Shortage of professionals in PR
By Editor on Oct 17, 2006 in industry, issues, mediarelations
Our friend Roasie from Perfect Relations’ HR department today wrote an interesting piece for the HT Power Jobs supplement of HT. She talked about the high attrition rates in the PR industry even though it is growing at a rate of 15-20% per annum.
She quotes the following as some of the key reasons for this:
1. Lure of better pay: If skilled manpower is scarce, professionals will inevitably be poached for higher salaries.
2. Leadership crisis: Being a fairly new industry it does not have too many established players. Hence, there are very few veterans and worthy leaders in top management positions. This presents a crisis of leadership in smaller firms, which makes people move onto larger and more reputable companies.
3. Lack of understanding of PR: It may come as a surprise but most people still have a very vague notion of PR. For 40 per cent of the survey respondents, PR still is all about wining and dining. They have no idea that it is a highly specialised function.
Some solutions she proposed:
1. Compensation benchmarking: A properly designed survey can provide an important benchmark of competitive pay rates.
2. Longevity bonus: Some firms have also come up with a Longevity Bonus Scheme, under which employees are paid additional salaries.
3. Pick up-and-drop facility: It is not only BPOs that provide their employees with taxi services. Even certain large PR agencies provide pick up-and-drop facilities to their employees.
A good writeup and I am glad that she came up with this topic. It’s high time we talk about this openly- only then we can devise steps to address the problem. We have talked about high attrition in this blog before.
I have some of my inputs. Many in the industry must be having and if they can share those, it would be worthwhile.
Talking about leadership, Roasie’s right. We have few known names from the PR industry who are known by people outside, except for a few. and how approachable are these few leaders? They might smile and pose for Page 3 shots but everyone in the industry knows how they are in life.
While the issue is of people shifting from smaller agencies to larger ones, it is also of people leaving the industry altogether. The employee turnover in the biggest agencies will probably be as high as those in smaller agencies if we do a survey. Some readers have pointed out here in this blog about treatment of junior and middle level employees by seniors. I think this is true to quite a large extent. I have heard horror stories of people leaving their junior female colleagues stranded on Gurgaon roads after evening events. There are more stories of juniors given punishments like in schools. People expect to be treated like smart consultants, not like kids.
Some bosses love bullying their subordinates. They are not to be blamed fully. They have gone through the same treatment from their seniors and it passes down, just like ragging in schools and colleges.
Leaderships of senior management also reflect in how well they can protect their teams from unreasonable clients and journalists. How many times we have heard of Corp. Comm people shouting to PR agency teams in the middle of press conferences, while the agency CEOs remain mum. How many times you have had your boss telling you to write an apology mail to your client knowing fully well that the silly client knows nothing of how the media work. These are just some instances when people decide this is not the profession they want to be in.
If people are not aware of PR, we are to be blamed. How many of the PR leaders in this country write on the industry and its achievements in national newspapers? That’s why I said earlier that Roasie’s article is highly welcomed.
One solution I propose. I don’t think it’s entirely the salary factor that’s the problem. The PR industry pays more than or at par with many other professions, including journalism, event management or advertising. What the leaders need to do is make the profession respectable. Like Harold Burson said, we have been like the cobbler, who while making shoes for his clients forgot to make any for his children. The image of the industry needs to be worked on and it is the responsibility of all those who profess to be the leaders of the industry, the PR associations and all the PR agency owners and senior management to do so.
Don’t make all the young people feel like courier people but like consultants and they are valued. Then there won’t be any teary eyed young PR professional going home thinking he/she wants to quit the job. Oh yes, if any senior management are reading this, don’t think I’m exaggerating. Just reflect on how many employees have left your organisation in the past not two months but one month. Or by the time you realise you need to do something, they would have had all their resignation letters typed down already.
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On Oct 18, 2006, Bengali Babu said:
“Chariry starts at home”. Our friend has applied all, what she has written & even what she is suggesting (although she has no clue what she has written),Still employee turnover is above 60% in PR. For example, Me and my other colleagues left the Perfect Relations just because of POOR HR.
As Hobbit said,”We have few known names from …smile and pose for Page 3 shots but everyone in the industry knows how they are in life” These leaders even don’t listen to anybody except our own friend.
Facts:
Lure of better pay – Also give them salary slips and help them understand Tax deductions.
Leadership crisis – U know only how to spoil the Personal skills.
Lack of understanding of PR – what is HR doing at the time of interview.
Compensation benchmarking: Do perfect have any standard??? Yes, if dilip is in good mood.
Longevity bonus: In Perfect??? for our FRIEND only.11 yrs.
Pick up-and-drop facility: Atleast, employees should be compensated for lower salaries.
Yes, it was nicely written…but was it written by A FRIEND? i have my doubts.
On Oct 18, 2006, Anonymous said:
Ha ha ha ..isn’t it sounds like a joke..all Ex-perfectionists would be laughing.
On Oct 18, 2006, Anonymous said:
What a sham of an article. The kind of mess Perfect’s HR is in… Roasie is lucky to be alive to be writing this article — coz most employees who left Perfect have cursed her in some way or other for bad HR practices. And why? I thought, Dilip thinks that he will always get the raw talent no matter how poor the HR is and that he never cares when anybody leaves Perfect…and high attrition is one of the reasons that Hill & Knowlton was really concerned when it was negotiating with Dilip and Bobby.
Sorry Roasie bad news. You dont have it in you to become a thought leader columnist!
Infact most of the PR agencies suffer from bad HR and then they cry about the dearth of talent.
The leadership should learn to respect (in order to get the respect back) rather than getting featured in page 3 or hob nobbing with other similarly moron-nish leaders at industry summits.
Hobbit, why dont you do another mid-term salary survey?
On Oct 18, 2006, hobbit said:
Hey c’mon guys, the HR needs the support of PR professionals to succeed. Mid-term salary survey sounds good. Like best paying agency? Best HR policies, and some descriptions of what those HR policies are practically to employees? Which agencies have dedicated HR people? Can you complain about the CEO to the HR? etc.etc.
On Oct 19, 2006, Anonymous said:
Hobbit, I think people like roasie are just VICTIMS like others…HR@PR is divided between DC & BK (or Mumbai & Delhi). DC wants to shift the admin control to mumbai & have a separate team altogether who do PR for him whereas BK believes in ‘actions speak louder than words’.
Hobbit, I think you shud SURVEY for BEST CEO among Indian PR Professionals?
On Oct 20, 2006, Anonymous said:
HR at PR is an oxymoron. The pathetic ‘use and throw’ policy has claimed many talented people. The shameless arrogance of the leaders hasn’t helped any of us and we can write thousands of blogs listing down the HR crimes committed at Delhi’s ‘biggest public relations’ agency (??). Professionalism? That’s non-existent. I have sat through meeting, squirming at the pearls of wisdom DC showered on clients, knowing fully well that it would be me and my team who would be left to clean the mess he made. And when we failed to deliver on the unrealistic promises, we were pushed into the gas chamber. The few who adapted to the cold, heartless and cunning atmosphere of PR survived and prospered (like AL). Others failed to change; were ejected promptly.
On Oct 20, 2006, Anonymous said:
As they say – reality bites.
On Oct 31, 2006, Anonymous said:
hey all u ex perfect guys, man roasie’s comments had me gasping for breath! What was she thinking…oopps I forgot, how anyone in perfect think except the high priest himself, rest all are only allowed to echo his views till ad-nauseam.
Any one who has any rectitude has upped and left the company and the ones who are there need a life and a lesson in self respect. Look at the current delhi branch head is a joke of a leader, a spineless worm…
Perfect is by far the worst PR firm in India, and the way it is heading will soon be confined to the dustbins of history.
On Oct 31, 2006, Anonymous said:
I must admit, a trully wonderful piece from the HR head of Perfect Relations and this indeed should be appreciated as it comes from a person and an organization which probably does not even know what HR and employee motivation factor is. Have not really spent too much time in the organization but that is only because you barely find a reason to stay. As our beloved HR Head and her Kurta clad master would try too hard pursuing you to leave. In the recent times we must have read a million articles about the growing attrition levels and particularly in our field. But as each and every organization usually and very conveniently puts the blame on the growing pay scales but few actually look at themselves and rectify their mistakes. I do agree payscales might have gone up but as we all will commonly agree on the fact that it still comes no where in comparison to an advertising or other peer industry. And as our kind HR head as expressed on putting common benchmark to the pay scales can we also ask her to put a common benchmark on the HR policies . But then again thats where the problem will start hahahaha. So my sincere request to such illogical PR banters would be – please continue to do what you do the best, make money, give crap advice to your clients and peanuts to your employees. And please please do not stop writing such amusing articles, it gives us something to laugh at in between our hectic schedules.
On Oct 31, 2006, Anonymous said:
this article cracked me up…who was the babe kidding? HR and Perfect? WOW man that is a chilling thought
On Jun 19, 2008, well wisher said:
just imagine..some1 frm erfect sayin all this..hw ironical..they dun pay employees n interns the money they are promised..frgt othr incentives or growth perks..they hire pure rookies in PR..n mk thm lie abt the “Image Executive” being a part of perfect fr atleast n year..evn f da person is jus a few hrs old..they mk employees pay for translation of the releases..n ya..once they gt to knw..dat da employee is planning to leave..they cook up something and fire the person instead..m sure dats a good enuff reason for empoloyees to b chatting on the messenger(their official messenger!..ha..fr namesake)..Facebooking and finding jobs on monster.com..ha..wat n irony..n derz mo to come..they have high hopes of recruiting ppl frm IIM(A) n mica n symbi..fr wait..10k a mnth!guys..go see urselves in da mirror fr once..ur pr firm needs to do pr fr urselves way too badly
On Jun 19, 2008, well wisher said:
n ya..all clients plz dun tk da tym sheets they show u justifying the amount of money they charge..its all FAFF..they’re busy timepassing..n coochi cooin around..basically its hi tym they shud jus prolly call themselves a bunch of stringers now..cz dats wat they basically do
On Jul 29, 2008, Deccan Journalist said:
One of the reasons why we find less people in PR is because of the huge communication backwardness that our indians have in english. Although those who are good in english are pretty good, but most of the educated people do not have dynamic communication which is one of the imp points in Pr.