Lack of jobs for communication graduates

by Harriet Thomlinson, Intern

Since the recession, we’re constantly hearing how internal communication is becoming an increasingly recognized function – with practitioners being called upon for everything from layoffs, pay freezes to restructures. Strange then, that for such a valued profession, 14 percent of last year’s communication graduates are still unemployed.

The research, carried out by the Higher Education Statistics Agency, revealed that the chances of students finding work post-graduation depend on their choice of subject, with zero unemployment rate for medicine and education (5%) to be the lowest, while communication has the second highest unemployment level, trailing not far behind computer science (17%).

There clearly aren’t enough comms jobs out there, but perhaps if businesses took the profession more seriously, communication students wouldn’t be in such a predicament and the future of communications would seem a little more optimistic.

Not only is this research particularly negative for the communication industry, but as a prospective university student it makes one wonder, “If highly skilled communication graduates can only manage to find jobs in places that don’t require their trained skills, eg. bartending, waitressing, working in a factory, then what’s the point of studying communications at university?”

So, what’s the cause for such statistics? Is it a case of supply over demand? Is it due to a decrease in the number of communication teams, or the scrapping of them all together as a result of the recession?

And if communication is a temporary casualty of the credit crunch, will these statistics potentially dissuade students choosing communication as a vocation, resulting in a lack of future communicators?

After all, let’s not forget that even the fields with the lowest unemployment figures require the help of both internal and external communications for many different aspects of their function. Take a look at how the World Café concept helped employees re-engage during the recession.

If you’re struggling to find a job in communications, check out Melcrum’s jobsite.

Do you think there aren't enough communication roles out there? I'd love to hear your thoughts.

Happy 40th IABC! 40 things I learned at World Congress 2010

By James Bennett, Head of Content, Melcrum

1. The breakdown of trust in leaders is at its lowest ever point and will deteriorate further. But now’s the time to swap dancing partners. Research has shown that middle and line managers are the most trusted people within organizations and it up to us to get on their side and work with them as effectively as possible to leverage that trust.
2. Social media was discussed in almost every conversation and session I had and attended. But talking simply isn’t enough. The feeling from the profession is that communicators are using the tools, but they don’t seem to be using them to reach a constructive end goal and with the overall company strategy in mind.
3. Employee volunteering works. Fact. It improves communication, morale and motivation, personal fulfillment and those companies that actively engage in volunteering are more profitable, experience reduced absenteeism and are winning the war for talent. Two-thirds of Gen Y employees at Deloitte, for example, said they would rather work for a company that encourages volunteering.
4. In the post-recession age we live and work in, always plan for the unthinkable.
5. Communication is a company’s most powerful ally in a crisis… just ask BP.
6. Empower your employees by allowing them to become product ambassadors. Let them get their hands dirty.
7. Accept the risks of allowing employees to express themselves freely and instead focus on the end goal and the rewards.
8. Have courage part one – don’t be afraid to get fired.
9. Have courage part two – don’t be afraid to tell the CEO he’s a terrible presenter and he “lip smacks” when on video.
10. Leaders are like tofu: clearly part of the meal, perhaps even the main source of nutrition, but the spice is provided by everyone around them.
11. Make it a habit – make engagement part of employees' everyday routines for it to pay dividends.
12. Follow the example of the Me to We philosophy and movement and create a culture of empathy, community, meaning and legacy.
13. Memorise and use this quote: “We can do no great things; only small things with great love.”
    Mother Theresa
14. Content in context is king and data is his queen.
15. Successful leaders should always lead with their ace and play the communication card.
16. Every leader has his blind spot – and it’s up to you to spot them.
17. All communicators are sales people.
18. Information is useless – your audience wants knowledge.
19. Get stuck in traffic – find opportunities to do nothing and when you do, do nothing but think.
20. Read your writing aloud – strive to thrill yourself with what you write.
21. Writing is like a window – it should allow your readers to see what would otherwise be invisible.
22. Make your writing transparent – help your readers see your ideas, not your words.
23. Outsource the gaps in your skill set.
24. Communication can release the best potent asset, the human asset.
25. Communication is the path to survival, recovery and growth and a company’s constant companion.
26. Communication is a leader’s lifeline to results.
27. Communicate the future – write a fake news article showing your employees what the future looks like and how you can all work together to achieve greatness.
28. Only 19% of global employees are looking to leave their current roles, but the engagement gap is widening – Towers Watson 2010 Workforce Study.
29. Employees don’t know where to turn in 2010. In a global study when Towers Watson asked people whether they would like a job for life with one company, follow their opportunities as they come along or only work for two or three employers during their careers, the data was split exactly three ways.
30. Employees are reliant on their managers and leaders but not confident in what they are doing for them.
31. Embrace uncertainty.
32. The recession has ended the “deal” between employer and employee.
33. The “new deal” is about knowing and enabling your workforce, customising their experience and planning for the future.
34. The “new deal” will take courage, innovation and discipline – leaders will play a vital role.
35. The Art of Innovation – Polarize people over issues they care about.
36. Never stop learning and continuously seek knowledge.
37. Act like an agency – make your "clients", a.k.a your employees, the stars.
38. Always seek to add value.
39. As a conference organizer always provide a reliable Wi-Fi connection… although IABC never fear, even Steve Jobs had issues at the launch of the iPhone 4.
40. Canadians say “eh”. Rather a lot.

The internal communicator: The must have for 2010

By James Bennett, Head of Content, Melcrum

It’s a new decade and a time for a new perspective, so what does 2010 hold for communicators?

The noughties started where the nineties left off. Blair and New Labour continued to drag a kicking and screaming Cool Britannia down the corridors of power with them until everyone realised just how uncool they all were, the age of spin was born but soon came to an embarrassing end when the media discovered politicians were using taxpayers money to buy moats and fund their husband’s adult entertainment habits, and to top it all off, no one managed to predict the swift collapse of global financial markets leading to worldwide recession, riots and mass redundancies. However, all these events have something in common: they’ve served to put communications and in particular internal communications, on the map.

Faddish public relations, misleading messages and messaging, and unethical leaders and the fraudulent and mismanaged companies they helped to run and ultimately ruin, along with Cool Britannia, spin, and corrupt corporate fat cats are over. The public, employees and shareholders are demanding results not just when it comes to a return on their own cash investments, but also when it comes to how they are being invested in themselves; in their votes, their careers and their livelihoods.

If you, as a company, don’t invest in your people and fail to maintain adequate levels of engagement, then you yourself will fail. This is something even the present Government has recognised in the MacLeod report that suggests that business and organizations function best when they make their employees’ “commitment, potential, creativity and capability central to their operation”. Having enough cash, and a sensible strategy, are clearly vital it adds, but “how people behave at work can make the crucial difference between business and operational success or failure”

A report by executive search company Watson Helsby out in the first week of the New Year that polled 250 corporate communications directors from some of the UK’s largest organizations, uncovered a series of key trends for 2010, the most evident of which found that two-thirds of respondents expect budgets to be cut back even further. This is hardly surprising following the downturn of the last 18 months, but as companies decide to shelve projects and/or cut back on agency spend, this will inevitably mean a return to investing internally both in companywide and internal communication talent. In leaner times when we, regardless of status or seniority, are demanding more efficiency for less outlay, turning to those existing internal stars who can drive engagement levels and at the same time show a direct correlation to rising profit levels will be a must have in 2010.

Never has the role of internal communicators been more important. Whose role is it to eliminate the charlatans from the profession; whose role is it to create honest, thought provoking, informative and ultimately engaging messages, branding and campaigns across organizations to ensure the well-being, happiness and longevity of millions of workers; and whose role - one of the most crucial areas in business in the next 10 years – is it to train, coach and advise leaders as firms enter one of the biggest make or break years since the second World War? I think you can guess the answer.

If you haven’t got a star individual or team in place already then go out and get one. But remember you won’t find them in the January sales.

SCM summit London 2009: The 10 communication commandments

By James Bennett, Managing Online Editor, Melcrum

Vivienne Huybrecht, general manager group communication at KBC Group gave a fascinating insight into her tumultuous year at one of Belgium’s largest financial institutions at this morning's 8th annual Melcrum Strategic Communication Management Summit at London’s Tower Hotel.

Vivienne wasn’t just in charge of internal communications, when the financial crisis hit KBC faster and harder than anyone could ever have predicted she was also charged with looking after every aspect of external communications and media relations – a huge task for anyone but somehow she managed it and survived. Mainly, she told me, because of her sporty nature and her motto of never giving up. Look out for a quick video interview in the next few days.

At the height of the storm she was receiving more than 100 phone calls from journalists day and night, saw KBC’s share price plummet and to top it all off her chief executive had a heart attack in May and had to stand down. It was sobering stuff and one of the best internal communication stories I have ever heard.

One of the best elements of the presentation was her 10 communication commandments during a crisis. Here they are:

1. Visible leadership – staff should be able to see the whites of their eyes
2. Be honest and open at all times
3. Tell it like it is
4. Be confident!
5. New CEO mantra – overperform and under promise
6. Be clear and keep it simple
7. Move fast and decisively
8. Make no promises about the future unless you can achieve them with absolute certainty
9. Use face-to-face communications as much as possible
10. Never give up

US firms favour internal comms as no.1 retention tool

By James Bennett, Managing Online Editor, Melcrum

Retaining key staff is the Holy Grail of maintaining productivity and profitability during an economic downturn, however retention often involves boosting salaries to keep- employees sweet – something that very much against the culture of almost every business that has suffered at the hands of the worst recession in 60 years.

That said a recent survey out today by workforce productivity improvement group i4cp found that 18% of high-performing organizations have already taken the step of increasing compensation levels to reduce turnover, compared to 7% of lower performers, while the same ratio of high performers (18%) and 24% of lower performers plan to implement pay raises in the next six to 12 months.

The highlight, however is that this doesn’t necessarily have an effect on staff retention, internal communications does, with the majority of US respondents (81%) naming the function as their favored method. Among higher market performers, a massive 91% pointed to communication as their top method of staunching turnover, compared to 71% of lower performers. An increased focus on talent management (77%) was the second-highest choice, with succession planning (59%) third.

Looking to the future and the eventual recovery that is slowly materializing, 70% of higher-performing companies said they were planning to stem the number of staff departures by increasing their focus on succession planning and talent management with leadership training being planned by 66% of higher-performing firms. Lower performers said they planned to focus first on talent management issues (71%), followed by 62% who plan to increase internal communication.

The study showed that higher performers are more likely to involve employees in the process, however an incredible 21% admitted they had never surveyed their employees about engagement issues, compared to a more credible 36% of lower performers. Both higher and lower-performing companies that conduct surveys are  most likely to survey their workers annually. More reassuringly, and based on the results of their most recent surveys, 49% of higher performers reported an increase in engagement, compared to a quarter (26%) of lower market performing organizations.

Six days away from largest gathering of internal communicators in Europe!

By James Bennett, Managing Online Editor, Melcrum

We’re now less than a week away from the largest gathering of internal communicators in Europe. A huge turn out of 187 of your peers, colleagues and competitors will be attending the Melcrum SCM Summit in London between 13th and 15th October 2009 listening to and debating with some of the brightest minds in the profession including Best Companies Partnership’s Wayne Clarke, Channel 4’s Undercover Boss Stephen Martin and a host of senior practitioners from some of Britain’s largest and most important companies, organisations and bodies such as HSBC, Vodafone and the Department for Business Innovation and Skills.

If you're not convinced listen to our exclusive pre-summit interviews with some of the events biggest names.

Despite the workshops on 13th October selling out faster than ever before, we have managed to persuade The Tower Hotel to increase its capacity to more than the 150 cap, so if you or one of the team still want to come along, all you need to call us now. You won’t be sorry.

Discussing how to rebuild trust, re-engage employees and increase performance has never been more important than today – an era where both budgets and resources have been slashed in greater quantity and numbers than ever before. And it is you, the internal communications profession, that has the responsibility to change that downwards spiral and bring the UK and the rest of the business world back ito prosperity once again. Never has your role been greater.

As our keynote speaker Wayne Clarke says: “Fifteen of the top 100 companies doubled their turnover and tripled their profit in five years.” And what seems to be consistent among these high-performing organisations? “They all make effective use of line managers to translate and communicate core company objectives, achieve high levels of employee engagement, and ultimately, impact the bottom line,” adds Clarke.

We look forward to seeing you next week. Don’t miss out, be there!

10 great reasons to attend this year’s SCM Summit London

By James Bennett, Managing Online Editor, Melcrum

If you haven't already, make sure you sign up the Melcrum's SCM Summit in London 13th to 15th October 2009! It's only 27 days away!!!

  Here are 10 great reasons why you should!

1. The economic recovery - looking to the future: find out why successful internal communicators are the key to leading us to economic recovery, how they can rebuild trust in leaders, re-engage employees and increase performance, and plan for 2010 by refreshing your ideas and knowledge and finding out what’s working for others.
2. Take the lead - find out how your peers are becoming trusted advisors to the leadership team, and coaching managers to be better communicators.
3. The best networking - rub shoulders with the best and brightest in the industry, the largest gathering of senior communicators in Europe this year.
4. Latest research - hear the latest trends and Melcrum research into internal communication best practice in rebuilding trust, change communication, social media and employee engagement.
5. International perspective - meet delegates from all over Europe, the US, Africa and Middle East and gain an international perspective.
6. Case studies: hear first-hand accounts from senior communicators at HSBC, ING, KBC Group, Network Rail, Westminster City Council, Asda, Volvo and Vodafone amongst others.
7. FIRST UK PRESENTATION!!! A CEO’s unique view of comms - don’t miss this year’s special guest Stephen Martin, star of Channel Four’s ‘Undercover Boss’ series and CEO of construction company Clugston Group as he recounts the lessons he took back to the boardroom after working on the frontline.
8. Ideas you can put into practice - you’ll come away with dozens of proven techniques and ideas you can use back at the office.
9. Get involved - the SCM Summit is more than a conference, it’s a chance for you to gain feedback, discuss your challenges and hear what’s working via roundtable sessions, panel discussions, and interactive workshops.
10. Communicators trust Melcrum to deliver - now in its 8th year, the SCM Summit is the one event you tell us you can’t afford to miss, even when your budgets have been cut.

We have three summits, one in Australia, that is in its first day today, one in the US in Chicago and of course London.

Follow us at all three summits on Twitter via the following hashtags:

Australia: #scmau
United States: #scmus
United Kingdom: #scmuk

What's next for journalism?

By Sona Hathi, Assistant Editor, Melcrum

Google’s Director of Communication and International Affairs and former Newsnight Editor, Peter Barron was one of three panelists at a debate this week on the future of journalism, hosted by reputation management firm Fishburn Hedges, in their London office. Barron was joined by Paul Murphy, founding editor of the FT’s financial blog FT Alphaville and former financial editor of UK newspaper The Guardian, along with “probably the most London-obsessed person in the world”, Matt Brown, editor of Londonist.com and a prolific science blogger.

Having been a newspaper journalist for over 20 years, Murphy’s in a good place to make comparisons between the industry’s “traditional” processes and it’s new, faster, internet reliant way of working, and guess what? He says he’d never go back. He recalls his old working routine; to paraphrase: a late start, coffee, daily morning conference, a bit of politicking, a long lunch till 3pm, write his daily 800 word column, a bit more poiliticking and then leave for the pub at around 5pm. Today, he says, by lunchtime he has usually produced three times more than he used to in a whole day. “Young journalists don’t think that’s unusual,” he says. “Blogging and online publishing is light weight, fast, simple and straightforward, the freedom that you get with it is most fun. I’d never go back to the old ways!”

Interesting, as I sit among the audience wishing I’d been a journalist back when – as Peter Barron put it – “they were an elite group with huge amounts of money”.

All panelists agreed that the relationship between bloggers and journalists was an interesting, but unclear one – a sort of love-hate, can’t-live-with-can’t-live-without-each-other relationship. Newspapers do feel threatened by bloggers, they’re breaking news and uncovering truths sooner and for free, and when newspapers get something wrong, bloggers are quick to correct and criticize – potentially damaging the paper’s credibility. But journalists need bloggers. They’ve long looked to the man on the street for news, and bloggers are precisely that, the men (and women) on the street, only more web savvy and perhaps a little more conscious of accuracy. For the best bloggers pride themselves on being credible. We all know that one mistake can prompt a flood of negative comments which means a blog may never again appear in the URL history of a browser again, not so much of a big deal, a blog can be created again, for free, under a new alias, whereas a newspaper’s damaged credibility can lead to a loss of readers – not ideal in today’s economic climate. So who’s actually got more power? Bloggers or journalists?

The discussion went on to the monetization models of online content. Newspapers shouldn’t have to give away free content, but many have already had a negative experience of putting up pay walls on previously free articles, causing an uproar among readers. In order to justify charging for online content, it must be desirable and distinctive. Brown pointed out that if newspapers started charging for their online content it would, in fact, kill off a lot of bloggers as they rely so heavily on free content from the daily national’s websites to produce their content. And even if blogs are breaking stories sooner, do people really notice before it’s out on the front page of the dailies? He predicted that things may "balance out" in the long run.

The panelists predicted polarization of content. Murphy envisages a handful of global media groups that will produce everything for free, but will have international hold of all news, he sees these groups being the BBC, CNN, Reuters of the media world. The next group down will be the specialists, people/publications who provide specialist information for specific topic areas. And finally, we’ll have business publishers who will produce tailor made, paid for content to corporations.

Although Barron believes the future’s still bright for journalism, both in the traditional sense, (take for example The Telegraph’s MP expenses scoop), and the new age, citizen journalism sense, (like the coverage of the Iranian elections on Twitter), there are still concerns about the future. According to Murphy, newspapers are only seeing the very beginning of the structural change that is to come.

Communication professionals have already experienced a shift in the way employees want to receive business messages, as a result of a change in how they access mainstream news. Even more worryingly, employees are talking more and more about their companies on the internet, in the blogosphere, and leaving comments on mainstream news sites, to the extent that corporate communicators are having to devise strategies specifically to ensure that business messages are heard inside the organization first, forcing leaders to become more transparent. Matt Brown said PRs are less in demand. They're just not used in the way they were before. "We might call a press office out of courtesy to say that we've published a story, but gone are the days of calling the press office before anyone else for vital information."

With all this in mind, the question for us is, what's next for communicators? Will we, like our friends in PR, become less in demand as the curtain falls, transparency is everywhere and employees deem information that comes from their peers more trustworthy than that which comes from corporate communications and senior leaders?

The portable plinth: the answer to invisible execs

By James Bennett, Managing Online Editor, Melcrum

Just over three hours ago sculptor Anthony Gormley’s One and Other “human statue” project got underway in London’s Trafalgar Square.

The premise of the live art experiment is simple. The fourth plinth, built in 1841 was originally intended for an equestrian statue but has lain empty over the years with only a collection of sporadic exhibits adorning the northern most corner of the square.

Gormley’s project, however has given the public their opportunity to populate the plinth, quite literally, and, in London mayor Boris Johnson’s words, to “democratise art”. Every hour, on the hour, a different person will stand high on the large stone slab and demonstrate their ‘art’. Rachel Wardell, 35, was the first "living statue" to take part at 9am this morning.

Wardell was followed at 10am by Jason Clark, a 41-year-old nurse from Brighton. Other people to take to the stage include Heather Pringle who will be celebrating her 20th birthday on the plinth, while the oldest among July's 615 participants is pensioner Gwynneth Pedler, 83, from Oxford, who plans to signal with semaphore flags. Luckily the river Thames is no longer used by large cargo carrying vessels so Gwynneth can safely wave in peace at the crowd of three watching, rather than directing a cruise liner into the London Eye.

But this got me thinking about how this could work in the corporate world. My first instinct was that the plinth would be the ideal platform for a modern day version of the stocks where disgraced or perhaps invisible executives would be individually winched onto the plinth and paraded in front of a jeering, salivating, recession-riddled public. Free packs of sharpened darts would be handed out 25 feet from a trembling, pinstriped pariah (to give him a fighting chance) and a dance of the darts would then ensue. His only protection would be a moth eaten annual report, while the only escape route would be to leap off the plinth onto the solid concrete below, risking severe injury and potentially crawling away into the distance only to be hit by an on coming red double decker London bus.

The other, far less gladiatorial option, would be for internal communicators to use this idea at company meetings or workshops where a portable replica plinth would be transported around the country for various internal events. This would then be used by executives to stand on for a minimum of an hour, giving passing employees the opportunity to ask their superiors questions. No darts or sharp objects allowed. There would naturally be no hiding place or thankfully no buses. The plinth would be too high to jump from, there would be no ladders to help you clamber down, the only thing you can do is to face the music and be give an honest answer. Don’t get me wrong. This would not a form of punishment or some kind of corporate copycat David Blaine type stunt, it would merely act as an open air forum where you would give an influential company figure the opportunity to literally stand up and be counted. It would take a brave man or woman to do it but, as with Gormley’s One and Other project, it would instantly democratise your business and give employees and employers the chance to get to know each other better.

If you are listening Mr Gormley, once the project is over, please give me a call so we can patent the idea. Give it six months and trust me, there will be plinths in company car parks across Britain. No darts I promise.

Best job in the world campaign signs up for Oz SCM

By James Bennett, Managing Online Editor, Melcrum

It’s what many of us strive for all our working lives, need to fulfill our ambitions, and hope to secure so that one day we can tell our children that we were there. No, not a change to dress up as a clown and compete on Deal or No Deal, I’m talking about getting the job of your dreams.

It happened to one British man last month, who from a pool of 34,000 hopeful global applicants, won the opportunity of a lifetime. Branded and marketed as ‘the best job in the world’, Ben Southall, a 34 year-old charity fundraiser from Petersfield in Hampshire, became the new caretaker of an Australian tropical island. Sound idyllic? Well it gets even better. His six-month £73,500 (AUS$110,000) contract includes a three-bedroom beach home, a swimming pool and golf cart, while his job description is to simply explore the islands of the Great Barrier Reef, swim, snorkel, make friends with the locals and generally enjoy the tropical Queensland climate and lifestyle. He will, however be expected to do some work, and in the true spirit of the Web 2.0 age we live in, will report back to Tourism Queensland (TQ) and the world via blogs, a photo diary, video updates and interviews. And this is where the business brains at TQ have come into their own.

Amid the worldwide recession tourism in Oz has fallen downhill faster than a jet propelled Koala on roller skates but this campaign has already generated massive amounts of publicity, PR and interest all around the world, and all for very little expenditure. And from an internal communications point of view it has served as a vital tool to boost employee engagement within the organisation.

More importantly, Tourism Queensland has agreed to speak about its great success story at our SCM Summit Australia on 15th to 17th September 2009 in Sydney.

In the session later in the year you’ll hear about:

• How the campaign spawned around 200,000 blogs, 43,000 news stories and over AUS$120 million worth of publicity.
• How the campaign was developed.
• How social media channels were used to spark global interest.
• How external interest was used to create engagement and enthusiasm inside the organisation.
• How Tourism Queensland has re-energised its culture and brand.
• How to harness successful brand initiatives to drive employee engagement.
• How to make the most of social media tools and channels.
• How to equip senior leaders to manage intense media interest and act as brand ambassadors.

Are you working on a groundbreaking campaign, if so we want to know? And what, in your opinion have been the best employee engagement campaigns of recent years? Let me know by either replying to this post, by emailing me at james.bennett@melcrum.com or by Twittering to @Melcrum