Corporate communications departments are taking dramatic steps to adjust to the declining economy. This year, corporations slashed their internal budgets by 40 percent, with
the bulk of the cutbacks in the areas of media relations, internal communications and special events, according to the Thomas L. Harris/Impulse Research 2001 Public Relations
Client Survey. In addition, external PR budgets have fallen 17 percent - so corporations are not only decreasing their PR budgets, but in some cases are eliminating their PR
agency relationships altogether.
A recent survey by the online PR career site, Workinpr.com, garnered feedback from over 1,600 PR professionals and journalists on areas such as PR credibility, career
development and the current state of the PR industry and found areas where PR practitioners can improve performance - and safeguard their roles.
While the majority of respondents believe the PR industry as a whole has improved over the last five years, PR professionals indicated there is also plenty of room for
improvement - especially in the areas of professional training and key skills that are currently lacking in entry-level employees:
Lack of employee training
Only 8.9 percent of respondents received formal training from their company. 54 percent received informal training from managers or peers, while nearly 37 percent received no
training at all - left to "sink or swim."
Deficiencies of entry-level employees
According to respondents, the top two skills lacking in entry-level PR professionals today are:
- Knowledge of the industry/business issues
- Strong written/verbal skills
The finding that strong written skills is lacking in entry-level candidates is disconcerting to many PR employers, given that writing is such a large component of any PR
professional's responsibilities. Workinpr.com recently interviewed several PR professors from universities across the nation, and the overwhelming consensus is that writing is the
number one skill integral to a PR education.
"I'm concerned that a number of students may have creative ideas they're able to get down on paper but lack a mastery of even basic mechanics," says BJ Altschul, assistant
professor at American University in Washington DC. "Upper level college courses aren't the place to teach English 101," Altschul says. Still, while everyone seems to agree that
writing skills are very important, current entry-level candidates are falling short.
Survey Participants
Survey respondents included 586 PR professionals and 1,030 journalists. Public relations professional survey participants were garnered from the Workinpr.com opt-in subscriber
list, including professionals of all levels from top global PR firms and corporate communication departments of Fortune 500 companies. Journalists participated in the survey via
MediaMap.
PR NEWS has partnered with Workinpr.com to offer a rich database of job openings
on PR NEWS' site, http://www.PRandMarketing.com.
Visit PR NEWS' Career Center to search for jobs or to list an opening.