PR Braindrain epilogue
Further to my PR Braindrain posting the other week, the UK edition of PR Week (January 14, 2005) ran a copy of my letter to the editor on the subject.
Badly run agencies will face brain drain
I was surprised to read some of the comments in a Financial Times article last week on an apparent brain drain of PR people from consultancy to in-house roles.
First, the assertion by the PRCA that this brain drain from the consultancies can be rectified by 'improving evaluation methods and developing industry-standar measures for PR effectiveness' is naive.
Having an industry that is more respected within businesses will benefit all PR professionals rather than just consultancies, and is likely to attract more competition for external PR from professional services firms such as management consultancies.
The migration to in-house roles happens for a number of reasons, including job security, finance, work-life balance, the working environment and a need for a different challenge.
Also the assertion that migration to in-house is 'driving everyone mad' by an anonymous PR consultancy spokesperson says more about their agency than the market for in-house PR people.
If an organistion is poorly managed then it will have staff-retention problems; it is of no surprise to me that it would wish to keep its company name out of the article
Ged Carroll - PR consultant
Further to my PR Braindrain posting the other week, the UK edition of PR Week (January 14, 2005) ran a copy of my letter to the editor on the subject.
Badly run agencies will face brain drain
I was surprised to read some of the comments in a Financial Times article last week on an apparent brain drain of PR people from consultancy to in-house roles.
First, the assertion by the PRCA that this brain drain from the consultancies can be rectified by 'improving evaluation methods and developing industry-standar measures for PR effectiveness' is naive.
Having an industry that is more respected within businesses will benefit all PR professionals rather than just consultancies, and is likely to attract more competition for external PR from professional services firms such as management consultancies.
The migration to in-house roles happens for a number of reasons, including job security, finance, work-life balance, the working environment and a need for a different challenge.
Also the assertion that migration to in-house is 'driving everyone mad' by an anonymous PR consultancy spokesperson says more about their agency than the market for in-house PR people.
If an organistion is poorly managed then it will have staff-retention problems; it is of no surprise to me that it would wish to keep its company name out of the article
Ged Carroll - PR consultant
