Mandy for President

I’m honoured to have been voted in as CIPR President elect for 2020 as noted here.

One of the things I’m really passionate about is sharing best practice from the public sector with PR practitioners working in all sectors – public, private and voluntary.

Behaviour Change is one area where my CIPR committee, which represents public sector PR people, has focused on, particularly how organisations can benefit from low cost nudges to help their customers and residents make better decisions.

We’ve already held one Behaviour Change workshop – and will be running another event later on this year to formally launch a Behaviour Change network.

My vision for CIPR is all about offering more opportunities for our members to learn and develop online, as well as face-to-face. Our membership is spread out all over the UK, so we need a mix of online and offline activities to give the best possible value.

That’s why we’ve set-up a Facebook Group to share best-practice on behavioural insights and nudge theory. We will be looking at how small changes to messages can have a big impact on people’s behaviour.

In practice, this can help all organisations - across all sectors and of all sizes - with take-up in services and encourage people to change their behaviours without directly instructing them to do so.

The network will also provide a space for comms people to share case studies. We can see what behaviour change techniques have worked well and where there’s room for improvement.

Do join the group, ask questions and learn from other comms professionals.

I am one of a small group of people who are both Chartered Marketers and Chartered PRs. I’ve also managed large interdisciplinary teams, so have first-hand experience of the vital role marcomms plays, as part of a strategic management function that drives results. I understand the pressures and challenges you face.

Value of marcomms: content and conversations

In the public sector and in many agencies an integrated approach to PR and marketing is common. Practitioners work across media relations, public affairs, behaviour change campaigns, digital, SEO and customer relations. The Paid, Earned, Shared and Owned (PESO) model provides a blueprint for activity.

Marcomms has never been as critical to organisations in providing the content that drives conversation offline and online as it now. The work you do is critical in building organisational trust and encouraging advocacy through the use of behavioural insights, providing the campaign content to get people to know, feel and do.

Senior management can clearly see the return on investment (ROI) from sales or fundraising. It’s why marcomms must own the commercial value of reputation and brand and be able to show the contribution marcomms makes through setting SMART objectives, using online tracking to link content to action and being able to monetise that contribution within Google Analytics.

Opportunity and threat of automation and AI on marcomms

Artificial Intelligence has the potential to transform marcomms. Already a wide range of tools both paid for and free are available to automate regular online activities. Sophisticated dashboards can be built in Google Analytics to track the contribution of marcomms to ROI. These tools can be used to assess social sentiment, identify keywords and tags and schedule activity.

True AI will do far more. It will be able to undertake many of the tactical activities currently provided by practitioners from tracking impact to number crunching the stats, from analysing data to managing customer relations. This will enable Marcomms professionals to focus on more strategic activities. That is exciting but may be a concern as change can be unsettling. We need to support our practitioners to make that transition.

There are three key ways I would support marcomms practitioners:

1. Champion the strategic role marcomms plays in delivering economic value.

2. Provide affordable accessible training and qualifications, such as the new Specialist Diploma in Digital and wider business training to develop strategic skills.

3. Provide greater support to the sectoral groups and volunteers, as well as regional, national and international, so there are more opportunities to learn and network where people live and at convenient times recognising busy lives.

Lobbying is an area of work where the public perception of PR and the reality are perhaps most divergent.

In my experience the PA professionals I have met through CIPR have been the practitioners most aware and sensitive to ethical dilemmas. We need to develop better understanding of PA within CIPR, the industry and the wider public.

I currently Chair the CIPR Policy committee and have sat on it for many years. I have been involved with the work to have our own voluntary register of lobbyists and support the move to transparency in lobbying.

When I worked in-house in local government I was responsible for lobbying activity around issues such as the structure of local government, funding settlements and infrastructure investment.

I am aware of the additional skill sets that PA professionals have in addition to those of everyday PR such as the ability to critically analyse very technical information and data and turn it into intelligent briefing materials. We have a huge amount to learn from PA colleagues about stakeholder management and I’d like to highlight the work more.

I also support the idea of having Chartered assessment days for our specialisms where the case study materials explore the key areas of strategic thought, ethics and leadership but are focused on the specialism. This would allow practitioners to show their skills and experience more readily.

I also feel that we need to beef up the CIPR’s training offer in PA. I was recently looking for a strategic PA course and couldn’t really find anything that met my needs. This is an area where the views of the CIPR PA group could be instrumental in developing our offer to meet both the needs of senior PR practitioners for whom PA is part of their work and for those where it is their full time focus.

I welcomed the important piece of work the CIPR PA group conducted on horizon scanning. It will be really helpful for CIPR in developing its own strategy 2020-2024 which Board and Council are working on as well as an aide for PR leaders to develop discussions with their teams and organisations.

The concerns over polarisation and echo chambers are well made. We’ve seen it particularly with the increasingly fractious debate over Brexit. As a trainer in social media I am always at pains to point out the dangers these present.

The potential for inherent biases to be built into AI systems is well highlighted and is particularly critical to governmental institutions as the recent issue over bail bond AI in the US showed which after critical pressure from leading thinkers was suspended. Big data and it’s potential for both good by highlighting patterns and correlations not previously seen and bad from wilful misuse was well identified.

The governmental and economic challenges arising from Brexit, political and financial market instability were well made and should be at the forefront of PR leaders in the advice they give to clients and organisations.

The horizon scan is a great piece of work and the accessible presentation in a graphic was particularly well executed.

Freelancers are a key community of PR professionals who often get overlooked.

Here I have outlined what I would do for freelancers.I have a strong perspective on the needs of freelancers within the CIPR, running my own business for the last 8 years and I really value my PR network.

I get the pressures of juggling running a business alongside a host of other commitments. The need to be developing a pipeline of work, pitching and winning business, delivering the goods and then at weekends/evenings tackling billing, accounts, VAT and our own PR.

As CIPR Chair of the Local Public Services group and Policy committees I have supported the work of Dominic Ridley-Moy who jointly leads the CIPR’s Independent Practitioner Network. This includes developing advice for freelancers impacted by IR35 if the government extends this tax provision from public sector into the private and charity sectors in 2020.

I know that the freelance communities are very strong in the SW, where I am based, and many areas outside London. This is one of the reasons I have been so passionate about CIPR needing to deliver online structured learning and workshops in the regions.I interviewed many other freelancers before standing for election. 

People really value the chance to network with colleagues locally and online. Freelancing can be lonely – 70% of those who replied to CIPR’s Independents’ Survey in 2018 work from home.

Many are also based outside of London - 77% of those who replied to the survey - and can’t always travel to events in London. Another key factor is length of time independents have been working in PR; a large proportion for more than 20 years and often they want different types of development.

The key to delivering for freelancers is greater support for the CIPR regional, national and sectoral groups. 

To build a strong sustainable institute we have to be recognised for giving great value and be member-led.

How we go about this is important. In the 21C I have a vision to be a modern, diverse and inclusive membership body. One where practitioners are celebrated and supported no matter their age, social background, industry sector, type of role or where they are based.

We have taken great strides forward in recent years to deliver good value such as introducing Influence magazine, holding a national conference, creating a more effective Chartership process.

All are really important and I would build on them by strengthening our research capability and giving greater support to our volunteers

But we need continually strive to do better. I don’t intend to sit back and drift in the name of continuity.

That’s why I am committed to modernising our institute.

I don’t shy away from what I hear when I talk with those who aren’t members but should be, those who were members but let their membership lapse and those who annually reflect on whether membership provides good value for money.

Non members

When I talk to people who don’t join the reason often cited is the entry cost appears high, they can’t see clearly what they get and they don’t see other people like themselves.

Drop the joining fee, improve our website and give more profile to the talented people we have who are not white, middle class and middle aged. And yes, I do know I score 2 out of 3 on that one.

Lapsed members

These people fall in two groups. They were members while studying but then didn’t continue because the pay in their first job was low or they are senior practitioners whose job is strategic and encompasses a broader span and they don’t see enough to grab them.

Let’s fix this.

Give a discount on membership for those whose earnings fall below a threshold. This helps those in their first role, those working part time, those whose pay can be subject to discrimination (women, people with disabilities, BAME and those from disadvantaged backgrounds) and those who have scaled back work because of caring responsibilities.

Second. Work with other institutes to create a wider package of learning and events for senior practitioners through reciprocal arrangements and give these people (who are often agency owners in the regions) more opportunities to meet. An example here is the work done by the CIPR NE group Senior Leaders Forum.

Value for money

And lastly, there are those who reflect on value for money every year when they renew. This is where I hear people say they want more online learning, more local training and more local opportunities to engage.

I’ve talked about how we tackle this in my blogs on Training and Volunteers.

We can do all this if we have the will to challenge, speak up, modernise and become an exciting place for practitioners to be.

The volunteers are the lifeblood of the CIPR. Over 200 of them work on the regional, national and sectoral groups as well as those who give up their time to sit on panels, judging for Excellence, Sector and Pride awards and standing to be elected to Council and Board.

Over my nine years volunteering with CIPR I’ve done pretty much every role. I think it gives me a unique perspective on how to support volunteers.

I want to build on the work done by Sarah Pinch, Sarah Waddington and Emma Leech to recognise our volunteers. There is still a huge amount more we can do. President elect Jenni Field has some great thoughts on this.

In my view the balance of resources and rewards allocated to group activities needs to be reset. Last year less than 1%* of the overall CIPR budget was spent to support our groups and their volunteers. I want to redress this and I want to give the volunteers more say in how activities are delivered in their region, nation, sector or country.

Volunteering is a two way street. It has to be win:win for the volunteer and the organisation.

My win has been the amazingly talented other volunteers I’ve met. However I would guess for the last five years I’ve averaged 0.5 to 1 days a week on committees, speaking at events, judging awards, promoting CIPR online. It is a big commitment.

I’ve been lucky that for most of those years I have run my own business which gives me greater flexibility to work while travelling across the UK and around how I organise my time. But I also know when I was working in-house the commitment it takes after a long day at work to sit down at a screen at 9pm to start working on committee activities.

I salute every single one of our volunteers many of whom have been involved for far longer than I.

To keep people engaged there needs to be:

- strong leadership and strategic narrative

- great communication within the organisation/structure

- people need to feel listened to, trusted and recognised

.. and they need to have development opportunities

Volunteers especially those on regional and sectoral groups need greater recognition for the work they do. I would showcase them in a campaign during volunteering week and give them a higher profile in mail shots and online. This would have the dual benefit of saying thank you and encouraging more people to get involved.

We also need to help our volunteers develop wider business skills that complement their superb PR skills so more support around financial management, forward planning, scenario planning, research and evaluation.

This helps volunteers especially those earlier on in their careers become even more valuable to existing employers and clients and make greater strategic impact as well as driving forward CIPR. We have the talent among our Fellows and Chartered to deliver this.

If you like my vision for a modernised CIPR then vote Mandy when voting opens on 2 September.

Update 26 Aug. This note provides more detail on the figures quoted.

Published accounts for 2018 show Group income as £137,192 - which includes revenue and sponsorship generated locally from events and conferences run by the Groups.

Expenditure was £193,614 - leading to a net deficit for the Groups of £56,422. Reading the 2018 Balance Sheet shows that the deficit was covered by reducing the reserves held by the Groups, not the amount allocated by HQ to fund group activity

Exciting new fund to nurture talent

The need for strategy to be based on evidence and insight is a perennial topic with clients and when delivering training.

CIPR as part of its Royal Charter has a duty to undertake research and publish it for the benefit of the PR industry.

Yet, we have no specific fund to do this and no formal process. I’d like to introduce one.

Sometimes through the commitment and leadership of individuals we produce ground breaking work such as that on Artificial Intelligence.

Under the chairmanship of Wendy Moran, Manchester Metropolitan University, the CIPR LPS group engaged with over 200 public sector communicators via focus groups and depth interviews to produce our Influence for Impact Report. I was delighted to be part of that team conducting focus groups in Exeter and Bristol with Tim Borrett.

However, a lot of the work CIPR produces are best practice or skills guides. This is really important in helping practitioners in their day to day but it is generally not research which moves the industry forward.

This new fund would be an exciting place to nurture talent and build a more inclusive industry by allowing those from diverse backgrounds to access seed funding for research.

We will invite proposals or pitches once a year. The whole process to be transparent with proposals published and a panel meeting to award small grants.

This isn’t going to fund the type of research already being conducted by some of our leading academics in Universities. That is already well served, although I would welcome greater promotion through the CIPR channels and the website.

This fund will research specific topics that are relevant to the PR industry and show how PR delivers value. It will also seek to build on primary data such as the CIPR State of the Profession.

Examples of work might include research to show how effective reputation management increases brand value or the economic value of behaviour change campaigns in the public sector.

Applications will be open to any CIPR member.