie.info

Internal Comms (IC): Learning from the past and emerging trends

INTERNAL COMMS (IC): LEARNING FROM THE PAST AND EMERGING TRENDS Rachel Miller

There is no such thing as pure internal communication any more. Professional communicators need to acknowledge the blurred lines between internal and external comms and fast. Discover why it’s important and the opportunities ahead.

You’ll learn:
•     How internal communication is evolving
•     The importance of learning from the past
•     Five trends IC pros need to know to #FuturePRoof their careers


Evolution of internal communication

Internal communication as we’ve known it is over. Historical house organs and company propaganda from the late 19th century are being replaced by engaging, collaborative and relevant internal communication, informed by employees and external channels.

Well, that’s the theory. Here’s two realities:

•    Companies separate themselves into internal communication and PR and seldom combine ideas, budget or messaging 

•    Broadcast or one-way communication techniques translate into a traditional, hierarchical top-down approach. There’s scarce room for employees’ voices to be heard

Could you remove the separation and have an integrated and multi-skilled team? If you’re a budget-constrained organisation, you probably already have one person overseeing all communication, so don’t have a choice. But what if you did?

Is it possible to integrate a communication team to focus on the content being produced rather than the function? The short answer is yes. Organisations such as the Post Office in the UK are already doing this.
 

Consistency is king

Consistency is king, particularly when thinking about messaging. What it’s like to be an employee should match up to your external material and brand promises. Communication is at the heart of this.

Communication teams need to respond to the needs of their organisation. This means drawing on internal and external communication expertise. This could be two teams working alongside each other, or as an integrated department.

You cannot operate in a silo and wonder why the experience employees report via websites like Glassdoor (TripAdvisor for organisations), reveal a gulf in what you say about your company and what it’s actually like. 

Internal communicators need to have effective working relationships with external communication colleagues. Times have changed; disputes and disconnects inside companies over content and budget need to stop.

I expect to see more companies integrating and uniting teams while still respecting the skill sets of each discipline. There’s not a one-size-fits-all approach, you need to make an informed decision about the Generalist/Specialist structure that suits your organisation. Edelman state communicators need to become deeply knowledgeable in the shallowest of niches. 
 

Why do you need internal communication? 

According to Liam Fitzpatrick, Managing Partner at Working Communication Strategies, there are normally five main reasons for having an internal communication operation: 

Effective internal communication is all about conversations. You need two-way methods in place to listen to employees, where they can provide input and know it will be acted upon. 

Employees’ patience is thin and demand for interaction and answers is high. Think real-time, authentic communication and you’re on the right tracks. An annual feedback survey is not enough, you need to be continuously tuned into the conversations, rumours and realities of your organisation.

Channels encouraging participation have grown exponentially over the past decade. From employee-generated films to Tweets and Enterprise Social Networks, the variety and richness of formats and options continues to rise. 

However, organisations are typically sluggish to respond, using antiquated channels and methods. Or those which are too new and shiny and introduced without the required care and attention. Both fail to resonate.

We’re heading towards user-generated content and the loosening of the grip of internal communication teams. I call it wonky comms. It may not be perfectly formed, on message and polished, but it’s real, authentic and resonates. 
 

Learning from the past

There are many models showing how the role of internal communication has changed. 

Melcrum’s Eras of Internal Communication model (2012) shows the evolution. We have technology to map employee graphs to understand spheres of influence and advocacy. They’re being built into software such as Delve in Office 365, and will become the norm. 
 

ERAS OF INTERNAL COMMUNICATION Source: Melcrom 2012

The role of internal communication is to equip, empower and enable employees to deliver the business strategy. Everything we do as professional communicators should facilitate the company or client to achieve their goals. 

You need to identify links between company objectives to communication objectives, outputs, outtakes, outcomes and organisational impact.

Why isn’t that always the case? How often have you seen campaigns launching because they’re pet projects, rather than being tied to a wider organisational strategy? Exactly.

Internal communication goes beyond one person, team or function. It may be on the job titles of a particular department, but it will be in the job description of many people across a company. All employees have a role to play to ensure effective organisational communication happens.

Everybody is now a communicator. They always have been. What that means for professional communicators is a shift in perspective and our position. 

This worries some communicators, who feel they are losing something as ‘everyone thinks they can do my role’. You need to modify your mindset and focus on operating as strategic business partners. Professional communicators need to be masters of their trade. 

You are the difference between effective communication and noise. We’re moving from content creation to curation and your skills have never been more relevant. This means educating and guiding employees and encouraging them to publish stories, take photographs and share their view of the world.
 

Comms bling

Internal communication in recent years has seen communicators vying for the latest must-have tools and techniques. We’ve seen all sorts of shiny and whizzy gadgets, apps and platforms come and go. I call them comms bling. 

Comms bling is when you’re tempted to discard everything you know about your culture and what works for your employees, in favour of the latest kid on the block. Regardless of whether it is the right thing to do for your company. Your budget is precious and needs to be invested wisely.

Once the dazzle has faded, you realise your precious gem can’t live up to its promises. If that’s you, admit it. Embrace the failure of a channel or idea, learn from it, regroup and move on.

I oversee my household from my Apple Watch and iPhone; from changing the lighting or heating, to viewing my children’s baby monitors from wherever I am, I have access to information to help me influence their world. The same is true for us as communicators. Technology exists to help us enhance employees’ experience of their workplace, but you have to know what communication methods are out there and choose wisely.

For all of the software trying to replicate face-to-face communication, companies are realising they need to stop trying to replicate and start doing. They’re investing time, money and effort in upskilling managers, creating face-to-face opportunities, identifying influencers and encouraging user-generated content.
 

Five trends IC pros need to know to #FuturePRoof their careers

1.    Know your numbers

Get smart with data. Numbers are the currency of Exec teams. Understand how employees interact with content and access information. 

2.    Think beyond communication

Demonstrate your understanding of your business, from financial results to competitors. Show your leaders how you add value as a strategic business partner beyond communication.

3.    Research the future

Understand automation, the internet of things, digital workplaces and chatbots and how they could relate to your company. 

4.    Know your audience

Audience implies a performance and one-way communication. That’s the opposite of what you need. Know who you’re communicating with, what’s important to them and how information and knowledge flow inside your organisation.

5.    Be curious.

Experiment with new channels, read industry press and never stop investing in your learning. 

The future of organisational communication is bright. It’s a fascinating world and you need to keep up. So learn from the past, embrace what’s happening now and invest in your personal development to #FuturePRoof your career.
 

Sources

[1] Seen what your employees are saying about you? http://www.allthingsic.com/glassdoor/ All Things IC blog, January 2015

[2] Do you have the right skills to do your job? http://www.allthingsic.com/generalistspecialist/ published on the All Things IC blog January 2016

[3] Edelman’s Cloverleaf research: http://www.allthingsic.com/edelmanclover/, published January 2016

[4] Calling the right tune with internal communication? http://www.communication-director.com/issues/calling-right-tune-internal-communication#.V6eyZ1cydo6, Communication Director Magazine, August 2016

[5] The rise of wonky comms: http://www.allthingsic.com/wonky/, All Things IC blog, February 2016

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Rachel Miller is the Founder of All Things IC consultancy, offering senior level counsel to help organisations and communicators achieve excellence. She is a multiple award-winning professional and Fellow of both the Institute of Internal Communication and CIPR. Her thoughts have been featured in a number of best-selling PR books and she regularly shares her knowledge through her popular blog and All Things IC Masterclasses.

Twitter: @AllthingsIC
Online: www.allthingsic.com

Why great leaders are great communicators

WHY GREAT LEADERS ARE GREAT COMMUNICATORS Lucia Dore

To what extent is communication the key to a successful organisation and to great leadership? How does good communication make an organisation great? And what difference does good communication make to the implementation of a public relations strategy?

You’ll learn:
•    Great leaders are great communicators who tell stories
•    Great communicators are authentic, believe in what they say and inspire others
•    The importance of listening
 

Communication is one of the top three skills of leadership, according to author, coach and leadership guru, Kevin Murray, who observes on his website: “The best strategy is useless unless you can inspire those around you to deliver it. How good are you at employee engagement?” 

Great leaders communicate well not only with co-workers and peers but also with their clients. Through good communication clients know the value of a public relations strategy.
 

Identifying talent

Good communication allows great leaders to identify and surround themselves with the best talent. Great leaders do not doubt their own abilities and want to nurture great talent in others. This is only done if there is good communication within an organisation.

This is true whatever country you live in. For many years, I’ve lived in the United Kingdom, the United Arab Emirates and more recently New Zealand, and constantly communicating with staff (face-to-face as well as through social media) matters wherever you are located.

We must remember though that great communication is a skill, not a gift. It can be learned, whether through formal training with accredited educational institutions or informally through global organisations such as Toastmasters. In this case, it is practice that matters and makes perfect. 

Great leaders communicate in the conference hall, the interview room and interact on a daily basis with co-workers. 

A few years ago, I co-founded a company in London (powerful-communication.com) that specialises in communication training. 

People from all walks of life ask for training - from CEOs to students. Some are already competent speakers while others are fearful of speaking in public. 

Through working as a trainer I learnt that good communication is critical in building strong relationships. In turn, these people often become good clients.

The public-speaking phobia comes up again and again. In fact, many surveys show that most people are more afraid of speaking in public than they are of death. It is estimated that 75% of all people experience some degree of anxiety or nervousness when public speaking. 

Such fear is an obstacle people must overcome if they are to be great leaders, but one that can be dealt with before they even embark on the journey.

A study carried out by the International Association of Business Communicators (IABC) led to the advent of the excellence theory which shows that there are three primary variables for predicting excellence: communicator knowledge; shared expectations about communication and the character of an organisation. 

But the excellence study also shows that communicator expertise is not enough to predict the best practices of public relations. 

There must be shared expectations, or a common understanding, between co-workers in an organisation as well as clients, along with a collaborative culture. 

Perhaps more importantly organisations with participative cultures are more likely to practice public relations using two-way communication and research, which is more effective in helping an organisation meet its goals and objectives.

Furthermore, the survey shows that greater job satisfaction results in more participative cultures.
 

What is good communication?

Good communication is all about being confident and building it in others, it employs vocal development, developing vocal variety, presentation skills and handling meetings. 

Good communication is distinct from the one-way transaction of expression. It involves the participation of multiple parties that have the willingness to align views and knowledge on a given subject.

And most importantly of all, good communication is when the person delivering the message is authentic. Surveys show again and again that one of the winning factors that make a person a good communicator is “authenticity”. 

A great leader is passionate about what she or he does, can inspire others and also engenders trust.

Good communication means speaking in the language of the organisation and communicating with those within it - not speaking “down” to employees or co-workers. Great leaders often don’t know they are great leaders; they simply set examples that others want to follow. They believe in what they do and what they say, they rule by example and others usually want to follow them. 
 

The art of storytelling

One of the best ways of communicating a message is by way of storytelling. 

“No doubt about it, the best speakers are good storytellers. The best writers are good storytellers. The best leaders are good storytellers. The best teachers and trainers and coaches are good storytellers. It might even be argued that the best parents are good storytellers. While storytelling is not the only way to engage people with your ideas, it’s certainly a critical part of the recipe,” says Rodger Dean Duncan, a contributor to Forbes magazine in January 2014.

In public relations it is important to engage with both your own organisation and your client’s business, who must understand why there is a public relations strategy in the first place. 

While many people have relied on PowerPoint presentations full of data, numbers, statistics and analytics it is the stories of one’s own life, or a client’s life, that usually engages the public more - no matter how simplistic that is. 

Take ‘refugees’, for example, a cause I’m involved with in Australasia. It’s the story of each refugee; why they were persecuted and how they escaped that engages the public rather than their contribution to society as a whole. 

Perhaps the best communication is when we can convey facts and figures as well as those stories that tell of life’s experiences.
 

Media training and the context

Good leaders are also aware of their surroundings, both in a physical and organisational sense. They know the context of which they are speaking and the company backstory. These simple things lead to communications success.
 

Good communication starts with active listening

Listening is one of the most important skills one can have. How well one listens has a major impact on communication, job effectiveness, and on the quality of your relationships with others. 

It also impacts how well you understand and meet the needs of clients. 

According to Flora Wilke, EY Associate Director for Global PR - Transaction Advisory Services: ‘Relationships are in the DNA of PR. Having lived in Germany, the United States as well as the United Kingdom, I was exposed to a multicultural environment from an early age. I came to understand that there is a lot that connects us and that listening is key to any meaningful relationships.’

‘During times of uncertainty and globalisation, the future of PR will be increasingly built around holding on to those meaningful relationships to future proof our profession.’ 

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Lucia Dore is founder and CEO of Lucia Dore Consultancy, a global PR and communication firm with knowledge of the UK, the Middle East and Australasia.

Twitter: @LuciaDore1
Online: www.luciadore.com

Company culture: Managing stress, presenteeism and mental health

COMPANY CULTURE: MANAGING STRESS, PRESENTEEISM AND MENTAL HEALTH Paul Sutton

Poor mental health is a burgeoning issue, with depression, stress and anxiety rife within the PR industry. This chapter looks at some of the potential reasons for this and provides an action plan for employers looking to proactively address the issue and create a healthy workplace. 

You’ll learn:
•    Why you should take mental health seriously
•    How to identify mental health issues in your company
•    How to increase profitability by tackling those issues effectively
 

30% of respondents in the 2016 CIPR State of the Profession Survey stated that they are ‘somewhat unhappy’ or ‘not at all happy’ when indicating their level of well-being in their jobs [1]. 

Nearly a third of UK staff persistently turn up to work ill and only 35% are generally healthy and present, according to the CIPD’s Absence Management Report [2]. 

The 2016 PRCA Census reported that 12% of those in PR changing their job opted to leave the industry completely for a new career [3]. And the overall level of staff turnover within the public relations industry is around 25% per year.

The statistics are pretty alarming. And the cost to the communications industry of failing to adequately address these issues is huge.

Mental health issues cost the UK £70 billion per year [4] while the annual cost of presenteeism is twice that of absenteeism [2]. Meanwhile, the cost of losing a single employee can be as much as 60% of that employee’s salary. And much of these costs are incurred not through healthcare, benefits, recruitment or training, but lost productivity.
 

The mental health epidemic

The communications industry is a notoriously high-pressure environment. People work long hours and deal with tight deadlines and demanding clients on an almost daily basis. Public relations regularly features alongside firefighters, airline pilots and police officers in lists of the most stressful careers.

But how often have you heard of someone in PR having a few days off due to stress, anxiety or depression?

Professor Sir Cary Cooper of the Manchester Business School says that: “presenteeism is the biggest threat to UK workplace productivity”. He warns there is a risk that staff are not coping with the competing demands of work and home life. And, given the levels of work-related stress in public relations it is not, I believe, unreasonable to describe the mental health issue in the communications industry as endemic.

I was diagnosed with clinical depression in 2004 and have suffered on and off ever since. About three years ago I started to write about my experiences on Facebook and on my blog, and in May I told my story at the CIPR in support of Mental Health Awareness Week [5].

The striking thing is that every time I share an article about mental health or post about my experiences, I have people message me telling me their own story or looking for support. I’ve lost count of the number of communications professionals I’ve spoken to privately about this in the last few years; some of whom I’ve known or worked with, some of whom I haven’t.

In 2015, the PRCA published data showing that 34% of PR practitioners have been diagnosed with or experienced some form of mental ill health [6]. Make no mistake, depression, stress and anxiety are rife within the public relations industry.
 

The culture of client first

So why is it the case that communications is so damaging to our mental health? Police officers, firefighters and nurses I can understand; they’re professions that deal with life and death. PR? Not so much. It’s PR not ER, as the saying goes.

The answer lies in the way that the industry deals, or rather doesn’t deal, with personal stress and pressure. Of all the people I’ve spoken to over the last three years, I cannot recall a single person who blamed the job solely for their condition. Every person had personal issues to deal with; illness, family problems, financial issues, divorce, death.

And that is where we fall down and why we have such a big problem. The culture in the public relations industry is that the job comes first. 

We are encouraged to be ‘always on’; to say ‘yes’ to every client demand no matter how unreasonable; to meet unrealistic deadlines. If there is blame to be had, the uncomfortable truth is that it has to lie with those responsible for reinforcing and perpetuating this culture within companies.

It makes little sense. Pushing people too hard can lead to emotional trauma and, ultimately, burnout. And stress, anxiety and depression have a significant and damaging effect on individual performance levels.

Lack of motivation and low productivity are commonplace among those suffering with poor mental health. 

No agency management personnel would ever admit, or perhaps even believe, that they put their clients before their employees. And yet I have heard stories from those suffering, and experienced first hand, a serious lack of compassion, people being put on performance reviews and issues being paid lip service to.

Failure to address such issues in the short term is far more costly in the long term in all sorts of ways, not least client retention, recruitment and training costs and, ultimately, profitability.

Part of the problem is simply that there is a lack of understanding of what poor mental health is and of what to do about it. There’s still a great deal of stigma around depression and, quite simply, it isn’t talked about enough. Agency leaders don’t know where to turn to for advice.
 

Identifying poor mental health

Recognising that an employee is suffering from a mental health issue is not easy, especially given that the communications industry is high pressure at the best of times. But there are a few things to look for that might alert you.

Stress, anxiety and depression manifest themselves in different ways. And a case of ‘the blues’ isn’t really one of them. The key common indicators are motivation, productivity and general performance. If these have dipped uncharacteristically, it’s a warning sign that something is wrong.

But over and above performance, there are other indicators to be aware of. Mood is a big one. For me personally, I become very intolerant and tetchy if a depressive episode is on its way and I’ve learned to spot this and act on it sooner rather than later. So if you know someone who is normally fairly level-headed but is being unusually temperamental, absent minded and/or erratic, it’s possible they’re suffering from stress.

Sleep is another issue. When depressed, some people suffer terribly from insomnia while others struggle to get up in the morning. Either way, if you have an employee who seems to be so tired that they can hardly function, it might not be because they spent all weekend on the razz.

Another big indicator is diet. Again, this varies; while some people don’t want to eat anything when their mental health is poor, others can’t stop themselves. So an employee who appears to be losing or gaining weight rapidly may have a problem with depression or anxiety.

The key is to be aware of all of the symptoms and to have a management structure that watches for them. One person alone cannot possibly be responsible for the mental health of your company; if you’re serious about tackling the problem (and don’t kid yourself that you don’t have a problem) you have to bake it into everyone who manages people.

An action plan

Perhaps the most significant thing you can do to address the mental health issue in your own organisation is to be proactive about it. Don’t wait for your staff to approach you with their problems, because they won’t.

There are many reasons depression and anxiety are so rife but so hidden in the communications industry, but they all tend to lead back to stigma. PR professionals are taught not to show weakness. They fear that admitting they’re struggling to cope at any given time will damage their credibility and career prospects, so they keep quiet. And I speak from personal experience.

But you can break this cycle. Resolve right now to implement a culture that acknowledges mental health issues. Be proactive. 

Much of this will come from your management team and encouraging open dialogue among all levels of your organisation. It has to be implemented from the top down, with each level responsible for looking after the level directly below them. Encourage others to keep a watchful eye on those they manage as a part of their job role. Shield employees from pressure where you can instead of piling it on them. 

Don’t patronise people, but do provide escape mechanisms where employees can work in different ways if they need to from time to time. Simple things like flexible working hours can help anyone struggling with mornings or unable to sleep. Similarly, the option to work remotely is useful where someone is struggling to cope with the pressures of the office or dealing with people (which is common, as many depressed people simply want to hide away and be by themselves).

Think outside the box a little too. What about banning out of hours emails? People in the UK have the longest working hours in the EU [2] and a joint study by Lehigh University and Colorado State University [7] found that spending time on after hours work contributed to emotional exhaustion, increasing stress and negatively affected job performance. Just the ‘assumed availability’ of email is enough to create constant stress.
 

Be proactive

Above anything else though, don’t do any of this to pay lip service to the issue. Hard wire the approach into your management structure, hire someone to train your staff on recognising mental health issues and dealing with them. Teach people to show genuine concern for those suffering, approach them openly and ask how you can help with their recovery.

Don’t sweep presenteeism, stress, depression and mental health under the carpet. Make a commitment to tackle the problem and it will pay dividends in happier employees, increased productivity and greater profitability.
 

Case study

Focus PR is leading the way when it comes to operating a progressive approach towards mental health. The management team believes in prevention rather than cure and operates an ‘open door policy’ to create a nurturing culture.

“We don’t have a history of people being signed off from work with mental health problems, but there have been occasions where steps we’ve taken have potentially prevented them arising”, says Adrienne Conlon, Head of Operations.

Team members tackling personal issues are supported on a case-by-case basis, and assistance may include steps such as: access to paid time off so that an individual can manage a situation and return to work with a fresh head; paid time off to attend counselling sessions; the ability to start or finish earlier or later, or to work from home; and redistribution of workload.

Focus also provides a self-referral private healthcare plan that includes elements such as cognitive behavioural therapy, counselling and GP video consultations with a maximum 48 hour wait, all of which is handled directly and privately.

“We don’t believe in ‘burning and churning’ our team,” says Conlon, “and as a direct result of the care we show them, 40% of our team have been with us for over three years.”
 

Sources

[1] https://www.cipr.co.uk/content/policy-resources/research/cipr-state-profession-2016

[2] http://www.cipd.co.uk/pm/peoplemanagement/b/weblog/archive/2015/11/04/annual-cost-of-presenteeism-is-twice-that-of-absenteeism-says-prof-cooper.aspx

[3] http://news.prca.org.uk/pr-census-2016-reveals-that-the-pr-industry-is-worth-129bn

[4] https://www.theguardian.com/society/2014/feb/10/mental-health-issues-uk-cost-70bn-oecd

[5] http://paulsutton.co/2016/05/19/addressing-pr-mental-health-epidemic/

[6] http://news.prca.org.uk/one-third-of-pr-practitioners-have-suffered-from-mental-ill-health

[7] http://aom.org/News/Press-Releases/Pressing-employees-to-respond-to-emails-after-hours-is-a-recipe-for-trouble%2C-study-finds.aspx

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Paul Sutton is an independent digital media consultant who is as passionate about addressing the mental well-being of the communications industry as he is about improving the social media return on investment of his clients. He has helped a diverse range of organisations to improve the effectiveness of their social media marketing, from large brands like Honda and L’Oreal to start-ups and small companies near his Oxfordshire home. He has now developed a service to assist communications agencies with implementing a best practice approach to mental health understanding and provision. For more information, visit www.paulsutton.co/#FuturePRoof-mental-health

Twitter: @ThePaulSutton
Online: www.paulsutton.co

Growing pains: Moving from an entrepreneurial to a professional structure

GROWING PAINS: MOVING FROM AN ENTREPRENEURIAL TO A PROFESSIONAL STRUCTURE Alicia Mellish

The descriptor ‘entrepreneur’ conjures up images of a dynamic individual, driven, ambitious, creative...perhaps a little maverick. Working with an entrepreneur and within an entrepreneurial structure can feel exciting and may be particularly attractive to today’s graduating work force – a millennial population that has torn up the rulebook on professional progression and the traditional career path. However, in order to grow a business with entrepreneurial roots, it is necessary to develop the established structure, moving focus and pressure away from the founding individual, in order to empower the team and ultimately realise the business’s true long term potential. 

You’ll learn:
•    To identify key areas of pressure and anxiety build-up within the agency
•    How to lessen team dependency through delegated decision making and shift to a professional structure
•    That the operational clarity delivered through a professional structure need not be to the detriment of creativity associated with entrepreneurialism


Underlying anxiety identified within the PR industry

When broken down, the skillset required of the consummate PR professional goes beyond tangible capabilities, such as release writing, client reporting or event management. It even goes beyond the less tangible requirements of the capacity for creative thought and far-reaching network development. 

I believe a truly talented PR has an innate ability to instil total confidence in their client - nurturing and developing that client’s trust in their counsel and dependency on their services - whilst maintaining a professional and detached position, which keeps one eye on agency profit and the other on further opportunities for business. 

However, walking the fine line between satisfying both agency and client needs can, in fact, be the source of great anxiety for agency teams. Often, while people might be aware of feeling anxious, the source of the anxiety is not explored and therefore a solution cannot be found. This is particularly true of businesses built on an entrepreneurial structure and if left unaddressed can start to have a detrimental affect on the day-to-day working and operations of the agency. 

The solution? A move towards a more professional structure – one which incorporates a distinct delegated decision making framework that will empower its agency members and shift team dialogue, taking everyday interactions from the personal to the professional. 

The entrepreneurial structure examined

There is a universal defining element that identifies an entrepreneurial structure regardless of industry or sector - an acute dependence on a single individual (or ‘leader’) at the top of the working hierarchy. 

Such a dependency can distract an entire agency away from the professional task at hand and towards a focus on the personal:
 

Dependency

Whilst initially, one person making all decisions can make an agency nimble, reactive, as well as proactive and fast moving, in time, should business growth be the objective, the leader will be unable to continue addressing / tackling the volume of decisions required of him/her. Unfortunately, the existing team (used to working within an entrepreneurial structure) is unlikely to be equipped to engage in the decision making process required of them, having not previously been granted the freedom to make such judgements for themselves. 

The team’s reluctance to take control, driven by anxiety around making mistakes, can be seen by the leader as a shirking of responsibility and a reluctance to assume accountability. 

The leader, far from reassured by the team’s efforts, may feel it necessary to take back control, which in turn keeps the team in a dependent state. This dependent state will feel less anxiety provoking to the team and they will lean towards the more comfortable position of operating within the boundaries of the known, rather than unknown, structure. 

The potential for sustainable business growth at this point becomes virtually impossible. 

Personality

With dependency comes familiarity. Whilst a friendly working environment can be productive and comfortable to work within, it is more important when it comes to discussing client work and related tasks that professionalism be maintained. The danger within an entrepreneurial structure, where personalities (most notably the leader) are inherently the focus of the staff hierarchy, feedback to the team can risk feeling personal rather than professional. Agency line managers may struggle to find a way to clearly communicate their expectations of an individual’s output, leaving little against which to judge performance. 

Over time, the development of the team, key to the development of the business, can become a struggle as individuals continue to be held in a dependent state, where they are unclear on performance expectations and their own career progression. The team, regardless of their talent and capability, will eventually lose motivation. 
 

Moving towards a professional structure

The key to addressing this dependent state and a demotivated team, is to shift the agency towards a professional structure.

This shift requires the entrepreneur to take a bold step towards implementing a delegated decision making framework for the entire team (from the most junior to the most senior team players). All decisions delegated should be grade appropriate and clearly communicated to the agency overall, but then decided on within account teams on a project-by-project basis. 

The relinquishing of control and the responsibility of new found autonomy will be anxiety provoking for the leader and the team respectively. But, just as with the inherent anxiety felt when working in PR, it is important for this to be identified and acknowledged. It should be made clear to the team that allowances will be made for mistakes and that this is an acceptable part of the agency’s development as a whole. 

If the leader is fully committed to and supportive of the transition, they will start to see the team assume a greater level of accountability around their work and in turn apply increased consideration and thought moving forwards. The team will slowly move towards a place of empowerment and the intense pressure, previously felt by the leader, will dissipate. 
 

The tools to maintaining a professional structure

Physically documented framework

Just as a good agency has detailed job specifications available for existing and prospective employees to refer to, for the delegated decision making framework to be effective, it is necessary to have clear guidelines available for the team to go back to. 

These should detail more than just payment approval limits and include tasks such as: at what level a press release can be signed off or what supplier should be used, through to the agreement of a scope of client work within a specified budget. 

These specifications act as a guideline to setting up the roles and responsibilities on individual client projects and immediately set clear expectations of what is required of a team member. Creating a document template, where all decisions and responsibilities are laid out in black and white, will deliver clarity for all involved. 

Should a decision not be made by an individual, it is understood that this will be noted and professional feedback will be expected. This clarity of expectation (and a move away from the personal) will lead to a less anxious dynamic between team members. 
 

A professional structure working for the agency as a whole

Embedding a new way of working takes time and effort and it is vital that allowances are made for teething problems along the way. But, once established, the path will be clear for sustainable business growth. 

•    Not only will the leadership team be freed up to focus on longer term business development, but the wider team will feel a greater sense of empowerment and, as a consequence, commitment to the agency. 

•    Clarity of expectation will allow line managers to feedback on work, safe in the knowledge it will be received in a professional rather than personal way. 

•    The team will feel confident in their career progression and valued by the business, with the framework of output expectation and decision making a benchmarking tool that individuals (across all grades) can use to clearly demonstrate their professional progression. This in turn cannot be ignored by the senior team. 

Of course, it is important not to rubbish the entrepreneurial structure from which a professional one develops. It is, after all, the crucial driver that delivers a business to this stage. But the key is knowing when to embrace the next stage of your agency’s life cycle!

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Alicia Mellish is founder and MD of Stir PR. Starting out as one person with a laptop, the last six years has seen Stir grow and develop to a successful mid-sized agency with a client list of impressive food, drink and lifestyle brands. Today, Stir is part of Captivate, a group of multi discipline marketing agencies that value connected thinking combined with specialist execution. When not working, Alicia can be found sailing the high seas or seeking out, photographing (or buying) quirky interior design and furniture. 

Twitter: @StirPRLondon
Online: www.stirpublicrelations.com

Staff salaries: Handling wage inflation and salary bandings

STAFF SALARIES: HANDLING WAGE INFLATION AND SALARY BANDINGS Steve Earl

Managing expectations around wages requires transparency so that people understand fair pay and the path ahead, an awareness of individual motivations and for teams to be outward and well as inward-looking, so that they see salaries in context of what’s happening in the world around them.

You’ll learn:
•    About how personal values drive what staff members expect from their salary package
•    The benefits of payscale transparency
•    Why it’s important to help employees understand market forces and the impact these have on business


Expectation management, in an industry that is still evolving to better prove its value, has long been important. We’ve covered the shifts in client expectations, but the management of expectations around staff salaries continues to be a direct and pressing one, with a battle for talent prominent across agencies and in-house departments.

In many ways, plus ca change; most people will always push for more, particularly when they work for a time and expenses-driven, people-focused business or team. Yet expectations are not as simple as they used to be, meaning there are far broader considerations, and these will probably continue to diversify.

The reality is that we don’t just work in a fast-changing sector, we live in a fast-changing world. Which means that expectations around wages in communications have to be assessed and managed in the wider context of the economy, of employment, but above all of the values that individuals hold dear, which is the most direct driver of their motivations and aspirations around what they earn.
 

Shifting values

Consider this: I started a full-time job in the summer of 1992. The UK was still trying to claw its way out of a recession that began in 1989 following the heady years of the mid-1980s. People were chasing roles, desperate to get a first foot on the ladder and happy to land a job. But a few months in, I was eyeing the next rung on the ladder, plotting a course for the next few years of multiple promotions and responsibility conventionally beyond my years. And I’d been to see a mortgage broker.

Yes, I was trying to save for a deposit and buy my first home. Home ownership mattered to me, because I valued it highly. Roll forward the clock a few years and ahead of making account director at a London agency I bought my second home, a London flat.

Compare that with the landscape of aspiring, rapidly-rising communications professionals today. They have sky-high rents, living costs jumping up and an uncertain economic outlook, compounded by Brexit and a sector that is adjusting to rapid transformation. Motivations are clearly different on the first few rungs of the ladder, when the prospect of home ownership seems unrealistic, particularly for those living and working in London.

This is just one example of how values have shifted as work and economic realities have moved on. But it points to a broader picture of shifts in values between generations. My lot were 80s kids, entering the market in the shadow of the still largely vacant Canary Wharf, desperate to claw their way upwards. Today, values have changed, and there are indications that young people likely to enter the workforce in the next few years will be even more concerned with family, enjoyment and the contribution they make to society [1], and less so with what they earn.
 

Even, fair and clear

These values and motivational factors are what they are, a by-product of society and the economy that the communications business can do little about. What employers can get a grip on though, in managing expectations, is what they should really always be doing anyway - respond to those values and beliefs with an approach to remuneration that is even, fair and above all clear.

One of the things that senior managers can often forget is that while they may have full visibility over what people get paid and what salaries are allocated to different job levels, at the more junior levels, where the war for talent can be equally frenetic, many people simply don’t know what they can expect to be paid at the next rung up, or once they’re much further up the ladder. And reliance on hearsay can be a very dangerous thing.

For their own financial performance management, businesses of course need to work to salary scales. While many of us will have seen exceptions to that rule – agencies, for example, where rises and pay grades seem to sometimes be allotted arbitrarily – the reality is that attracting and retaining talent while running a profitable people-based business depends on having a realistic salary scale that governs what people get paid at different levels. And as the conventional hierarchy continues to diversify, with more varied job titles reflecting a more varied media and communications landscape, that becomes more challenging.

Clarity, to a point

Whether agencies and in-house departments choose to make those bandings public is another matter. Most will reveal to individuals what the salary range is at their current level, and being clear on the next level up, as the carrot is dangled, is typically good practice too. Some go as far as publishing the entire salary scale internally, which while perhaps commendable is trickier for larger businesses and even more complicated as job roles diversify and the scope of earned, paid and owned media services expands to the point where comparing apples with apples pay-wise becomes unfeasible.

Whatever the desired approach though, it’s important to ensure that salary scales are reviewed regularly so that they keep pace with market progress and competitive forces. Industry bodies publish them based on market data, as do recruitment firms, but in my experience these vary pretty widely, and conversations with peers who have an ear to the ground is a better way of assessing what’s current and how things might be shifting.
 

The real world

The reality, of course, is that salaries and salary inflation in communications will always have some parallels with roles in other walks of business life. We do not work in an industry where mega-bonuses froth the picture in boom years, or where the demand for talent gives rise to an unrealistic escalation in what people can get paid for the value they provide. If the economy is tight, there will likely be a knock-on effect in many areas of communications, and those tailwinds can be felt at resourcing and salary levels in communications, naturally. We get paid real world salaries, on the whole.

Equally, employers need to ensure that their teams understand the market forces and commercial imperatives that shape how much they get paid, and how much they can get paid in the future. Growing businesses create more opportunities for the people who work for them. Services that hold greater value have the capacity to be charged at correspondingly higher prices, meaning those who create higher value stand to share in the spoils. 

Rapid economic growth creates new openings and new possibilities, which can enhance earning potential and accelerate career development. Inflation – while near-nil in the UK for some years now – can be a negative pressure unless it corresponds with market and fee or rate growth.

Equally, uncertainty, stagnant economic outlooks, market pressures and hesitancy amongst those who pay the bills to invest in services can constrict earning potential. While few of us in communications may have formal qualifications in economics, the fact that economies can be like balloons or bubbles that expand or contract, but where activity has consequences in different or opposing directions, is ever-present. 

If there simply is no more headroom to increase the overall wage bill, then that’s how it is. We’re all in it together, as they say. For employers, the persistent battle is to get the right people in the right places, with the right staff cost to revenue ratio to help support the achievement of target profit levels.

Transparency and confidence

Above all then, the main factors in managing expectations around wages tend to be transparency so that people understand fair pay and the path ahead, a full understanding of the factors that motivate people to do their jobs and to ensure that teams are outward and well as inward-looking, so that they see salaries in context of what’s happening in the world around them.

It’s easier said than done of course, and understanding human behaviour is as important if not more important than understanding commercial realities. Above all, one thing is clear: the more confident a sector communications is, and the more able it is to prove value, the greater the potential rewards and the prospects for us all.

Sources

[1] zenogroup.com/the-human-project/

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Steve Earl Entrepreneur, former journalist and self-confessed cycloholic Steve Earl runs Zeno’s European operations. As co-author of Brand Anarchy and #BrandVandals, both published by Bloomsbury, there is little he doesn’t know about reputational risk and the opportunities for progressive PR.

Twitter: @mynameisearl
Online: www.zenogroup.com

Managing client expectations

MANAGING CLIENT EXPECTATIONS Andrew Reeves

Solutions for managing financial negotiation and in particular over-servicing.

You’ll learn:
•    How to manage client expectations to get paid appropriately for your work
•    Ways to provide value for money other than through discounted fees
•    When it’s time to say no to pricing concession demands
 

Over worked and under paid

In a service industry like ours, the natural default is to ensure we exceed client expectations. This is right and proper, and means we can charge a fee worthy of the service delivered. 

All too often however, our desire to exceed expectations and our right to get paid for a quality job gets blurred and we risk being over worked and under paid.

The chapter shares some tips on how to manage your client to ensure you get paid appropriately for the work that you do.
 

Step 1: Accept that you are on the back foot

When it comes to providing solutions for our clients we are so determined to demonstrate value from the very beginning that we will often invest a huge amount of time thinking about solutions and preparing options that we carefully present for client approval. At this stage, we think nothing of overinvesting to woo our clients and close a sale.

In total contrast, our clients engage in considered processes designed to maximise value and minimise price. They will happily extract every concession we are willing to offer and continue to ask for more. This is just business and they are generally far more professional at buying then we are at selling.

Recognising this dynamic allows you to deal with it. We can professionalise our selling process to make this more aligned with client procurement processes once we recognise it’s a problem.
 

Step 2: Establish where you make the most impact

In any transaction the buyer has options. They will look to appoint someone who best meets their objectives and they will balance price versus quality. Value for money is never the cheapest option, it is the best option given a specific budget and will be different for different clients. 

Make sure you know clearly what your value for money offer is and be proud of it. 

When clients look for discounts, you are already in their range of affordability based on the level of service they are looking for. Remember, there are always cheaper options and many of these will require compromises in quality.
 

Step 3: Establish on what grounds you will be prepared to offer a discount

In many cases discounting is simply giving money away. However, when used carefully, discounting can provide you with benefits too. 

Always consider a wish list of opportunities you would enjoy from clients if they were available. These could be a long contract period, incremental scope opportunities or earlier payment terms - all items that a client may be prepared to trade with you in exchange for a requested discount.

Step 4: Be prepared to walk away

In certain circumstances, you may find that pricing or scope concessions are relentless. Every time you give in to a price cut or scope increment you find there is another request for more almost immediately.

There is a clear logic at play here, if you never say no to a request, your client will think there is always room to ask for more.

Learn to say ‘no’ early, or even better, ‘no but…’ where the ‘but’ provides you with possibility to table opportunities for your agency that you have identified.

Step 5: Have a written contract on what you agreed

It can be very easy to get carried away in a hard fought for, lengthy negotiation in which the details have become quite complicated, especially in terms of the deliverables and scope.

As part of any negotiation, it is essential to write down in granular detail the specific terms agreed. All too often contracts are tight on general terms and conditions but can be weak when it comes to what specific deliverables and outcomes are included in the price.

Step 6: Maintain good quality internal records

Having agreed a good contract with a clear scope of work and related fees, it is important you monitor its progress. This includes both the actual work as well as the process assumptions calculated within the fees.

If for example, the fees included a certain amount of creative concepts, amendments and approvals, then increased levels of these beyond what was agreed should constitute a change of scope, necessitating a discussion with the client.

Conversely, if you made assumptions about the length of time the work would take based on pre-agreed processes which have been maintained, but it has taken much longer, then it is likely that you have efficiency issues that need to be addressed internally.

Step 7: Build in regular evaluations

Every contract will have variations to some extent and this is normal. In particular, scopes of activities will be subject to changes in business dynamics such as competitive activity, which may influence which activities become priority. 

In addition, it is normal practice for contractual processes to become compromised through genuine day-to-day disturbances that can affect the quality of delivery. In particular, new relationships take time to bed in as both agency and client get to know each other.

For that reason, it essential that regular evaluations are held. This should be a collective review of what has been actually delivered vs. what was expected, for both level and quality of activity.

Step 8: Escalate early when things go wrong

In any relationship it is better to be up front when something goes wrong. This is equally true in agency engagements. 

Where bad behaviours start to appear, such as poor process adherence or incremental scope creep, dealing with these early sends a strong message that will pay dividends. Conversely, ignoring problems will lead your clients to assume that you don’t have problems and effectively encourage bad habits to grow.

Ensure you have a clear escalation plan with the right people so early problems can be dealt with efficiently and effectively.

Step 9: Continue to adapt & innovate as the relationship requires

Nothing stays the same for long and being flexible is key to a healthy and progressive relationship.

As you learn more about your client’s business and what works for them you should be able to develop new ways of working that will improve both the efficiency of your work and its effectiveness.

Increasingly technology and data provide us with more knowledge on how to do the job better. Being proactive in this regard, to the benefit of your client, will increase the quality of the relationship and hold you in good stead going forward.


Step 10: Maintain a healthy relationship and common sense at all times

Finally, having good contracts and clear ways of working to negotiate prices and manage scope is a fundamental hygiene factor for most agencies. Often what’s more important is simply the chemistry between an agency and its client.

Where a good contract will see you through the early years and provide good guidelines for how to manage the work, the strength of the relationship will see you though the tough times.

It may take years to develop this type of relationship, however it will become far more important for the health of your business, helping you manage the peaks and troughs of a client engagement.
 

Final thoughts

Negotiation is something that we face every day in both our professional and private lives. When looked at from a perspective of what is the right thing to do, an effective negotiation becomes far more likely.

If you work hard, deliver what you say you’ll deliver, on time, to a high quality and on budget, you should be paid well. Hopefully the above steps will help guide you towards that end goal successfully, for both you and your clients.

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Andrew Reeves is a commercial consultant within marketing services helping his clients develop and grow. His skill set is helping agencies develop the right financial tools including planning, operations and pricing to help realise their full potential.

Twitter: @easyreevesie
Online: www.reeves-consulting.com

Client contact: Empowering your account handler and adding value to your client as senior management

CLIENT CONTACT: EMPOWERING YOUR ACCOUNT HANDLER AND ADDING VALUE TO YOUR CLIENT AS SENIOR MANAGEMENT  Farzana Baduel

Empowering your account handler and adding value to your client as senior management is a key way to strengthen and sustain client relationships. This chapter will show you how.

You’ll learn:
•    How to manage relationships with clients at a senior level
•    New ways to sustain client connection
•    How to manage risks to your agency and clients
 

Bridging the gap

It is often a concern for clients that they are missing out on the skill-set of senior management. 

Maintaining relationships with the client at a senior level is really about two things, communication and added value. This means maintaining a base level of communication that suits each client as well as you, whilst proactively looking for opportunities to offer services above and beyond the account manager role. 

It is imperative the client feels confident the account manager knows their business – this message needs to be transferred to the client through personal introductions and hands-on relationship building, support and empowerment of the individual, as well as evidence of strategy. 
 

Use events

Inside and outside of normal working hours, events are a great opportunity for client bonding, but the real value lies in the type of event you involve them with. 

Positioning an event around thought leadership and making it experiential is a way to demonstrate you understand your client. Vary the topic so events become an opportunity to broaden their network, and educate the client on other industries. 

This is also a great way to teach your client about the other services you or your industry provides, such as reputation management or digital or influencer marketing. 

Asking clients to give a short talk at a salon or breakfast exposes them to other thought leaders and builds a platform for them. You can also use your client’s talents to inspire and motivate your team. 
 

Make introductions

Making personal introductions communicates to the client that you are interested in building relationships that benefit their business, and that you exist to think outside of account manager scope. 

Whether at your own events or by inviting clients to third party ones, always think dynamically about what introductions might be useful for them. Let existing clients learn from each other or complement each other’s skills. Share your contacts and do not forget that this is often reciprocated. 

Digital and social media

PR is being revolutionised by the digital landscape and as senior management you should engage with your client’s digital presence. Social media is a gift which enables you to show you have an interest in your client and are in touch. 

At a very basic level this means following their profiles, liking and sharing their posts, and joining their professional and social networks whether it be LinkedIn, YouTube, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Vine, Tumblr or even Snapchat. 

Be intelligent about these interactions as it means nothing if you like or share everything. Sharing with the right people in the right networks reinforces your engagement with the client and the understanding you have of their business and message. 
 

Managing risks: Employee and client risk

We are already alert to the concept of risk management but risk extends far beyond corporate operational risk to areas of an agency’s internal processes. 

Agencies should be thinking about risk management in terms of their culture and processes. With employees, this means quality on-boarding and off-boarding - the importance of which is often severely overlooked. 
 

On-boarding

On-boarding should be treated as an act to empower and motivate your new employees, showing them you are investing in the cycle of their employment from beginning to end. 

By investing time from the start you are introducing them to your agency’s values, your best practices and the skills they need to be productive from the outset. This differs hugely from a basic induction to your HR policy – it is an introduction to your culture and performance expectations and should be planned well in advance. 

Research shows that structured on-boarding leads to retention of staff, important to keep clients happy. Whilst an introduction to your systems is vital it should not be confused with training. New employees should be actively encouraged to share knowledge and expertise from the moment they are hired and senior members of the team should at this stage commit time to them. Always think about maximising employee engagement. 

In implementing an effective on-boarding process for employees at every level you are setting a standard for how they perform with your clients. Rather than waiting until a new starter’s first day, an online introduction to your company’s ethos can begin as soon as an offer has been officially accepted. 
 

Off-boarding

Off-boarding safeguards your agency. 

From your intellectual property to ultimately your reputation, every brand has assets it needs to protect and employees leaving for whatever reason may have business critical information and experience unique to your clients. 

The process of transferring this information should never be a last minute panic but an intelligent, cohesive handover by collaborating as a team. Managers should encourage information transfer not just as roles change but as standard, to safeguard ideas being lost or undocumented and critically so the client is unaffected by any transition. This is where CRM software has become an increasingly important tool. 

The transference of client relationships should always be handled sensitively and transparently. The news that someone is leaving, and introductions to new members of staff should be handled at the highest level, preferably in person, to ensure that clients feel confident that their best interests are still the company’s top priority. 

Remember brand advocates are not just existing employees, or indeed existing clients, and that departing employees or clients may well return. 
 

Be legal aware

On-boarding and off-boarding can also act to underpin the contractual agreements in place that prevent competitive disadvantage. 

As an employer you have a duty to make staff fully aware of rules surrounding both client confidentiality and data protection, but this is often set aside. An employee is much less likely to abuse trust if they view you with respect and integrity from the outset. 

Safeguard yourself and your client’s interests by building into your contracts appropriate non-competition and non-solicitation clauses. 

In the PR industry, data theft can have serious implications, and off-boarding is an opportune time to review this area. An eye-watering number of employees copy or download information before they leave and it should go without saying that there should be steps in place before that stage. Prevent them accessing the network, conduct an audit of passwords disclosed to them and ensure physical data in the form of hard-drives or USBs is not forgotten about. 

The exit interview is the last point at which a complaint can be documented. Where there may be contention, this reduces the risk of potential legal fall out. Invest time in it. 
 

Final thought

Maintaining client confidence is a responsibility that transcends your whole agency from the bottom to the top. Its fulfilment is down to the way you communicate as an organisation both internally and externally. Be agile and receptive to how your client communicates and always be open to the opportunities that good relationships can bring. 

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Farzana Baduel is the founder & CEO of Curzon PR, a strategic public relations and communications agency with offices in London, New York, Dubai and most recently Delhi. Previously, Baduel served as Vice Chair of Conservative Business Relations. 

Twitter: @farzanabaduel
Online: www.theprinsider.com

Speaking the language of procurement

SPEAKING THE LANGUAGE OF PROCUREMENT Tina Fegent

Client procurement teams are now a given with the majority of clients, from managing a pitch process to conducting annual audits of agency performance and adherence to agreed contract terms. This chapter will help you understand their role and what you as an agency can do to be a known supporter of procurement, as it will benefit the agency in the long term. 

The focus is on private and not public sector procurement.

You’ll learn:
•    What the role of procurement is - roles and responsibilities and how they are measured
•    The procurement process – from the pitch through to the purpose of Request For Informations and Request For Proposals, plus how key it is to get a signed contract and fees in place
•    How to build a relationship with procurement that benefits everyone


Roles and responsibilities

“As I hurtled through space, one thought kept crossing my mind - every part of this rocket was supplied by the lowest bidder.” John Glenn, USA Astronaut

After raw material costs, the marketing budget is usually the second highest spend area for a company.

It is your client’s money and they have a right to know how it is being used – both in terms of the charges by agreed agencies in terms of fees and all third party costs. 

“Buying is as important as Selling” – a £1 saving will benefit the bottom line immediately, a £1 sale will, after reduction of cost of sales, potentially benefit the bottom line by £0.35.

“Procurement’s ability to generate additional savings that can be turned into marketing funds in a time of marketing austerity gives companies that are able to practice clever marketing sourcing a true competitive edge. As such, sourcing specialists are becoming the front-line soldiers in marketing wars. CMOs ought to embrace them and value their contribution.” Avi Dan, Forbes Columnist

Procurement’s role is to manage the organisation’s external resources (suppliers), whilst ensuring that they minimise any element of risk in the supply chain whilst looking to add and maximise value.

Procurement usually sits within the Finance Division of any corporate organisation, with the Chief Procurement Officer reporting into the Finance Director. 

Client organisations vary in the way they structure their departments. A typical Marketing Procurement team will look like the team in Figure 1.

Figure 1 Procurement department showing Marketing Procurement detail

Scope

The role of procurement is very wide and covers: 

•    Managing costs that are acceptable to the business and represent good value
•    Ensuring that quality and delivery are not compromised
•    Developing and implementing the sourcing strategies for all external spend
•    Ensuring that both corporate and departmental governance principles are adhered to at all times by suppliers
•    Using project management skills to work collaboratively with stakeholders and agencies, especially in a pitch process
•    Making sure that the correct levels of contractual coverage with the supplier base are implemented and managed

Measurement

An initial procurement programme will be measured on cost savings. It is important to understand why. It could be to release budget to invest in other company projects such as establishing a shared service department or investing in R&D, or being able to get the most out of its existing marketing budget.

Measurement of any cost reduction is critical to the credibility of any client procurement programme, as is demonstrating added value.

The procurement team may have a shared cost savings element of their personal bonus that they all contribute to. It is always worth asking the procurement person if this is the case, so at least you know what their targets are.
 

Process insight

A procurement department will have a set of defined processes that they follow, regardless of the category of spend. This is a common complaint from agencies that the procurement team will use the same tendering process for PR services as they will for IT Hardware. 

An enlightened and experienced Marketing Procurement person will adapt the standard documentation as much as they are allowed, but the protocol is there to standardise the process and ensure all the regulatory and compliance issues for an organisation are covered.

The procurement process covers three areas, which are shown below.

Figure 2 Procurement processes


Pitch process

The key process to understand is Sourcing, as this is where agencies will invariably get to meet client procurement for the first time, in a pitch environment.

The pitch process followed is what procurement calls a tendering or Sourcing process, and usually has 7 steps:

Step One – Procurement to fully understand the spend category e.g. PR, across their organisation

Step Two – Supplier market assessment – which suppliers are in the marketplace and could meet their needs

Step Three – Prepare a supplier survey – start to draft the documents for Step Five

Step Four – Building the Sourcing strategy – is a tender / pitch the best way to go out to the market; are they looking for a single supplier or a roster of suppliers?

Step Five – Issue the RFx Requests for… and run a tender / pitch process, with timings and scoring managed by procurement

Step Six – Selection after negotiation with a shortlist of suppliers

Step Seven – Communicate with your new suppliers & provide feedback to the unsuccessful ones

Source: CIPS - The seven stages of a sourcing strategy
 

RFx’s

The key stage that suppliers will see is Step Five – the issue of either a Request for Information (RFI) or Request for Proposal (RFP). Their definitions are:

•     RFI – a top line document that will ask for your company credentials; main clients (usually top 10); key staff; 3 years audited accounts; policies that are in place and relevant experience in the related client sector

•     RFP – also called a Request for Quotation (RFQ) or Invitation To Tender (ITT) – detailed proposal against a scope of work with costs

From an agency point of view, it is worth building up a toolkit of answers to the above documentations, as there will be an element of repetitiveness in the question set. 
 

Contract and fees

Once a supplier has been appointed the key deliverables procurement want to cover are:

1.    Scope of Work (SOW)

2.    Resource to deliver the SOW

3.    The fee – both the agreed value and the structure e.g. retainer, project, outcomes

4.    Any Performance Related Fee with clear and agreed measurement with the financial sums

5.    Service Level Agreement

6.    Contract 

7.    Reconciliation and review meetings

All are important but the contract and fees are key, so you as an agency know the level of resources that you have to deliver against the agreed SOW, and the contract is there to cover any eventualities in case of changes at the client e.g. personnel or requirements.
 

Relationship building

If both parties understand each other better and are more skilled at the process, the relationship works better in the long term for everyone. It becomes win:win. 

Procurement is here to stay, and the sooner agencies accept it and work with those responsible, the better it is for everyone involved. A common complaint is that an agency just sees a procurement person at a pitch and then never again. 

Be proactive and look to work with the procurement person on an ongoing basis. These ten tips will help:

1. Set goals - Make sure you agree which areas procurement can bring value to the agency relationship, prioritise them and you’ll have a planned and productive relationship together

2. Define what success looks like - Have a discussion about what success looks like.

Once both sides have the same understanding of adding value (see no.1), there should be a discussion on specific areas in which the PR agency can help improve brand / organisational performance

3. Share pain points - Think about which common issues affect you and the client working effectively. Areas like lack of briefs, approval processes, repeated or unnecessary meetings, no Purchase Orders, extended payment terms and late invoice payment are all often troublesome areas that come to light

4. Build structure - Get procurement to help in the structure and formalisation of the agency relationship in areas such as SLAs, Performance Reviews, pricing and getting a robust contract in place

5. Understand the procurement process - Get a basic understanding of Procurement Category Management. A procurement professional worth his/her salt will discuss a range of ‘value levers’ with you, instead of focusing solely on cost cutting

6. Engage with the procurement team early - This gives you time to cover some the basics like a contract, PO & invoicing system and new supplier set up - all of which are best completed before you push the start button on a project

7. Build trust - Relationships break down when the trust is threatened, so work hard to build and keep trust in place with procurement. Make them your new best friend. It’s worth it

8. Integrate into the team - Get procurement involved with the agency client team. If you involve your procurement contacts in training or regular client team updates, they’ll be up to speed on their stakeholders’s priority activities, values and language, and less likely to be a blocker

9. Fresh perspective - Procurement may have an interesting overview, internally and externally. They can keep their stakeholders appraised of new agencies on the market or how the incumbent agency/ies are performing with other brands or product lines. They can also show if the roster of agencies fits or doesn’t fit the client’s strategic requirements

10. Act as a counsellor - As a third party, procurement is there to help facilitate relationship discussions – it’s surprising how often ‘relationship’ is a euphemism for ‘money’ – that clients don’t always have time for, and these should be easily combined with the agency regular performance reviews
 

Summary

Although procurement had its foundation in the traditional areas of manufacturing, it now performs a key role in the majority of client organisations, and is firmly embedded into client’s marketing teams.

By reading this chapter, hopefully it has helped you understand procurement in more detail and given you some ideas on how to build on this key relationship to the benefit of everyone.

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Tina Fegent runs a successful Marketing Procurement consultancy, working with both clients and agencies to ensure that the best clients work with the best agencies for them, with the correct commercial framework in place. Tina has over 25 years’ experience in this area, being one of the first to work in Marketing Procurement. She set up the teams at Telefonica (Cellnet); GSK (SB) and Orange (France Telecom), and then uniquely worked as Commercial Director at both Grey and Lowe Advertising Agencies.

Twitter: @tinafegent
Online: www.tinafegent.com

A listening and insightful future: Changing PR practice to deliver audience led communications

A LISTENING AND INSIGHTFUL FUTURE: CHANGING PR PRACTICE TO DELIVER AUDIENCE LED COMMUNICATIONS Sarah Clark and Professor Jim Macnamara

The world of design is leading the way in putting audiences at the centre of interactions and experiences. From 3D visual experiences of product environments to designing buildings around user need, the focus has been on designing services tailored to a 360 degree customer journey and the needs, interests and preferences of audiences, both emotional and physical. 

You’ll learn:
•    About the necessity for and benefits of audience insight
•    The six areas critical to building audience led communications
•    Insights from the Organisational Listening Project
 

Just as the design world has used an audience led approach to develop more effective products, services and environments, so to must the PR industry think about how it adopts a culture of listening and audience immersion to develop the most impactful communications. 

If the PR world is to become more audience centric, listening and responding to how audiences see themselves and their desires and concerns, will be absolutely crucial.

This is about us as communicators. Knowing our audience makes us unique when we sit at the Board table. This means that improving how we listen and applying audience understanding sits at the very heart of everything we are and do.

But the challenges are substantial and require change in practices and thinking. 

We need to move beyond projecting onto audiences our pre-conceived views of how we feel they should be and the life roles they should play. Instead we need to be more effective in designing communications around the way audiences see themselves and the issues that matter to them. Herein lies the holy grail of true audience led communications. 
 

Mutual understanding is critical

We also need to challenge modern day PR when it relies solely upon the rhetorical ‘logos, pathos, ethos’ origins of PR, driven by message resonation with audience. 

Instead we need to make a greater case for Grunig’s two way symmetrical communication model and dialogic models of communication. These both facilitate mutual understanding and 360 degree feedback allowing us to truly understand our audiences. Upon this deep understanding (‘insight’) fruitful communication ideas can be grown.

However, research shows that most organisations today adopt a primarily one-way approach to communication, focussed on information dissemination and persuasion of audiences to their way of thinking and their objectives. 

A recent two year, three country study of how well corporate, government and non-government organisations listen found that on average, 80 per cent of organisational resources, time and activity ostensibly focussed on communication is actually dissemination of information and messages – and in fact, speaking. 

In some cases, up to 95 per cent of organisational activities related to communication are speaking. 

The Organisational Listening Project found that: “most organisations listen sporadically at best, often poorly, and sometimes not at all”.
 

We need to ask different questions and listen harder

The study also found that when organisations do listen, it is often selective, limited, and instrumental. For example, research is mainly conducted to gain answers to the questions that organisations want to ask; public consultation is also often narrowly focussed on options determined by government or corporations and dominated by ‘loud voices’ of major lobby groups; and social media is extensively used by organisations as another channel for distributing their messages rather than listening to conversations and public comment and views.

The study called for true two-way communication including listening by organisations through open-ended qualitative research (not just narrowly constructed polls), open public consultation including outreach to marginalised and silenced voices, and taking a dialogic approach in social media. A fundamental of being audience focussed is listening.
 

So when you are listening, how can you best consider and develop the deep understanding you receive from audiences to shape your communications? 

At the Department of Health Communications we are learning everyday as we foster our insight culture, and we have plenty more learning to do. But we have found these six areas to be absolutely critical in building audience led communications:

1.    Start with the audience view on the problem you are trying to solve

A good place to start your insight work is by looking at the audiences’ view on the issue or problem you are trying to solve – does this issue actually register with the audience or are there other problems they care more about on which effort should be focused? What opportunity does this present for innovative ideas and being responsive to audiences?

2.    Consider perceived benefits and pitfalls

It is essential to explore with audiences their perceived benefits and/or pitfalls of tackling the problem you are concerned about as well as issues of concern for them. This will inform your communications direction and ensure any solutions directly address audience need. 
 

3.    Segmentation

Understanding how our audiences perceive and identify themselves will enable us to improve segmentation and to develop ideas which more effectively tap into their realities. This is particularly important with current debates about identity at many different levels. 
 

4.    Action

The act of listening is defunct if we don’t take action on the insight it gives. This means ensuring that clear tangible actions are escalated upwards and discussed by the Board. Actions should be fed back to audiences so trust and mutual understanding can grow.

5.    Closeness

Closeness is about being able to walk in the shoes of another person – this means being able to be close enough to your audience to spot and understand what they have not said as well as what they have. This helps you build a fuller and more accurate picture of your audience and more honed ideas. 

Innovation in technology is providing many new opportunities to listen and establish closeness in an easy and instant manner. This has led to the inspiring development of digital insight, garnering knowledge of how audiences are thinking and feeling through understanding online debates and conversations. 

6.    Integration

Integrating the insight from all your data sources provides the richest evidence base upon which to develop impactful communications. Whilst you will need to be mindful of the benefits and limitations of each source, marrying up the themes that come from all sources will provide a compelling piece to guide strategy.
 

So what are the practical killer questions to consider within each of these areas? 

Killer questions

The problem:

How does your target audience view the problem you are trying to solve? 

Does your listening show you they care about this issue? Or is there another problem or opportunity? 

What possibilities, solutions, concepts are your audiences excited about? Why? 

What will this mean for your strategy?
 

The benefits and pitfalls:

What benefits and/or pitfalls does your audience perceive in tackling this problem? 

How does that compare with other issues they have raised?

How does this feedback drive your communications?
 

The segmentation:

How do your audiences identify themselves? 

How are your segmented audiences unique from each other? 

What are the values, lifestyles, attitudes or behaviours that each segment shares? 

Can you do bespoke audience profiles for your issue/area?
 

The action:

What is the integrated story all sources of insight are telling about this audience? 

What is critical to be spoken of and acted upon? Why? What are the risks of inaction?

Who needs to act upon it? How will you ensure they understand the insight and the gravity of it?
 

The closeness:

How can you get close to your segmented audience to understand them better? Listening to online 

conversations? Consultation? Gaming technology? Web streamed focus groups? In depth interviews? 

Polling? Ethnography? Video diaries? Online panels? Stakeholder intelligence? Correspondence analysis? 

Media evaluation? Analysis of behaviour and action?

How might you overcome barriers to closeness?

The integration:

Based on your research question, what are the themes that stem from all your data sources?

What are the benefits and limitations of each of the sources within your integrated pack?

Are the main compelling points of insight informed by the majority of your sources?

What are the research gaps?

Conclusion

The PR industry clearly has a long way to go in embracing listening, but this is an exciting moment for building an audience led approach. 

The Organisational Listening Project provides the insight on how the industry needs to improve; the six areas give us the insight foundation upon which to develop and innovation in technology is enhancing our chances for closeness. 

This is a challenge which sits at the heart of everything we are and do; if we are to be effective at the Board table, we must get insight - our unique offering - absolutely right.
 

Sources

[1] Macnamara, J. (2016). Organizational Listening: The Missing Essential of Public Communication. New York, NY: Peter Lang, p. 236.

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Sarah Clark is Head of Insight at the Department of Health. She has 17 years of PR experience across the private and public sector, working on high profile issues such as the housing market, MRSA, Europe, crime and NHS delivery. For the last 10 years she has specialised in strategic communications, creative problem solving and insight development and application.

Twitter: @SarahCl12929666
Online: https://uk.linkedin.com/in/sarah-clark-dip-cipr-a231b359

Professor Jim Macnamara PhD, FAMI, CPM, FAMEC, FPRIA is Professor of Public Communication, Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences, University of Technology Sydney and Visiting Professor, London School of Economics and Political Science, Media & Communications Department.

Twitter: @jimmacnamara
Online: http://www.uts.edu.au/staff/jim.macnamara

How to avoid #socialmediameltdown

HOW TO AVOID #SOCIALMEDIAMELTDOWN Nathaniel Cassidy

Out of hours community management is something of a misnomer. There is no such thing as out of hours anymore and community management implies that online you have an element of control over social media beyond your own accounts. You don’t.

You’ll learn:
•    What constitutes a disaster over social media
•    Why you need to ensure that PR owns social media
•    Practical tips around technique and technology for social media community management and crisis management
 

I know I’m not alone in my belief that 9-5 is dead; countless academic papers, studies, and articles back me up. The rise of social media has certainly helped fuel this shift, but in my opinion it isn’t the driving force. The driving force has been the mass adoption of the smart phone.

As far as the public is concerned, if your organisation is on social media then they have the right to contact you at any time. This might be an unreasonable expectation, but it’s the reality. Thankfully there are things that can be done to try and shift this more in line with an organisation’s actual offering by highlighting when it is reasonable to expect a response. 

For example, you can clearly state in profile bios the hours in which a channel is actively manned, or put out open and closed style messages - online supermarket Ocado does this very well - but these can only act as guides for the public. 

With that in mind, good practice for social media community management, out of hours operation, and disaster planning are all tightly integrated.
 

What constitutes a disaster over social media?

Let’s keep it simple; a disaster or crisis over social media is activity causing a negative impact to your organisation’s finances, reputation, or operation. Obviously, as with regular disaster planning, scale has a big impact and it’s no different here.
 

Common types of disaster

Again in the spirit of simplicity, there are:

1.    Disasters where you are at fault. 
2.    Disasters where you are not at fault.

Personally I believe it is better to think less about fault and concentrate on:

1.    Scale.
2.    Impact.

Does it really matter who is at fault if your organisation is being aggressively and unreasonably trolled and it is having an impact on your bottom line? What matters far more is the scale and impact of the activity and the steps needed to resolve it. 
 

Accountability and who controls the off button

Dependent on the size of your organisation, its structural set up, and potential posturing by various directors, it is quite possible that social media accounts might not ultimately be ‘owned’ by PR, or even marketing. 

What I’m referring to here isn’t about content direction, it’s about the physicality of whose responsibility the actual technical side of social media belongs to. Who is authorised and able to take a channel offline, lock users out, or change passwords. 

A rather well known high street music retailer suffered when during a meeting to lay off 100s of employees the marketing team live tweeted the whole affair, with no one in senior management with the knowledge to close them down. They didn’t know the account password!

Ultimately ownership does equal accountability and if, for example, the IT Director is insistent that social media belongs within their department, then it is perfectly acceptable to insist that the responsibility is also owned by that person. 

It’s probably important to set out right from the start that good solid crisis management principles still apply to social media, so for me, social media should always be owned by PR. 

With PR leading the overarching strategy for social media management this should filter through into campaign marketing, customer service, IT and so on.
 

Handling a crisis

1.    Respond and acknowledge directly and swiftly.

2.    Research the facts, decide on level of scale and impact. Is this is a crisis or customer service issue?

3.    Add any crisis specific terms to your monitoring tools.

4.    Respond on the network the crisis originated from, ideally this should be within 4 hours or less and from someone with seniority.

5.    If appropriate take the conversation offline.

6.    If appropriate document the crisis and your response over other channels.

7.    Monitor, review, and adapt accordingly.
 

Watch for trends and learn from others

JP Morgan made a huge error of judgement back in 2013 in planning the #askJPMorgan hashtag chat on Twitter. As it happens, the chat never went live, because in the build-up to it the account was bombarded with abuse. They had failed to see that the combination of the current negative feeling towards banking combined with the uncontrolled, unfiltered nature of social media might create a hostile atmosphere. 

Given that #askGaryBarlow and #askBoris, about the then London Mayor, both happened post #askJPMorgan, it’s fair to say that they seemed not to have looked and learnt from the actions of others, as in both instances the hashtag chats were completely hijacked. 
 

Make use of social network guides

Understand the social networks your organisation is on. It’s vital that someone at a more senior level has a good understanding of the functionality, limitations, and security of the networks you use. All the major social networks have good guides on pretty much every facet of their operation - make use of them.

It’s also worth understanding how each of the networks you are on handles your data should you want it. Each of the major social networks allows you to download all the data that you have with them and this is something I highly recommend being familiar with should you need it.

Data collection can be particularly useful should you or your business be faced with legal proceedings following a crisis online; it’ll give you access to every bit of correspondence across social media and could give real weight to your case. 
 

Devices and security

If you’re asking employees to be available either to handle community engagement or crisis management over social media, try to avoid letting technology restrict them. 

Ensure that work issued devices allow people to access social networks, make sure internet connection is solid, and try where possible to enable people with smart phones. This might mean having some tough conversations about security, but it’s vital. 

It’s also worth considering a ‘bring your own device’ (BYOD) policy, essentially allowing employees to access the organisation’s social media accounts and profiles from their own phones and devices. It can help keep costs down and also allows people to use devices they are more comfortable and familiar with, something not to be overlooked in a crisis. 

If security is a major consideration use a password manager like LastPass.com. They’re secure, cost effective, and have enterprise level control over your login information.

Know what automation you use

Be aware of what social media automation is being run for your organisation and keep it updated in your disaster plan. For example, if you’re auto retweeting a campaign hashtag and it gets hijacked, you need to know how to turn it off.

The teams handling social media should know what automations they are using but a simple way to check is to look at what applications have been given access in the apps or permissions area in settings. If you want a bit of help, I’d recommend the mypermissions.org tool. 
 

Audit and monitoring

If you aren’t monitoring social media there is no way for you to properly assess the impact of a disaster or have early warning alerts in place. If you have the budget, there are countless monitoring solutions out there. At the very least make sure you have Google Alerts, Talkwalker Alerts, or Social Mention set up. Plan out potential crisis phrases in advance and if a crisis happens make sure you update your monitoring tools with any crisis specific terms.

•    google.com/alerts
•    talkwalker.com/alerts
•    socialmention.com    

Stephen Waddington’s prstack.co.uk has many, many more!

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Nathaniel Cassidy is Managing Director of independent marketing agency, 3ManFactory. He has over 10 years experience in marcomms and is an active and vocal member of the UK PR Council. He is also Chairman of the PRCA North West Group. 3ManFactory are the agency that other agencies turn to when they need to upskill their social media knowledge.

Twitter: @nwcassidy
Online: 3manfactory.co.uk

Embracing agile strategy development

EMBRACING AGILE STRATEGY DEVELOPMENT Betteke van Ruler and Frank Körver

Linear communication models are ineffective but remain widely used by public relations practitioners. Agile strategy development can revolutionise the comms function and strengthen the relationship with the management team.

You’ll learn:
•    Examples of contemporary public relations research that have an immediate application in practice
•    The opportunity to advance practice and develop as a profession through improved collaboration
•    A toolkit of eight practical ways to improve collaboration developed over the past 18 months from a CIPR project and BledCom workshop
 

According to the European Communication Monitor, linking communication and business strategy is the number one challenge for today’s communication practitioners. This is both good and bad news. 

The good news is that communication professionals are ambitious: they aim to support the organization in realizing its strategic goals. They are eager to really make a difference.

The bad news is that they still struggle with the strategic element of their contribution. Consequently, CEOs still see the communication department as no more than as a tactical entity providing lots of detail that doesn’t really help them - strategically speaking. Therefore, in order to improve the visibility and credibility of the Communications Department, it is time to fundamentally rethink how strategic communication is developed and start using modern agile tools to do this.

Three years ago we developed the Strategic Communication Frame to do this effectively. After many trials, it has proven to be a practical, valuable and highly appreciated tool.
 

Agile is the name of the game

Communication professionals perform in a world in which multi-interactional, multi-stakeholder and 24/7 communication is the norm. Control over effect is further away than ever before. Stakeholders have high expectations and organizations not meeting those expectations face severe reputational risk.

Moreover, the context in which communication professionals are operating has changed dramatically with no end in sight. Yet, too often strategic communication plans are still linear, very detailed descriptions of steps to be taken, and aimed at controlling the communication processes by defining smart goals in advance.

The problem with these linear plans is two-fold: they give an illusion of control and are of poor practical use. It leads to disappointment on the side of the client and embarrasses the Communications Department. 

Our answer to this costly ineffectiveness is to look at things from an agile point of view. The agile charged communication function strives to make (unexpected) change a natural fact of organizational life and legitimize professionals to adapt quickly to new markets, environments and challenges.

The agile communication professional therefore has a legitimate alibi to take advantage of emerging opportunities and to neutralize risks, 24/7.

Agile strategy development; four starting points

What does the concept of agile mean for strategy development? We have identified four starting points:

- People over processes: Forming a group of skilled and motivated people is vital. In fact, we strongly believe that people trump process. 

- Respond to change rather than follow a plan: It is a waste of time to put effort into every tiny detail. Vision and ambition are vital, but more operational choices need to be challenged over and over again. 

Plans should never be too detailed, and only oriented at the most important decisions made.

- Cross functional collaboration rather than silo behaviour: The majority of communication and reputational challenges we are facing nowadays require intensive collaboration. Developing strategies in splendid isolation is a no-go. Strategy development requires cross functional collaboration.

- A one-pager over a bulky report: No professional should be tortured by reading bulky plans. And no professional should be given the thankless task of writing those documents. Management simply won’t read it. They only care for the vital information: “What are the communications objectives? How are we going to realize these objectives? And what is it going to cost?”
 

Strategic Communication Frame

Based on in-depth discussions about our theories with students and practitioners and based on the four starting points, we have constructed seven requirements for a good strategy development model for public relations and communication management:
 

1. Clear vision on communications and its added value to the mission of the organization

2. Focus on internal and external context as building blocks for constructing ambitions

3. No smart objectives but inspiring ambitions based on clear choices

4. Explicit accountability that suits the ambition

5. Clear choices in every building block, as hypotheses for the future

6. Compact to fit on one page

7. Adjustable at any time to respond to situational dynamics

These requirements helped us in constructing a model we call the Strategic Communication Frame (see Figure 1.)

Figure 1 The Strategic Communication Frame

Eight building blocks

This model consists of eight interdependent building blocks which demonstrate how developing a strategy is like working on a jigsaw puzzle: you can start wherever you want, as long as choices made in one building block are consistent with choices made in other blocks. Two questions per building block help professionals to make these important decisions.

Building block: Ambition

There is a huge discussion on concepts like goals, targets, ambitions. In this context we use the concept of ambition to mean “a strong desire to do or achieve something” (Oxford Dictionary) and pose two questions to define one’s ambition: 1) What are the basic communication values needed for this specific strategy? And 2) What do you want to achieve?

Building block: Vision

John Naisbitt is said to have articulated once: “Strategic planning is worthless, unless there is first a strategic vision”. Ambition is influenced by a person’s own perception of his/her profession and its added value. That is why we also ask the following questions: 1) In what way can communication add value to organizational strategic choices and what is the role of the communication professional in this respect? And 2) What signifies my profession and which trends in my profession are relevant to us?

Building block: Internal situation

It is impossible to define and value the importance to us of phenomena in the outside world unless you know what is happening inside the organization. That is why it is important to consider: 1) What is going on in our organization, what are the strategic decisions in the board and in other management fields, and 2) What is the “style of the house”, e.g. how do we communicate with each other and how do we encounter the outside world?

Building block: External situation

It is typical for communication professionals to be aware of the external situation, of what is going on in the outside world and of public opinions, although we prefer to talk about social moods these days. That is not new at all. Nassim Taleb, however, warns not to look for confirmation of what you already know but to look for the unexpected. We agree and suggest the following questions: 1) What are relevant trends and developments in society? And 2) What are relevant issues and what is the social mood around these? 

Building block: Accountability

Good ambitions inspire and make clear what you want to achieve, but without accountability your ambitions are day dreams. Accountability forces you to make clear what your exact responsibilities are regarding your ambitions and how you measure progress e.g. what your KPIs are. That is why we suggest the following questions: 1) What is your responsibility exactly and in what way? And 2) How do you show that you are on track?

Building block: Stakeholders

In corporate communication we are used to seeing stakeholders as those who have a stake in our organization and as our “target groups” to reach with our communications (see a.o. Michell, Agle & Wood, 1996). We define stakeholders slightly different by: those groups or persons who have a stake in our ambition. We suggest two questions: 1) Who are our enablers, and 2) Who are our partners? Savage et al. (2011) warn that with partnerships you need to invest in the relationship and find a common ambition. 

Building block: Resources

A very important part of the strategy concerns resources. Resources is about being equipped to do the job. It is about budget, budget allocation and about competences. We suggest two questions: 1) What competences do you need to realize your ambition, and 2) How much budget is required and how will this budget be allocated? These questions are not only important to allocate resources (operational, managerial activities), but also to make wise decisions concerning talent development, cost cutting, etc. (strategic decisions).

Building block: Approach

Approach is about translating all strategic decisions – done in the former building blocks – into operational activities. This is “the proof of the pudding”. All decisions in the former buildings block need to come together in the approach. We propose two key questions: 1) What do you want to achieve with which key constituency and how, and 2) Which activities should have top priority and what does that mean for the communications calendar?

Making the right choices

The Strategic Communication Frame facilitates the communication professional to forcefully and efficiently make the right choices and it provides a clear picture of the communication strategy in one page. The Frame does not prescribe what one should do or which strategy is best. It just sets up and enables practitioners to select the best choices for the best strategy.

The Strategic Communication Frame is basically a balancing act of a realistic but limited set of questions and challenging answers that, when executed conscientiously, delivers a comprehensive but nevertheless crystal clear strategy at a glance (a one-pager). By putting superfluous details aside and concentrating on the essentials, the model has easily proven to be an instant eye-opener for clients and other stakeholders.

It is a great ticket to the C-suite.

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Dr. Betteke van Ruler is a leading scholar in corporate communication and public relations in the Netherlands. She began her career as a communication professional herself, moving to teaching in the 1980s and to academic research in the 1990s. She was recently awarded the honorary title of Officer in the Order of Orange-Nassau for her work in bridging the gap between academic theory and practice. She recently wrote a book on agile and scrum: Reflective Communication Scrum: recipe for accountability, published by Eleven International Publishing, ISBN 978-94-6236-461-5.

Twitter: @bettekevanruler
Online: www.bettekevanruler.nl/

 

Frank Körver is partner at GKSV, an Amsterdam based consultancy firm and Dutch affiliate of the international Interel Group. Frank is an experienced consultant at the intersection of strategy, leadership and communication. He is a renowned consultant in the Netherlands and trusted advisor of senior executives and Chief Communications Officers.

Twitter: @FCLKorver
Online: www.linkedin.com/in/frankkorver

Managing the integration of businesses: Merging companies, disciplines and cultures

MANAGING THE INTEGRATION OF BUSINESSES: MERGING COMPANIES, DISCIPLINES AND CULTURES Ella Minty

Integration of tangible assets, equipment, and operational parameters can often be streamlined and rather easily achieved – the hardest, most challenging task in business mergers and acquisitions is the integration of cultures, mind sets, behaviours and values.

You’ll learn:
•    The milestones related to business integration and change management
•    The way in which you, the PR practitioner, can influence and guide the change efforts
•    The complex issues surrounding diverse cultures (societal and business)


Change rationale and sustainability of change efforts

Change – more often than not – is not easily embraced or understood, let alone inherently accepted. To change, at the most basic level of the concept, implies to restructure and approach differently known and established business conducts, principles, and operational styles. 

Ever since the onset of globalisation – some would argue almost concomitantly with the end of the Cold War – the landscape of business competitiveness, customer value proposition, client services, and engagement has been agile, aggressive and ruthless.

Few businesses have ever been established with the purpose of doing good; the main purpose of their existence is that of making profits, having a good return on investment, growing and expanding on the marketplace. To exist, to create jobs, to invest in communities, to be environmentally friendly and socially responsible are add-ons.

According to McKinsey’s [1] latest research on strategic acquisitions, these fit into the following archetypes: 
 

•    Improving the performance of the target company

•    Removing excess capacity from any industry

•    Creating market access for products

•    Acquiring skills or technologies quicker or at a lower cost than they could be built in-house 

•    Picking winners early and helping them develop their business

To make any merger or/and acquisition (M&A) sustainable, the status quo would need to change to accommodate newcomers, streamline the wider performance of the integrated business and ensure that, with an increased scope of services/range of products, competitiveness is retained and profits increased.

Change Management – from both an academic and practice viewpoint – should represent a relatively straightforward, easily embraced discipline for PR practitioners across the professional spectrum. 
 

Leadership advice and support in navigating through uncertainty and emotional turmoil

Human Resources Management (HRM) [2] has a clearly defined role in M&A – these professionals ensure those impacted receive appropriate counselling, advice, relocation support and a substantial financial package in the case of voluntary/compulsory redundancies, while assessing and maximizing the employees’ potential to achieve the new business entity’s strategic objectives. 

While HRM oversees the political and corporate compliance of, effectively, people movement, potential, and performance in times of change, the PR function should oversee:
 

•    The complexities related to engaging, addressing and understanding people’s fears and emotions 

•    Making sense of what is happening 

•    Ensuring any inward or outward communication is clear, unambiguous and truthful

The literature on employee communication and engagement – in times of change – is abundant with working models, templates, and various recommendations. What it is hard, if not almost impossible to find, is the advice the Corporate PR function should offer the leadership during times of change, acting like a real partner of dialogue and sounding board for the obvious: “Have we done the right thing?”

Leaders are as fallible and human as employees are – they simply manage to hide their emotions, uncertainties and insecurities better. A leader cannot afford to appear weak, insecure and not fully appraised of what the short, mid and long term strategy is going to be for the newly acquired business or for the newly created entity. 

That is when the PR practitioner comes in: he/she should be their trusted advisor and a highly regarded professional who can provide them with unbiased advice. It is the PR consultant who should be counselling the leaders/leadership team, allay their fears, provide them with “what if” scenarios and be there to listen. 

It is the PR practitioner’s ethical and professional duty to tell them what they need to hear, not what they want to hear:

•    Are the new employees not fitting in? Why? What should be done?

•    Are there any language barriers that should be seamlessly overcome? How?

•    Would a Muslim woman feel uncomfortable sharing an office with a Western man or vice versa? 

•    What are the pitfalls of having a young Executive in charge of individuals who could be his/her parents? Is the leadership ready to address them?

•    Would the potential M&A have a negative reputational impact on the current business? What will you do about it?

•    Will the stakeholders (the current internal ones as well as the external) understand the rationale that underpinned/will justify the M&A? What would you recommend?

•    What will the competition’s reaction to the news be and what working scenarios have you prepared for this? What should the CEO/Board do and why? 

•    Will the markets (if you are working for a listed company) react and what would you recommend being said/done?

When worlds collide

If you are not familiar with the psychological principles underpinning Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs [3], make sure you become so – and quickly. If you have never familiarised yourself with the concepts of power-plays, cross-cultural communication and negotiation techniques, all clearly explained and justified for business contexts by Prof Hofstede’s [4] seminal works, make sure you do – and even faster. 

The collision of cultures – business, national, societal, personal – values and behaviours becomes poignant in M&A and business transactions. Not all people relate to the same things in the same way: some have a job because they need to meet their most basic needs of physiology and security, others because they want to be appreciated and respected by their peers and the very few because they wish to push their boundaries of knowledge and self-fulfilment.

The role of the PR practitioner is to make sure that the corporate messaging, engagement styles and communication techniques meet these categories’ level of interest and understanding. You cannot assume that, in times of change, those who are strictly concerned with having a roof over their head would like to hear their new boss talking to them about the preservation of the ozone layer.

Understanding the human dynamics at play – across genders, religions and nationalities – will provide you with an incredible competitive advantage not just with regard to the recognition of your added value to the business but, primarily, concerning your level of competency and knowledge. You will be that trusted and respected Leadership Advisor who:
 

•    Can address complex human psychological challenges

•    Can understand the relationship between structural and organic change

•    Can provide advice on a variety of risks and opportunities associated with mergers and acquisition

•    Can substantiate his/her recommendations with empirical evidence

•    Can prove that public relations is a strategic management function
 

Sources

[1] www.mckinsey.com/business-functions/strategy-and-corporate-finance/our-insights/the-five-types-of-successful-acquisitions
[2] www.inc.com/encyclopedia/human-resource-management.html
[3] www.simplypsychology.org/maslow.html
[4] https://geert-hofstede.com/tl_files/art%20organisational%20culture%20perspective.pdf

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Ella Minty is a Founding Chartered Public Relations practitioner, with over 15 years of high level Government and international bodies expertise in corporate reputation, leadership and crisis management, specialising in communicating and engaging with key corporate stakeholders spanning across business disciplines and governments, including investment markets, lender organisations, national and international media, NGOs and project communities.

Twitter: @EllaMinty
Online: www.uk.linkedin.com/in/ellaminty

Delivering a 24/7 service; introducing an agile model in PR

DELIVERING A 24/7 SERVICE; INTRODUCING AN AGILE MODEL IN PR Dualta Redmond

Keeping all the plates spinning without breaking one is how many people feel about working in the modern 24/7 environment. Identifying how to navigate and succeed during a workday that never ends can be difficult. 

You’ll learn:

•    How to understand the demands of today’s 24/7 reality
•    A simple set of actions to stay effective and informed in a continuous news cycle
•    An overview of structures and workplace practices to deal with increased pressures
 

The 24/7 news cycle

The changes that social media, the internet and mobile devices have created in public relations are expansive. New platforms and audiences with vastly differing tastes in how they want to receive messages and how they communicate are the new reality. 

More informed listening

The need to sift through an ocean of content and news to identify what’s of relevance is more important now than it perhaps it ever was. The sheer volume of material makes it a lot easier for something to slip through the net. Even with the newest digital monitoring tools, this can be a very time intensive, administrative burden.

A big drain on resources and a persistent cause of late nights and early mornings, are projects and issues that throw up unexpected twists and turns. You will never completely eliminate the unforeseen, but by having as much information at your disposal as possible you can certainly reduce the risks and ensure more manageable workloads. 

How to become a more strategic listener

More informed listening is about intelligence gathering and keeping your organisation up-to-date about increasingly complex external media, business and political environments. 

Crisis preparedness forms another element of informed listening. Business Continuity Planning and Crisis Communications Strategy should be closely aligned. By ensuring greater cooperation, better planning and testing scenarios across your organisation, it means you are not just paying lip service to crisis readiness, but devoting time and energy to creating a robust strategy. 

Digital listening tools

The myriad of choice available can be off-putting. Many will struggle to get the monitoring ‘set up’ done in such a way to be effective and crucially, produce something that is of a tangible benefit to the business or client. 

The objective here should be to turn what is learned via more informed listening into credible Management Information (MI). 

Alerts for your company’s brand name and associated products might seem like an obvious thing to do. But taking some time to review the sector landscape might mean you develop alerts for issues occurring around your sector and even within the businesses of supply chain partners. Taking this approach will help spot trends and developing issues early. 


More agile structures

Agile structures are integral to operating in a 24/7 world. While it might seem like the un-sexy nuts and bolts side of things, it’s vital. When the news no longer sleeps, and clients and stakeholders have a global presence that demands attention no matter the time or location, what is the best approach?

Digital tools will only take you so far. It is people that will get you the rest of the way. While some organisations are structured to have employees working around the clock, it is not the norm in public relations. 
 

Existing resources

Nobody wants to be part of a never-ending on-call rota, but many organisations require someone to be there, just in case – 24/7. It’s not always a crisis related issue that necessitates long hours. Frank conversations amongst colleagues and clients, outlining expectations when it comes to time commitments are a good starting point. 

The route to success here lies in an equitable distribution of the workload. If tasks and responsibilities that require significant out-of-hours attention, continually fall to the same individuals, it is highly likely that frustrations will develop. When they do, a slide in quality performance is sure to follow. 

Time focused

How to get that service without subjecting colleagues to burnout is easier said than done. 

One option is to plan an advanced task or project schedule with time as the primary success metric. Other reports can focus on business and communications measures. Once the time resource required becomes a real focus, significant efficiencies can be found. This requires a shift in thinking and is not applicable to all situations. 

By simply having more efficient (read shorter) meetings, overall project time can be dramatically reduced. This leads to fewer late nights on said projects and helps with work-life balance.
 

Time perspective

Another element, which isn’t often discussed, relates to self-imposed demands. Sure clients and internal stakeholders may occasionally require last-minute assistance to deal with an urgent issue, but how much of this support is unnecessary. Emails sent at 8:00pm or reports analysed at bedtime followed by a short summary email are best avoided. Unless the issue is particularly urgent, it can often wait until the next working day. 

Sending emails out of hours helps to create a cycle of ‘always on’ which while needed for breaking or live issues, does not need to be the norm. Practitioners can help themselves by setting reasonably fluid boundaries for communicating on non-important issues outside of the normal working day – but boundaries nonetheless. 
 

Outsourcing

Seeking outside assistance is not the same as admitting defeat. Freeing up someone’s time so they can be more productive or have a work-life balance is a good thing. Outsourcing often conjurers up images of call-centres in far-flung parts of the globe. It can also be a byword for cheaper or poor quality. Through well-defined objective planning and research, that needn’t be the case. 

With different communications teams spread across geographies, people don’t always work in a time efficient way. Instead of Singaporean colleagues taking a call from the UK at close to midnight, ensure structures are in place to let the UK office provide support. By spreading the workload across locations, more cooperative and pragmatic approaches can be realised. 

The other element to consider is outsourced office support functions. By employing a corporate out-of-hours answering service, with the ability to screen calls against pre-determined criteria, you can dramatically reduce time spent dealing with non-urgent calls. While these are just a few options, they should act as a springboard to show you can seek credible, high-quality support from a wide range of areas. 
 

Summary

By capturing relevant information and developing it into intelligence and MI, you can begin a strategic framework that reduces the need for significant out-of-hours support. Knowledge and the ability to plan through highly dependable and evolving monitoring systems, ensure accounts and processes run at maximum productivity. 

More formalised methods of interoffice cooperation can dramatically reduce strains. Looking to outsourcing solutions for time intensive and tedious tasks should be considered to prevent employee burnout. This ensures energies can be devoted to tasks that have a real impact on company or client objectives. 

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Dualta Redmond is Global Communications Manager at Gazprom Marketing & Trading. Prior to this he was a PR Advisor to the BBC. He’s also had stints in public affairs both agency and political side and TV production. 

Twitter: @DualtaRedmond
Online: https://uk.linkedin.com/in/dualtaredmond

Time for some PR Thinking

In the first of our guest posts, #FuturePRoof: Edition Two author Ezri Carlebach delves deeper into the roots of the current interest in design thinking. 

In my chapter ‘Economics, social dialogue, and public relations’ I noted that there is much that PR can learn from design,  particularly in light of the current interest in ‘design thinking’, a methodology based on how designers work that is gaining widespread attention.

Playtime for PR

I’ve written elsewhere about design thinking and public relations, and there are other elements of the connection between these two apparently unrelated practices that I want to raise.

In his highly-acclaimed study of play in society, Homo Ludens, Johann Huizinga says the whole of human civilisation arises in and as play, and thus can be defined as an expression of our play instinct.

We play, we learn from what we’ve done, and then we tell others about it. This leads to individual, organisational, and societal growth. The centrality of this to human experience is increasingly acknowledged in business, resulting in serious organisations using collaborative play to solve complex problems. If they’re smart, they share the story of what they’ve done through effective public relations, because that’s where the shared value is generated.

In order to play effectively with others – as we must in any kind of organisational setting – we design what we do. As psychologist and political scientist Herbert Simon (who won a Nobel Prize in economics) observed, “Everyone designs who devises courses of action aimed at changing existing situations into preferred ones.”

Not only does that neatly capture the purpose of all management functions, but it also offers a useful way of thinking about strategic communication, whether the intention of that communication is to change perception or behaviour, or lead to a commercial transaction.

Design and play

The growth of interest in design methodologies in other contexts represents the beginnings of a paradigm shift from decision-based thinking to design-based thinking. In other words, we are witnessing a change from an approach based on choosing between a predetermined set of options, to one based on continuously generating new options.

Decision-based thinking demands conformity, seeks and expects answers, works from assumptions, favours organisations, and promotes process as the means of achieving objectives. In contrast, design-based thinking promotes flexibility, seeks questions, demands critical thinking, favours human beings, and promotes action to achieve objectives.

As the post-industrial digital world evolves, more and more business will originate in this locus of design and play, and when we add storytelling to the mix we get the following equation as a shorthand for the outcome: Public relations = design + play + storytelling.

We can do interdisciplinary too

As these various perspectives suggest, I favour an interdisciplinary approach to PR research and practice. There has been a clamour of late to appropriate neuroscience to back up communication practice, and that can be helpful, with some caveats (see, for example, this warning about scanning the brains of dead fish).

But while so-called hard sciences still carry the ultimate empirical kite-mark, the softer end of human knowledge is equally valuable. So let’s get more anthropologists, sociologists, philosophers, poets, musicians and artists involved in the planning and management of our professional practice. After all, that’s what designers have been doing for decades.

You can find Ezri on Twitter @ezriel.

Preparing for the skills gap in the workplace of the future

PREPARING FOR THE SKILLS GAP IN THE WORKPLACE OF THE FUTURE Tim Hudson

The evolution of the way in which organisations operate, and the world they operate in, calls for a focus shift on the skills we foster in young people and those which we develop as practitioners.

You’ll learn:
•    How the workplace is evolving
•    What employers need from their workforce as organisations change
•    How this affects public relations practitioners and the skills they develop as individuals


The world of work is changing. Employee skills are evolving to plug organisational skills gaps created by the ways in which they need to operate in the modern world.

The jobs that will be created in the future are increasingly unlike those of the past. Technology, globalisation, automation and new ways of working all contribute to the change in the required skills for employment.

It is no longer sufficient for educators to simply deliver knowledge. Modern technology means the acquisition of knowledge is a mere finger-tap away.

Individuals should foster the ability to use that knowledge effectively and develop the necessary skills to be an efficient employee in the organisation of the future.
 

The future workforce

Our workforce is changing. Millennials will make up 75% of the global workforce by 2025. They are more tech-savvy, they want to see innovation in the workplace and have a lot of confidence in rising to leadership positions faster.

33% would choose social media freedom and device flexibility over a higher salary. 53% of employees use instant messaging with co-workers. 50% of jobs could be automated within the next two decades [1]. 

For the first time, five generations – traditionalists, boomers, GenXers, GenYers and millennials – are working side by side. 94% of millennials say they want to work for a company with a higher purpose – something that’s more important to them than salary [2]. 

The way in which this evolving workforce operates is changing too.

A small start-up can have offices in three countries across several time zones, with customers in the US, Europe, Asia, and Africa and compete at the same level as a 10,000 plus employee company [2]. 

Future leaders need to be adaptable, managing global teams within a networked structure, at the same time remaining empathetic and acting as coach, as well as manager [1]. 

Knowledge worker to learning worker

In 2012, the McKinsey Global Institute published their discussion paper, Help wanted: The future of work in advanced economies. In it, they state: “Workers with the strong cognitive, communication and problem-solving abilities that are required for the most sophisticated types of work have experienced low unemployment and rising wages.”

This is in a world where 40 million workers across advanced economies are unemployed. Yet businesses in those nations say they often can’t find workers with the skills they need [3]. 

The University of Phoenix lists the top 10 skills for the successful 21st-century worker as:

1. Leadership
2. Critical thinking
3. Communication
4. Collaboration
5. Adaptability
6. Productivity and accountability
7. Innovation
8. Accessing, analysing and synthesising information
9. Global citizenship
10. Entrepreneurialism [4]

Whilst traditionally, these would have been considered ‘soft skills’, they are wide ranging and cross-over multiple industries, disciplines and cultures. They can be applied to a number of circumstances, from entry to board level and focus on how we work, not what we do.

Jacob Morgan outlines 7 principles of the future employee:

1. Has a flexible working environment
2. Can customise own work
3. Shares information
4. Uses new ways to communicate and collaborate
5. Can become a leader
6. Shifts from knowledge worker to learning worker
7. Learns and teaches at will [5]

Flexibility, communication, collaboration and leadership are clear overlaps but it is point 6 of Morgan’s principals which summarises the approach that all of us, and we as public relations practitioners, need to be taking.

Only through a commitment to continuous professional development, a desire to learn more about ourselves and a thirst for discovery of new ideas in the industry can we become the ‘learning worker’ and safeguard the profession for the future.

What can our educators do?

The education system in the UK is still focussed more on knowledge than skills. Success in formal qualifications is the key aim for the majority of institutions, and indeed the government’s national curriculum targets. And so it should be. Young people need access to a broad education and the opportunity to specialise in any given area as they progress through the system. Formal qualifications are the key to their advancement.

Educators need to supplement the traditional system with skills-based development opportunities, if our future workforce is to meet the needs of its employers. Whilst examinations will get your foot in an employer’s door, well-crafted skills will get you the job.

The Sub-Committee on Education, Skills and the Economy has reported that inadequate careers guidance in many English schools is exacerbating skills shortages. Iain Wright, Chair of the Business, Innovation and Skills Committee and Co-Chair of the ESE Sub-Committee said: “The world of business and work is changing rapidly. There is huge choice in the career paths young people could embark upon and rapid change also means that there will be opportunities for jobs and professions in new and emerging industries. In this context, young people and their parents need the best possible and clear guidance to inform their choices and decisions” [6]. 

Inside the classroom, changes are also taking place. The freedom offered to independent schools allows them to introduce bespoke skills-based curriculum; unexamined, project-based learning focussed on fundamental learning skills which aims to help students become more effective and reflective learners [7].  The shape of the classroom is evolving too, with the Harkness method of learning (involving students seated in a large, oval shape to discuss ideas in an encouraging, open-minded environment) being introduced from across the Atlantic [8]. 

It is not unusual to walk into a classroom now where students have brought their own mobile device in to the class to use, work from and share with.

We can we do?

As individuals, and as professionals, we need to acknowledge the evolving landscape of work, embrace the change and ready ourselves for the challenges of the future.

How knowledgeable you are in a specific area of public relations practice will become secondary to your adaptability to new technologies, your cultural awareness when operating in a follow-the-sun workflow, your flair for innovation to help you lead a young business through a rapidly changing political climate.

Just like the universities which insist on a certain level of work experience by applicants to Medicine - to develop some of the attitudes and behaviours essential to being a doctor such as conscientiousness, good communication skills, and the ability to interact [9] – we should look to complement our formal qualifications with skills-based learning to help plug the skills gap between the practitioners of today and the workplaces of tomorrow.

Sources

[1] Atos – The Future of Work
[2] SAP – The Future of Work
[3] McKinsey Global Institute – Help wanted: The future of work in advanced economies
[4] University of Phoenix – Top 10 skills for the successful 21st-century worker
[5] Forbes/Jacob Morgan - The 7 Principles Of The Future Employee
[6] Commons Select Committee - Inadequate careers advice is exacerbating skills gap report finds
[7] Cheadle Hulme School – Thinking Skills Curriculum
[8] Phillips Exeter Academy – The Amazing Harkness Philosophy
[9] Medical Schools Council - Work experience guidelines for applicants to medicine

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Tim Hudson is a Chartered Public Relations Practitioner based in the North West. He has a decade’s experience in the public and private education sectors, including fundraising and community relations. Tim has been a member of the CIPR North West Committee and a regular judge for the PRide Awards.

Twitter: @timhudsonpr
Online: https://uk.linkedin.com/in/timhudsonpr

The journey of the engaged employee

THE JOURNEY OF THE ENGAGED EMPLOYEE Bea Aarnoutse

From high-potential employees who make conscious choices, to employees who are passionate and contribute to success, to former employees who become ambassadors, attention to the total employee journey is the key to Alignment 2.0.

You’ll learn:
•    How organisations can recruit and retain the right employees by considering how their vision ties with individual values
•    Why Communications and Human Resources (HR) teams need to work more closely together
•    The role direct managers have in maintaining strong and consistent staff engagement

Every organisation wants to have an aligned workforce. The goal is to onboard employees who feel at home, give their personal best every day and know how they can contribute to a shared ambition.

Organisations want committed employees who fulfil promises to demanding – and increasingly disloyal – customers by offering the speed, quality and service the customer expects.

When achieved, employees play a decisive role in an organisation’s customer satisfaction score and, ultimately, a key role in managing its reputation. 

The employee’s role is becoming more and more influential.
 

The right people

A workforce doesn’t just align itself. Creating an aligned workforce requires continuous effort to ensure that individuals feel connected and engaged.

Does the vision tie in with a person’s individual beliefs? Is there room for personal development? How does an employee feel about their interaction with the manager? Does the organisational culture resonate with employees?

These are questions that today’s employees are trying to answer before deciding whether or not to join or stay with an organisation.

Down the road, attracting, engaging and retaining the right people will depend entirely on how Communications and HR collaborate. This is their shared challenge.

The total employee journey is defined by alignment. This journey begins before the employee even submits a job application and goes on long after he or she leaves the organisation.

Start of the journey: the right story

Job applicants are increasingly critical of where they want to work. They choose organisations that resonate with them and that pursue the same ambitions as they do.

That is why organisations need to translate their purpose and strategy into a good and engaging story; they need to ensure that this story comes across in all their interactions with applicants from day one. 

This helps them retain the people who are the best fit for them. It saves both parties time during the orientation period and rules out discrepancies between the picture painted during the application process and actual practice.

A good story...

•    Informs, inspires, and is pragmatic, visual and dialogue-oriented

•    Leaves enough room for employees’ own interpretation

•    Is embraced, supported and ‘lived out’ by top management

•    Can only be effective if HR and Communications work in close collaboration

•    Is communicated through a single recognisable concept, so that all activities, tools, messages and resources are interconnected and mutually reinforced


En route: engagement and interaction

Once on board, it is crucial for employees to have their choices regularly affirmed, meaning that the organisation’s story is put into practice and delivered throughout the journey, that the corporate culture is enjoyable and encourages employees to perform, that managers lead by example and that employees can continue to grow. 

In short, the idea is that employees can and want to do their part, the goal being that they and the employer mutually reinforce each other.

Today’s employees, and most certainly the employees of the future, are critical, outspoken and enterprising. They are after an in-depth relationship with their employer. 

Interaction is essential in this relationship. Encouraging employees to engage with the organisation and its mission is key, leaving room for dialogue and personal interpretation. This is how employees put the organisation’s story into practice and contribute to how it plays out. 

Once again, the key to success is close collaboration between Communications and HR. Based on the organisation’s story, the two should team up to communicate and integrate the strategy into the organisation’s fabric.

Communications and HR also have a role to play in making managers more communicative. As an employee’s first point of contact, a manager is a crucial pivot in terms of alignment. 

Although much internal communication is bottom up and lateral, we are seeing that, in practice, employees prefer to hear about strategy changes or relevant organisational developments directly from their own manager. After all, their manager knows them best and is most suited to explain what the development will mean for their daily routine.

Managers have the important duty of informing, engaging, motivating and challenging employees. Their influence on the degree to which employees feel engaged is huge. What’s more, a manager is instrumental in how a team operates and in creating a work environment where every team member feels comfortable.
 

Unboarding: not the end of the line

When employees feel at home and have the intrinsic motivation to contribute to the organisation’s mission day in and day out, they are happy to share their enjoyment.

That said, the reverse is true as well: one push of a button and an employee’s discontent is broadcast all over the internet. This doesn’t stop when they leave the organisation for whatever reason. 

An employee who has felt engaged and appreciated, who feels a connection with the organisation’s story and has had the opportunity to help shape this story will remain a good ambassador – and a potentially valuable client – even after they have left.

With this in mind, employees should also be given the attention they deserve when their journey has come to an end.

En route together

The scope of Alignment 2.0 touches upon Communications as well as HR. For this reason, an integrated approach to internal and employer branding offers a wealth of opportunities. With the organisation’s story as a shared starting point, the idea is to work on a single overarching concept or on two related communication concepts.

The concept should be recognisable and connecting, and rely on dialogue and interaction. All Communications and HR activities, tools, messages and resources should be interrelated within the concept and mutually reinforce each other.

Alignment 2.0 is the sum of internal and employer branding. The deliverable is to attract, engage and retain the right people who do the right things and contribute to the achievement of strategic targets. This is an important step towards building a strong reputation.

Alignment 2.0 focuses on today’s employees, but does not forget about the employees of the past and the future either. The successful organisation of the future is truly interested in the employee’s total journey, which will ultimately result in a strong reputation.
 

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Bea Aarnoutse is Managing Partner and Strategy Director at PROOF and has over 15 years’ management experience, working both at agency and client end. Her book ‘Alignment 2.0’ was published in May 2016. 

Twitter: @BeaAarnoutse
Online: www.proof-agency.com

Continuous professional development (CPD): Can it help you in a changing world?

CONTINUOUS PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT (CPD): CAN IT HELP YOU IN A CHANGING WORLD? Sally Keith

CPD. Does it matter? What does it mean?

You’ll learn:
•    Who is CPD for? Is it all about you?
•    What should CPD cover? 
•    To focus on always challenging yourself
 

When does CPD start?

Some professionals, for example doctors, accountants or architects, have to qualify before they undertake CPD. For them qualification is the baseline. The continuing element takes them beyond the minimum level of their competence. Ideally it keeps them up to date with best practice, new technology or new pharmaceutical developments.

Yet this is not the case in PR, perhaps because there are diverse routes into this profession. New entrants begin their CPD before they have any form of qualification, relying only on any experience they may have acquired.

Does this make CPD just PR by numbers, rather like painting by numbers? It feels possible that collecting enough points is more than enough to make you an accredited practitioner for another year; not quite a ‘BOGOF’ but close! 

Perhaps that’s harsh. Either way, what matters is whether CPD actually says anything about your ability, skills or understanding.
 

How does PR fare in the context of other professionals?

It’s worth looking at what the evidence says. The Professional Associations Research Network (PARN) published its CPD, Education and Professional Standards benchmarking survey in April 2016.

Clearly professions are changing. In 2012, 81 per cent of the professional bodies required full members to have a degree. By 2015 this had fallen to 36 per cent. 

Is this as frightening as it sounds? Does it mean that standards are falling or is it just a reflection of the different entry routes into a profession? Will the 36 per cent with degrees be the only ones who will rise to the highest levels in their profession? 

There are, as ever, many factors underlying the statistics. The how, where and when of training and qualification are changing dramatically. 
 

Should CPD be compulsory?

The PARN survey reveals that 65 per cent of professional associations set CPD standards. Perhaps the CIPR model of awarding points is not so unusual then. 

However just 50 per cent of the organisations surveyed set mandatory policies. So even professions are divided about whether CPD should be compulsory. 

A key statistic that calls into question the value of CPD is that a third of the professions measure CPD by inputs, while just 36 per cent measure a combination of inputs and outputs. 

While PARN points out that this demonstrates a general move from input only schemes, the research goes on to say that over half of the people who audit CPD are not formally trained (just before you think this is good news).

All of this leads me to conjecture that if CPD is not required as part of a profession’s code of conduct, and those evaluating us are relatively unskilled, it should not be considered a reliable indicator of competence or even evidence of skills.
 

So why should PR professionals bother with CPD?

The harsh truth is that many of us don’t. The PRCA calculated 62,000 people work in PR in the UK. In 2015 1,611 CIPR members completed their CPD records. 

For consultants like me it can add to my credibility and reassure clients. Employers can ask for CPD in recruitment or use it in appraisals. So is it about competitive advantage?

CPD ought to stand for more than it does currently; not least because as professionals we have wider responsibilities. We are responsible to society. Without going into the complex arena of ‘public interest’ I would like to think that members of the public should be able to expect a (high) level of competence and service from PR professionals. 

Can people trust us to do the job and do it well? 

We also have a duty to our own profession. Does our CPD record make us proud of our achievements? As a profession can we point to CPD and say it is a central pillar of #FuturePRoofing PR? Are we doing CPD because it makes us feel good?

That would be a good place to be if so. 
 

Why, what if

Today CPD seems to focus on what could be termed practical skills; the how to... The more elusive element is around knowledge focused on the strategic, analytical skills: the why, the what if and sometimes the why not. 

These are all questions PR people should be debating round the board table. We should be able to raise a problem, debate the alternative strategies and then manage through a course of action. More of us need to learn how to do this. 

And then there is the thorny question of creativity and innovation. 

Great buzzwords are often sprinkled liberally across proposals and award entries, but can be difficult to define. How can we measure and develop these attributes? Are they skills or are they innate?

If CPD is not taking us in this direction, what will?

From knowledge to capability

There was encouraging news at the World Public Relations Forum in Toronto in May 2016. Professor Anne Gregory and Dr Johanna Fawkes announced their two year project to use the Global Body of Knowledge (GBOK) for PR to create a capability framework. The aspiration is that this framework will be used by PR professionals around the world.

I applaud the global scope of their ambition. I also applaud their efforts to win the approval of both academics and senior practitioners. 

As an associate lecturer at Newcastle University as well as a practitioner, I see tensions around the boundaries of academic and practical learning. The polarised opinions between ‘on the job’ training and degrees or formal qualifications will no doubt continue. 


Keep asking questions

When I began my career in PR there were no PR degrees or qualifications. I had to rely on Kipling’s words for my career development:

I keep six honest serving-men
(They taught me all I knew);
Their names are What and Why and When
And How and Where and Who.

Surely good PR professionals are always keen to learn, to find the best, most efficient way of achieving results. I would like to think so, but shudder when I hear, ‘Well, that’s my CPD done for another year, and it’s only May!’ 

I believe asking questions should be engrained in a good PR person.

The C is the key: continuing. Let’s never stop. 

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Sally Keith has run her successful eponymous consultancy for 20 years, serving clients across the UK. She has a rule of only reporting to CEOs and Chairmen, believing that PR must be regarded as a fundamental corporate management discipline. Alongside her professional practice she is an associate lecturer at Newcastle University and teaches on CIPR, CAM, CIM and DMI courses. She is particularly proud of the TwitFace Award for social media she received in the north east’s Alternative Business Awards.

Twitter: @fulbeck
Online: www.sallykeith.co.uk

Stories versus facts: Do communicators have a personal responsibility to ensure the public isn’t misled?

STORIES VERSUS FACTS: DO COMMUNICATORS HAVE A PERSONAL RESPONSIBILITY TO ENSURE THE PUBLIC ISN’T MISLED? Stuart Bruce

Every public relations professional should agree that it is absolutely wrong to lie on behalf of a client or employer. But where do the ethical boundaries lie between advocating the strongest case and misleading people?

You’ll learn:
•    Professional best practice
•    Practical arguments for honesty
•    Tips and tactics for fact-checking

Professional best practice

One of the major milestones to an occupation becoming recognised as a profession is the introduction of a professional code of ethics. The earliest and best known example of professional ethics is the Hippocratic oath which medical doctors still adhere to. 

In the UK, public relations is governed by two main codes of conduct, from the Chartered Institute of Public Relations (CIPR) and the Public Relations and Communications Association (PRCA), which both broadly say the same things, although the precise wording differs.

The key relevant themes of both are:

•    To have proper regard for the public interest
•    A duty to deal fairly and honestly
•    A duty to check the accuracy of information before disseminating it
•    To never knowingly mislead

Both codes are carefully worded to require you to ‘check’ or ‘use proper care’ as both bodies recognise that the PR professional cannot always be absolutely certain of the reliability and accuracy of the information they are given by others.

There is a difference between ‘false’ information (which can perhaps be more honestly described as lies) and ‘misleading’ information as it is possible to mislead by sticking to facts and the truth, just not the whole truth. Edmund Burke wrote: “Falsehood and delusion are allowed in no case whatsoever: But, as in the exercise of all the virtues, there is an economy of truth.”

Both the CIPR and the PRCA codes make it clear that to mislead is also a breach of their professional codes.

However, as in all questions of ethical behaviour, it isn’t always clear cut what is the correct ethical course to take. It is quite possible for ‘regard for the public interest’ to be at odds with the duty to not mislead.

What if thousands of jobs depend on maintaining the secrecy of contract negotiations and the PR professional is explicitly asked if contract negotiations are taking place? 

What about when special forces are conducting military operations to rescue hostages deep inside enemy held territory and all their lives would be at risk if there was even a hint an operation was taking place? 
 

Practical arguments for honesty

The CIPR and PRCA codes tell us what is expected of PR professionals, but the reality is that it’s not always as easy to do these things in practice.

There has always been an ethical and moral case for PR professionals to be honest and truthful, but there are also practical arguments, which today are stronger than ever. The first is one of trust. To be successful a PR professional needs to be trusted by the stakeholders they seek to influence. The second is the emergence of the internet and search making it far easier and faster for anyone to fact-check. The third is that social media means everyone has the power to challenge what you say and disseminate evidence to prove you are wrong.

This means that in the past an unscrupulous PR person could have decided to cast aside professional ethics to knowingly disseminate false information because they could have a reasonable expectation of getting away with it. Today, the chances of being caught and exposed have increased phenomenally so even the unscrupulous would be unwise to risk it.

However, just as the risks of being caught today are greater, so too are the challenges of actually complying with the principles of honest facts and not misleading people. Many ‘experts’ have pointed to the EU referendum campaign in the UK and the Donald Trump presidential campaign in the USA as evidence that we now live in a ‘post-fact’ era where, according to Michael Gove MP, people ‘have had enough of experts.’

One of PR’s greatest benefits over advertising is that it always deals in truth, facts and real stories, while advertising relies on made-up stories. Consumers today are demanding greater authenticity so PR’s real stories are more powerful than ever. 

Tips and tactics for fact checking

Too many PR people are too ready to accept what an employer or client tells them and in too many cases they may not be being told the truth. The employer or client may not be deliberately misleading the PR person, but can simply be relaying what they believe to be true.

That’s why both the CIPR and the PRCA put the onus on the public relations professional to check and use proper care when disseminating information they’ve been given. It is of equal importance to take this care whether you are retweeting a tweet, or if you are issuing a news release, formal statement or disclosure to a stock exchange.

It’s one area where PR professionals, even those who don’t do media relations, can learn a lot from traditional journalists. There’s an old newsroom adage that became the slogan of the Chicago City News Bureau:

‘If your mother says she loves you, check it out.’

Just as you can use Rudyard Kipling’s six tenets of reporting as the basis for creating a story, you can also use them as principles for fact checking. Ask what, why, when, how, where and who.

It is good idea to check the provenance of the information you are being given. What is the source? Are they qualified or permitted to provide you with the information? What is the date? Is it the most up to date information available?

There are lots of areas where PR people are at risk of inadvertently misleading people, but some where extra care needs to be exercised include:

•    Scientific research where the need to make the story more understandable can introduce inadvertent errors or the most newsworthy angle risks exaggerating the results.

•    Editing quotes, video and longer copy where removing minor words or phrases inadvertently or deliberately changes the meaning. Be particularly careful when tweeting as the restrictions of just 140 characters increase the risk of becoming misleading and remember many people will only read the tweet and will share it without even reading the link.

•    Market research and polls where selective use of the data can mislead. A potential pitfall of releasing the source data to improve transparency can actually risk people interpreting it incorrectly.

•    Case studies where the people and organisations depicted need to be real.

It’s your responsibility to get it right

It’s not always easy to know what the facts are and what could mislead people. PR professionals can’t be expected to have expertise on the subject matter of every issue they ever work on. 

However, what every public relations professional must do is take personal responsibility for trying to get it right. To never be afraid to ask the difficult questions and demand answers. If you don’t ask them then others will which will be ultimately be far more damaging to reputation than being honest and factual at the start.

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Stuart Bruce MPRCA FCIPR is an award-winning public relations adviser who counsels and trains corporate and government clients all over the world working with in-house teams and agencies. He has earned an international reputation as a thinker and doer in modernised public relations practice. 

Twitter: @stuartbruce
Online: www.stuartbruce.eu

Stitching together good corporate behaviour

STITCHING TOGETHER GOOD CORPORATE BEHAVIOUR Karan Chadda

How do you do the right thing? What is the right thing, anyway? In some contexts, these are simple questions with simple answers. For organisations, the context is rarely simple and neither are the answers. 

You’ll learn:
•    Why PR is structurally best placed to act as an organisation’s conscience
•    The role values play in guiding organisations
•    Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) needs a golden thread


Outside in, inside out

So whose role is it to help an organisation work out how to do the right thing? Ultimately, an organisation’s conscience is built collectively through its culture but, for structural reasons, professional communicators are best placed to ensure it is functioning effectively. 

In-house PR has traditionally been seen as a support function: PRs don’t do what their company does. This detachment from operational functions enables a broader view of a company and its role in society. 

This operational detachment is balanced by PR’s role as the voice of a company. This role requires a deep understanding of how the company is perceived by its various audiences and society as a whole. 

In his book, The Business of Influence [1], Philip Sheldrake outlined perhaps the simplest formalisation of PR’s role when he identified the Six Influence Flows [2].

Here we see a firm speaks to its stakeholders; stakeholders discuss the firm; stakeholders speak to the firm; competitors speak to the stakeholders; stakeholders discuss the competitors; and stakeholders speak to competitors. 

PR is the only business function to sit across all of these flows of influence. This places it as the only function with a broad view of how an organisation is perceived. PR takes what’s inside the organisation to the outside world and brings information from the outside world into the company. Professional communicators are structurally best placed to act as an organisation’s conscience.

The value of values

Organisations now face faster and greater information flows. There is also a push for greater transparency: more scrutiny by campaigners, journalists, the public, and other stakeholders. For corporations, there are moves toward greater, more transparent and more comparable reporting to financial markets (i.e. the move to integrated reporting and greater supply chain scrutiny) too. The upshot is increased scrutiny, ease of comparison, and in cases where companies are caught doing the wrong thing, faster public backlash. Ethical behaviour is not only a moral choice, it is now a commercially necessary one.

Morality is an uneasy subject for organisations, but there are tools for tackling it. The most common approach is to have a set of values or principles by which a firm operates. Values provide a set of relatively objective markers against which decisions can be made and judged. When an organisation articulates what it stands for, it is much easier for those running it to judge which decisions are right.

We’ve already set out the factors that make ethical behaviour commercially important in the short term, but there is evidence of longer term value creation too. Various brand equity and reputation equity studies show that a significant proportion of market capitalisation is dependent on the positive perceptions of a firm. Doing the right thing creates sustainable value over the long term.

The golden thread

For the past two decades, the default option for organisations that wanted to demonstrate a commitment to ethical behaviour was CSR. Although rooted in common sense, CSR quickly built a reputation as a tool for companies to “greenwash” their reputations. 

One of the most high profile examples of this is BP. Back in 2000, seeking to frame the firm as an environmentally conscious organisation, John (now Lord) Browne said BP would now stand for “Beyond Petroleum.” It adopted the now familiar green-yellow sunburst logo too. 

The rebrand was coupled with initiatives to increase BP’s renewable energy activities. It was met with cynicism. At the time, a Greenpeace spokesperson told the Guardian [3]: “They spent more on the logo this year than they did on renewable energy last year. Given they spend $8bn a year on oil exploration, BP stands less for beyond petroleum and more for burning the planet.”

BP’s words didn’t match up to its actions. Beyond Petroleum was quickly dropped from use but the logo remained. Another longstanding BP commitment remains too: its sponsorship of the arts.

Campaigners believe BP purchases respectability through its arts sponsorship. In July 2016, BP announced a further set of sponsorships for the next five years. In response, over 200 artists and campaigners, including Mark Rylance, wrote to The Times [4] to complain about this new round of sponsorship. 

Arts sponsorship is BP’s most high profile and controversial CSR activity. There are others, including supporting STEM education and initiatives to support and build the communities in which it operates. It is these other activities that make the most sense for BP to support. As a firm dependent on engineering talent, ensuring excellent STEM education provision is not just good for students and schools, colleges and universities, it is good for BP in the long run. 

The arts sponsorship sits uncomfortably. The reason is because there is no clear way to link it back to what BP does. It’s not about engineering. It’s not about energy. It is corporate hospitality on the grandest scale.
 

What does well sewn CSR look like?

Transparency, scrutiny and the commercial necessity of behaving ethically, means that CSR functions that “greenwash” are destined to fail. CSR must become embedded within an organisation’s operational decision making or it will become a reputational liability.

The best CSR programmes are stitched together using a golden thread that links activities seamlessly back to what an organisation’s values are and what it does.

Take children’s food company Ella’s Kitchen as an example. The firm has a very clear mission to create healthy eating habits. It not only produces healthy baby food, it also promotes healthy diets through initiatives such as its ‘Veg for Victory’ healthy weaning campaign that seeks to get children hooked on vegetables from the moment they begin to eat food of any kind.

Ella’s Kitchen isn’t looking at how it interacts with society as an afterthought. The firm has initiatives around recycling of its packaging, support for children locally (farm visits) and internationally (supporting a children’s home in Zambia), and organic sourcing. All these initiatives fit the healthy lifestyle values of the brand. The firm’s mission and values run through its operating business and its CSR activities. They are the golden thread that stitches together what the company does, how it does it and how it fits in the communities within which it operates.

Sources

[1] eulerpartners.com/the-business-of-influence/
[2] http://eulerpartners.com/six-influence-flows/
[3] https://www.theguardian.com/business/2000/jul/25/bp
[4] www.thetimes.co.uk/past-six-days/2016-08-02/comment/david-camerons-awards-and-the-lavender-list-k5r0hkvcx

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Karan Chadda creates brands, marketing frameworks and content that build stronger businesses. He is the founder of Evolving Influence, a marketing consultancy. He has also founded Poetry by Numbers, a data poetry project, and Read.Think.Discuss., a business book club.

Twitter: @kchadda
Online: www.evolvinginfluence.co.uk