PR Week has this week run a story about the government’s communications chief wanting to recruit 100 “digital natives” and enforce the take-up of digital skills.
Alex Aiken, the executive director of government communications hopes that these 100 new employees will bring in new digital expertise to the service. Aiken also intends to enforce a new era of digital learning internally and existing staff will have to learn digital skills as part of their ongoing professional development and will be held back for promotion if they refuse to learn new skills.
Aiken hopes to recruit his 100 new digital staff over the next few months in posts such as information officers and assistant information officers and claims that this recruitment drive will bring a ‘new generation of communicators’ into the system.
This move makes complete sense for the government’s communication team as social media has become such an integral channel of communication. The government in particular needs to ensure its messages reach an enormous demographic so Twitter, video and many other communication platforms all need to be used as a tool for communication in order to reach the widest possible audience.
Technology is so integrated in everyday life that it’s hard to remember what the world looked like before our multi-device, constant connectivity became a reality, so Aiken should be applauded for doing his bit to drag government comms into the 21st century.
