The PR Conversations blog had a nice post, Facing Up to the PR Challenge, about a skills shortage in the field, and what can and should be done about this. It emphasizes the importance of training, weighs the value of a degree in PR, and discusses how mid-career professionals who are entering PR from other fields can acquire the necessary skills.
The post resonated with me on a number of levels. I have done quite a bit of hiring in PR over the years. You sometimes see more resumes, sometimes fewer, but it always seems to be a challenge to find the really good candidates. As the article says:
On the one hand, there is a belief that anyone can work in PR – but on the other, the industry has a shortage of those who have the…competencies that are the mark of an effective PR consultant… Ensuring quality of talent is essential if PR is to be institutionalised as a credible and valued senior management function, I believe…
[WPP’s Martin ] Sorrell contrasts the investment made by organisations in capital equipment with much lower spend on training and development of people. I believe this is … gross negligence on the part of the industry to pay lip service to maintaining the talent pool.
The post goes on to describe “deliberate practice (I added the bold font):”
In a Fortune Magazine article Geoffrey Colvin considered “what it takes to be great ” and concluded it isn’t about innate talent, but about hard work: The talent argument isn’t one simply in favour of specialist PR professionals, experience versus education or recruiting gifted individuals. Rather it is about personal and organisational commitment to continual improvement and ongoing adjustment to achieve maximum results.
“The best people in any field are those who devote the most hours to what the researchers call “deliberate practice.” It’s activity that’s explicitly intended to improve performance, that reaches for objectives just beyond one’s level of competence, provides feedback on results and involves high levels of repetition.”
Examples of “best practice” are frequently little more than case study examples from award programmes, which are self-selected and edited highlights. Learning is primarily “on the job”, often at the hands of those who do little more than pass on poor practices. And, as Sorrell indicates, organisations need to look at better strategies than recruitment for improving the quality and quantity of talent in PR. We should insist on creating the best communicators, the best managers and the best strategists within public relations – not simply poaching from elsewhere.
An excellent article, I encourage you to visit the link, read the full post, and for the industry to take note of and follow its advice.
