Invest in Your Staff

Often times, employees leave because they don’t see a clear path for climbing the corporate ladder at a company. Many employers resist training employees to move into other areas, simply because once they find a good employees, they want to keep them in that role. But that’s to your detriment.

Professional development and training is one of the areas that especially junior and mid-level PR pros working their way up ask about when evaluating a new opportunity. Invest in training that builds their professional skills gives you a more vested, more productive worker.

Pay Attention

Watch out for high drama, low office morale, micromanagement, or poor communication within the team. It’s your job to pay attention to how the teams are faring and take measures to improve precarious situations.

If your instincts tell you there’s a problem, don’t ignore it. It’s a lot easier to talk about it and come up with a solution that maximizes happiness on both sides than to replace people for situations that could have been easily turned around with a little more attention.

Take a Look at Your Compensation

If it’s been awhile since you researched competitive salaries and benefits for the roles you hire for, it’s time. You might be surprised to find that you’re grossly behind in what you’re offering new hires, especially now when the competition for junior and mid-levels employees is fierce. It's important to look at the overall package as well. Employees aren't only motivated by the cash factor: Flexibility, work/life balance, and healthcare are all important factors we see candidates consider when making a move.

Give Feedback

Every manager at your company should be holding annual performance reviews, if not quarterly reviews, for each employee. This helps employees know where they stand in terms of performance, as well as their likelihood of getting a promotion. Without a clear outline of expectations and feedback, employees don't know where they stand and are more likely to entertain new opportunities with a clearer path. 

Provide Incentive

In a perfect world, employees would stay at your company simply because they love their work. But in reality, that doesn’t always happen. Do your part by giving them incentive to do a good job. Incentives could be as simple as having a Casual Friday or team dinner, or customized for individual departments, such as on-the-spot bonuses for reaching certain milestones. At the very least, make sure your employees are getting a pat on the back whenever they go above and beyond. You’d be surprised how far a little appreciation can go.

Stick to the Job Description

Sometimes the role a new hire signs up for ends up morphing into something else. Tasks and responsibilities pile up and change, and the employee quits out of frustration and overload. Take the time to review and update each job description, as well as assess the work your new Communications Manager is actually doing, to make sure they’re in line with the job that was presented. If the job is truly a media relations position, but was presented as a hybrid external/internal communications positions with a good chunk of time focused in internal communications, you may have a problem on your hands.

Turnover is costly. It is estimated that turnover cost 30-50% of the annual salary of entry-level employees, 150% of mid-level employees, and up to 400% for specialized, high-level employees. Keeping good employees can add to your bottom line, increase productivity and help your company grow, so it’s worth the time investment to make sure your staff is happy.
 

Look around at your staff. Are they engaged? According to an NBRII whitepaper, about half of them may be working on autopilot. These are not the employees who will go out of their way to ensure they do their best work for your company.

Why Engagement Matters

Engagement, or rather, lack of it, costs businesses money, to the tune of $370 billion a year. If employees aren’t happy in their work, they’re less likely to maximize their efforts, and you’re paying more money for less work. And they’re more likely to quit their job, if they can another one. That means you have a serious investment of time and money to fill an empty position with a qualified candidate and train her to get up to speed fast.

What You Can Do to Boost Engagement

If the numbers here scare you, they should. Fortunately, there are measures you can take to ensure you engage employees and keep them interested in their work.

Jeff Goldsmith, Head of Marketing at Keas, a wellness program that focuses on gamification and social features for engagement, says the new workforce is social-, mobile- and data-driven, and that using that to your benefit will increase engagement levels.

Goldsmith has seen social games improve the overall health and wellness of employees, as well as employee rewards programs that build company culture across geographies.

“Human resources is not immune to [the] dawn of data science - their results are just as reportable, trackable and open to analytics as any other discipline in the working world,” says Goldsmith, “HR wants to drive results - to lower absenteeism, to lower turnover, to lower costs, and raise productivity. Social tools and mobile connectivity can help drive their results HR needs to produce.”

Keas’ wellness platform allows employees to set up profiles, similar to other social media profiles, and form teams with co-workers. By choosing health goals and working towards them, they earn points and bragging rights at work. While this might not seem like something that would carry through to other aspects of work, it absolutely does.

Companies that promote health and well being, according to the World Economic Forum in January 2010, saw the following results:

• 3x more productivity
• 3.5x more creativity and innovation
• 4x less turnover in a given year
• 8x more engagement among employees
• 2.5x better employee performance

Whether you invest in a wellness program or not, start by paying attention to what’s happening around the office. Do formerly uber-productive employees seem to be turning in less work? Do you hear less laughter and chatter? What could be the cause of it? If your team is under a tight deadline, it might be temporary. But when the project is done, come up for air.

Keep communication open so you always know when engagement drops off. Find little ways to keep your employees happier so that they’ll stay with you for years.

Why Employees Leave

Downs says when more than one person leaves the company, it can create undue stress on the rest of the team, which can cause more turnover.

“If you have more than one person within a team leaving, this influx of work needing to be dealt with by other team members can become very difficult to handle. Too much work, long hours and [being] short on help can create negative environments that lead to an even higher employee turnover.”

She says poor management can also lead to employees jumping ship: “the majority of talent are looking for leaders who inspire them to do and be greater, as opposed to micro-managing their daily responsibilities. Micro-management tends to make strong talent want to run in the other direction.”

If there’s no clear-cut path, goals or vision, employees may feel adrift, and that they’d be better off elsewhere. Downs says people need to feel they are working towards something. If that goal or vision becomes too far from reach or if promises aren’t kept, then people begin looking for something new.

And sometimes it’s simply a case of thinking the grass is greener on the other side. Agency PR people may want to focus on one company, so they start looking for an in-house role, says Downs. Corporate people who more variety or something different may look for agency positions.

For corporate PR, she says the number one reason top-level executives start looking for a new opportunity is that the executive team often doesn’t respect or support the PR/marketing function. Who wants to waste their brilliance constantly swimming upstream?

The Cost of High Turnover

Besides the strain of adding an expense of anywhere from 50 to 400% of your salary cost when you have to rehire and retrain new staff to replace the (not so) old ones, the stress that turnover causes, especially for PR agencies, extends beyond just the team. Clients, too, can get agitated when their favorite account manager leaves, and may even take their business elsewhere.

It takes time to find new talent to fill that role, then train the employee to ramp up to where the last person was in the role. This can affect project time and deadlines.

How to Reduce Turnover

Downs says it’s important to check in to make sure your employees are happy.

“Find out what is most important to your personal team and implement the appropriate culture. Depending on dynamics, little needs can be met through a variety of options, from flex time to work from home options, summer hours, happy hour outings, team getaways, peer groups or even a book club.”

She says soft perks go a long way in exciting people about an opportunity and keep people happy within the organization. In looking at the companies she works with, Downs sees family-friendly and flexible work environments as the most successful for retention.

But at the end of the day, says Downs, “people want to be heard, understood, appreciated, rewarded and to feel as if they are an important part of a whole.”

What types of programs does your company have to help curb turnover?

Start with Smart People

Leslie Campisi, Managing Director of Hotwire PR says it’s not about the school, the major, or the perfect resume when it comes to hiring a team player.

“Don't be afraid of hiring someone who has tried a few careers or appears ‘nontraditional,’ as long as they can articulate what they've learned and what brought them to this place. Having teams with a diversity of professional backgrounds creates an openness to new points of view which in turn allows them to solve problems quickly and creatively.”

Even if that person doesn’t necessarily have all the experience you hoped for, if they’re smart, they can learn quickly. And if they can contribute to the productivity of your team, you’ll reap even more benefits.

Know What You’re Looking For

Many companies make the mistake of painting broad strokes on the job description. They do this because they don’t truly know what they need in a job candidate. Being too generic won’t help you find the perfect fit for your team, says Susan Thomas, President of Trainer Communications. It may also make the interviewing and selection process take longer if you’re not precise in asking for exactly what you need.

“You may want to consider throwing out the old-school job descriptions and write a description that articulates exactly what you need the person to do. For example ‘fill a gap in our editorial programs for our wireless practice, securing key technology and business media for five clients, and ensuring they are mentioned in the dozens of stories written every month on their category.’”

Look to the rest of the team’s responsibilities and determine what’s missing in terms of skills and experience, then include that in your job description.

Ask the Right Questions

Thomas also suggests that during the interview process, you use the rule of three, which refers to “three questions about every claim your candidate makes. If they claim to have managed a major launch, then ask them at least three probing questions about that management experience that will help you discern their level of involvement and their skill level.”

The more you ask about the skills and experience that are really relevant to the team you’re building, the better you will be at hiring the best fit for the team.

Consider Chemistry

Once you’ve hired smart people, you need to be sure they’ll have the right chemistry to work together as a team. While skills matter, so do personalities, and if the ones on your team don’t mesh, you’ll have problems down the road.

Mandy Mladenoff, General Manager of Matter Communications, says her company performs what she calls “dynamic teaming:”

“...we match the right people to our clients based on experience, client objectives and, yes, team dynamics,” Mladenoff explains, “Beware of creating the team that looks perfect on paper but lacks the right chemistry. You’ll be doing your teams and your clients a disservice.”

Managing Your Team Going Forward

Once you’ve created your team, the hard work isn’t over. As the team leader, it’s imperative that you foster and develop open communications.

“Most one-on-one conversations with clients -- barring very private ones -- should be immediately shared with the entire account team. This goes for agency communications as well. It's easy to avoid rumors when you're communicating quickly, openly and honestly with your team about things that affect them,” says Campisi.

1. Age or Birthdate

You might prefer to hire someone who is a bit older, with more job experience or a younger candidate who "fits your corporate culture". But leave the age and birthdate questions alone unless you want to be up next in an age discrimination law suit. You can not ask the age of a candidate. Besides, your hiring decisions should be based on who can do this job the best, not his specific age.

2. Birth Place

This might seem an innocuous enough question, but some employers have gotten slapped on the wrist for asking a candidate’s country of birth. If you are worried about the person's eligibility to work in the United States, you can simply ask if he is legally authorized to work in the United States.

3. Religious Beliefs

In no way should a person’s religious or spiritual beliefs come up during a job interview. Even if your company considers itself of a particular religious following, you cannot discriminate hiring someone based on his or her own religion.

4. Relationship Status

Sometimes you may think you’re just having a casual conversation and may bring up the subject of relationships, but be aware that if the job candidate reports you as having asked about the relationship status, you could be in serious hot water. Whether or not he or she is married, single, straight or gay simply doesn’t factor into the interview process and job eligibility.

5. Children

Many employers are concerned if a woman is of child-bearing age, she might quit a position as soon as she has a baby. This is an archaic mindset, and one you should avoid. Nor can you ask if a candidate has children.

6. Disabilities

While you can ask if a person is able to “carry out all necessary job assignments/functions and perform them in a safe manner,” you can’t outright ask if he or she has any sort of physical or mental disabilities. This is a regulation from the American Disabilities Act.

7. Questions About the Spouse

You cannot ask a job candidate’s spouse’s name, occupation, or salary. Nor can you ask personal questions about any other family member of the candidate. It is lawful, however, to ask if a spouse or close family member is currently employed by the organization.

8. Military Discharge

While you can ask if a candidate served in a branch of the US military, you can’t ask the reason for discharge or further details about his or her military record.

9. Clubs and Organizations

Your job candidate may be a member of one or more clubs or organizations, but you should shy away from asking. Asking if the person is a part of a professional organizations such as PRSA is okay. You want to stay away from asking about social clubs or organizations that may reveal political, religious, and other protected interests.

During the job interview, stay clear of any topics that might be misconstrued to be asked that shouldn’t be. Instead, focus on the candidate’s job skills and experience as it relates to the position you are interviewing for. Make an effort to get to know the individual through safe questions, and use your best judgment for whether or not she’s the best fit for your organization.

Realize that most job candidates will know what you aren’t allowed to ask, and don’t chance getting reported for bringing up the wrong questions during the interview.
 

The survey, a partnership between global staffing company Aquent and the American Marketing Association, looked at several factors, including which cities pay the most for marketing roles, which jobs are the most demanding, and which are the most satisfying roles. The results give you as an employer insight into what’s going on in marketing and PR.

Don’t Sweat the Raise this Year
While two-thirds of those marketing professionals surveyed said they do expect salary increases in 2013, only about 20% expect them to be an increase of 10% or more. The job market is still shaky, so no one is demanding a raise, at least not right now.

As the U.S. economy gets back on its feet, companies may be able to get away with cutbacks to pay increases for a while longer. But here’s betting that 2014 sees a bit more competition once again when it comes to recruiting and keeping talent. If you’re cutting back on pay raises, don’t plan to make it a long-term habit.

PR Work is Stressful, but Rewarding
Even though Public Relations Executive made it to CNBC’s list of Top 10 Most Stressful Jobs of 2013 (ranking up there with Police Officer and Corporate Exec), the Aquent survey showed a different side of the industry. Professionals working in PR, it seems, are among the most satisfied with their jobs, along with those working in web analytics and strategic planning.

What this means for you is that you’re less likely to see as much turnover in your PR department, assuming you treat your staff well and pay them what they’re worth.

Does Location Really Matter?
Speaking of pay: if you assume that being situated in a major U.S. city means you’ve got to wave a bigger paycheck at your employees, think again. The study showed that Dallas, Saint Louis, and Atlanta provided more generous salaries than major metropolises.

Perhaps this is because these cities want to draw in talented professionals to populate these second-tier metropolitan areas. And it’s not a hard sell to get someone to move to New York City, so why bother offering a larger salary to lure someone there?

When looking at average marketing salaries in a given city, keep in mind the cost of living equation: while Silicon Valley marketers averaged $107,802, cost of living — among the highest in the nation — makes that more like $48,034 elsewhere.

Not sure how what you’re paying your marketing staff stacks up against other cities? Aquent and AMA have a marketing salary tool that will show you what comparable roles are paying in any city.

In addition to the surprise of the smaller cities paying better than the large ones, we also find out that the happiest marketers work in Phoenix, Indianapolis, and Houston. What’s their secret?

If you know your marketing and public relations team are happy and well-paid, that gives you the peace of mind to focus on other departments that might not be so perfect!
 

1. I Resolve to Work With One Recruiter
While you may think that bringing on multiple recruiters to help you fill a single role might help you find the right employee faster, it can actually muddy the water. In the event that more than one recruiter brings you the same job candidate, you’ll have to manage an avoidable issue. Additionally, you might find you don’t have anybody working on your search when the multiple recruiting firms hear from potential candidates they’ve already been approached by other recruiters.

This year, resolve to build a relationship with a single recruiter or recruiting team in your industry or discipline you plan to hire. The better the relationship, the better job your recruiter can do in finding you the ideal candidate.

2. I Resolve to Be Clear in Communications
It can be frustrating for recruiting teams to start with one job description from a company, only to have it change mid-search. Before handing over a job description, review it carefully, and get input from anyone else involved in the hiring process or management of this role. Make sure the entire team is on the same page about the search and make sure it’s watertight before passing it on to your recruiting team. This will help them target their candidate search from the start and not waste valuable time and resources targeting the wrong profiles.

3. I Resolve to Let My Recruiter Do Her Job
It can be tempting to get involved in the job search, especially if you lean toward micromanaging at work. But there’s a reason you hired this recruiter: she has a network of fabulous job candidates and will find the one best suited for your needs. It’s not very likely a third-party recruiter will hand over her list of contacts for your search or give you access to her database. She will present you with candidates as options, and you will always have the final say over who you hire.

4. I Resolve to Be Available
Most job searches need to be filled quickly, and your recruiter may need to contact you throughout the process with questions or to discuss timely potential candidates issues. Be available via phone or email, and let her know if you won’t be around for several days. Be respectful of the fact that she is working for you (and if she’s working on contigency, she’s not being paid for those efforts until the end of the search), and do your best to make it easy for her to reach you.

5. I Resolve to Provide Feedback
Whether you plan to continue to work with the same recruiter for future job searches or not, it is extremely helpful to your recruiting team if you provide feedback throughout the process and upon conclusion of the search. Feedback throughout the process will help the recruiting team manage the search better, fill it faster, provide you with the most relevant candidates and manage their candidate's expectations and timelines. In the end of the search, the team may formally ask you to fill out a survey on how they did during your search, but if they don’t, do not be shy about speaking your mind, for better or worse. If there was something you particularly liked--or didn’t-- during the process, this information can help the team tweak future searches, both for you and other clients.

6. I Resolve to Find a Recruiter Who Knows My Field
If you have had difficulty in the past in working with recruiters who didn’t share your area of specialty and weren’t happy with the results, consider engaging a recruiting team with an industry/discipline focus. They will be more likely to be connected to key players in your field, know who is open for a career change and be able to bring in quality interviews for your company.

Whether your staffing needs in 2013 are light or heavy, maintaining a solid relationship with your recruiting team will make the hiring process easier, and will help you hire the best-qualified professionals for your company.

What Employers Look For

Many college grads are surprised to find out how little specific degrees matter to employers. But the truth is: many look for skills or experience rather than PR degrees. And sometimes, having a different type of degree can be an asset to an employer. If, for example, you have a degree in journalism, you understand the other side of the PR coin: you can relate to journalists and understand what they look for in a good story. Not every PR professional has that skill set, so being able to “speak journalese” can be a major boon for you in the job market.

An employer may not care if you don’t have a degree in PR, but he will want to see that you’ve made some effort to add to your PR skills. This could come in the form of an internship or volunteer position where you learned the basics of writing press releases and pitching the media. Joining a public relations professional organization wouldn’t hurt either, as it shows that you’re being proactive in getting to know others in your desired field.

Other Degrees That Qualify You for PR

Public relations is about communication, so any degree that focuses on improving your writing skills may help you secure a job as a public relations coordinator or communications specialist. A degree in writing or communications can provide you with the communications skills necessary, and business degrees typically emphasize business writing, which parallels what you’d be doing in the PR industry.

And as mentioned above, a degree in journalism can be tremendously valuable in that it teaches you the ropes of what’s happening at the newspapers and magazines you’ll pitch once you’re in PR. Having an understanding of a journalist’s world can help you better manage media relationships, which is the key to getting placement in the media.

A degree in marketing or business administration, or at least a few classes in these areas, can also help you as a PR pro, simply because so much of PR ties in to marketing and business. You’ll come to a job armed with multiple skills, and for private companies who can’t afford to hire separate marketing and public relations staff, you can pull double duty with your skill set.

And if You’re Considering Grad School...

Frustrated with the tight job market, many college grads return to school to get Masters’ degrees in PR or other fields. Before you make the leap, consider whether having a higher degree would actually put you in a better position for a job.

Having a Master’s degree on your resume may be appealing to employers, but it doesn’t necessarily translate into more money. In many cases, you’ll be eligible for the same job you’d qualify for without the degree, at the same pay rate. In PR, experience almost always trumps education. Consider whether another year or two of education is worth the same job.

There’s more than one path to your ideal PR job. Finding the one that works best for you is half the fun!

If you’ve recently hired staff, or are currently considering hiring staff, now is a great time. You’ve got more time to dedicate to searching for the ideal candidate. Now is also ideal for training new hires.

You’ve Got Your Head on Straight

Every year seems to zoom by until third quarter, when things grind to a halt. If you’ve been piled under paperwork and haven’t had time to come up for air, you probably are catching up on things right now. Dedicate some time to considering the training process, if this is a new position, or updating it for existing roles. If you’re the person conducting the training, your calendar may have more empty spots on it where you can schedule one-on-one time. If you’re in charge of the person who trains, speak with her about opening up some time to help in the next few weeks.

Before you start on training, make sure the job description for the role is updated and that you haven’t assigned new tasks to it and aren’t using technology for the role that isn’t mentioned in the training materials. Even if you don’t have an employee to train right now, it’s an excellent time to update these documents.

There’s Less to Do

While on-the-job training has its own benefits, new hires tend to be more at ease when they have quiet time to digest the information that’s being thrown at them. If time permits, schedule a week or two just for observation, where your new employee can shadow someone else in his department, or the person he will be replacing. Gradually give him more tasks and oversee them to ensure he’s on the right path. Then in January when business picks up, he’ll be more confident about doing his job.

He Can Meet More of Your Staff

If your employees are gathering in the breakroom to share a slice of pumpkin pie, your new hire will have ample opportunity to network and get to know his colleagues. Because the holidays tend to bring more cheer to the office, he’ll get off on the right foot with the rest of your staff, which can ease his transition into the work.

There’s Time for External Training

Whether you have a training coach who comes in to help new hires or like sending them to workshops and conventions, there’s room in the schedule to allow for these right now. Look for local events that will benefit your newest addition and sign him up on the company’s dime. Also if there are training manuals or books that you require him to read, he should have a little more free time to cover those right now.

Proper training of a new hire is what can increase the time an employee works with your company, and it can set him up for success. Provide him with the tools he needs to get to know his new role, and provide ample support so he knows where to turn with questions. Follow up after training to see how he feels about his job, and make sure to help him in the coming months.

1. List Projects You’ve Worked on
Simply putting “freelancer” on your resume might not keep it out of the trash pile, but if you elaborate on what you’ve been doing on your own, you have a much better chance at getting a call. Focus on the industries you’ve worked on to show your versatility, and give examples of the projects you’ve worked on.

Many freelancers just list a few clients they’ve worked with, leaving out the details that help an employer determine their relevancy for the position. Make the direct connections between what the prospective employer is looking for and how it relates to the specific projects you’ve worked on. This could mean you change your examples of project work frequently to customize it for each position.

2. Look for Flexible Opportunities
One of the features that likely appealed to you about freelancing was the flexible schedule. Try to find full-time (or even part-time) opportunities that offer similar freedom. Since you’ve already proven your ability to work from home as a freelancer, you might be more qualified for a full-time work from home opportunity.

3. Pay Attention to Your Industry from an Employee Perspective
If you’ve been freelancing for a while, you might not know how difficult it is to get a job in your field. Spend some time finding out what’s happening and where the jobs are so that you’re better prepared for your job search.

4. Ask Your Clients For a Job
If you’ve successfully made your clients happy as a freelancer, they might be the first place to start if you’re looking for full-time work. Be prepared to explain why you’re getting out of freelancing. Ask your clients if they’re hiring, or if they might be able to refer you to another company.

5. Don’t Stop Freelancing
Finding the perfect job may take a while, so don’t close up shop just yet. You can continue to freelance while searching for a job, which might, in turn help you find another job. At the very least, it will help you pay the bills until your first paycheck.

6. Professionalize Your Portfolio
Freelancing gives you plenty of proof of your job skills, but you’ll need to make sure your portfolio is set up to highlight your skills. Create an online portfolio on your website linking to samples of your work, and include this link in your cover letter.

7. Get Linked
LinkedIn is a fantastic tool for any job seeker, but especially for freelancers. Connect to clients and other freelancers, then to employees of companies you’re interested in working for. Ask for tips for how to best be considered for a role.

8. Network Locally
Many freelancers never network locally, since their gigs tend to come from all over. Now’s the best time to make connections in your city that will lead to a job. Find business networking groups where professionals in your field meet to talk shop. Put it out there that you’re looking for a job. You just might find a referral for one.

9. List Your Freelance Experience as a Business
Many employees tend to look more positively on companies than they do freelancers. So consider listing your writing experience as ABC Writing Company, with you as (Your Job Title), rather than simply “freelancer.” Doing this will also help your resume come up for a future search and via online job boards and profiles.

10. Consider All Types of Employment
While you’ve made the decision to get back into a full-time role, stay open to temporary and freelance roles, as many companies like to start out with less risk, then offer you a more permanent position once you’ve proven your ability on a job.

Moving from freelancing into a full-time corporate opportunity doesn’t have to be difficult, if you do the legwork to position yourself as the ideal candidate.