PR is a profession of survey lovers, and thanks to the CIPR’s annual research report that we mentioned on a recent blog, we even like to review our own industry. Every year, the State of the Profession Report gathers the statistics and views from a cross-section of PR pros. Published recently, 2015’s report gave us a few things to think about and some interesting insights.
The sisters of PR will be disappointed with the on-going gender pay gap. The report found that on average, women earn £8,483 less than men on the same level even when different factors, such as ‘length of service’ is taken into account. This means that women are earning £8,483 less than men for no other reason than their gender. Pretty discouraging for a profession that’s 64% female.
As a B2B PR agency in the North West, we were keen to see how us northerners compare to the rest of the profession. The North of England came second in average salary ranking, with London beating us by over £10k. But we’ll be sure to see if this changes after investment in the North West comes into fruition. Will the boost to our economy mean a more lucrative PR scene?
PR can only be successful if it evolves, so it’s no surprise that the CIPR report looks at future challenges. It was found that the biggest cause of anxiety was a changing social and digital landscape. However, a different part of the report showed that conventional aspects of PR are still valued. Traditional writing skills were found to be the most sought-after trait when interviewing junior candidates. An article in PR Daily spoke about the importance of the written word in PR, claiming that while digital and social media content may be in vogue, PR still requires effective written content. Whether it’s published online or in print, writing requires the same kind of skills, and the web has meant that a broader range of writing skills are now required.
True to form, PR will develop over the next year. We’ll look out for 2016’s report to see how the trends of this year compare.
Alex Brown has just started his career at Skout PR and will be a regular contributor to the Skout blog.
