Many resumes pass through the e-mail inboxes at Heyman Associates Inc., a leading executive search firm that hunts down mid-level professionals to those in the "C" suite. The company has noticed a trend emerging during the past year or so that is affecting all corporate communications departments, agencies and non-profits: a conspicuous lack of mid-level communications professionals.
Why is this happening?
It all began with the tech bust.
"Public relations agencies took such a tremendous hit at the end of 2000 into 2001," said Maryanne Rainone, senior vice president and managing director at Heyman Associates. "Agencies started losing accounts and business went away. They stopped hiring interns and entry-level account executives. They also had to down-size, so they let people go who may have started in 1999 and 2000 and then did not hire entry-level people for a while. As a result, all of these potential communications pros had to find jobs in other disciplines.
"So now here we are, six or seven years down the road, and we are seeing a big gap at the account supervisor level at PR agencies. We are seeing the same in the manager level in corporate, non-profit and education communications departments as well."
In fact, a global survey of PR leaders conducted earlier this year by The Holmes Report found that the ability to attract and retain top talent is a No. 1 concern for public relations agency principals around the world. In a series of electronic roundtable discussions hosted by The Holmes Report, a panel of experts including company head Bill Heyman addressed this issue and how it is affected by the mid-level gap.
Clients are finding creative ways to address this shortage, including: keeping people in mid-level positions longer but giving them broader responsibilities so they can continue to grow; promoting promising people into the mid-range sooner; and branching out to seek professionals from other industries. Each of these options brings its own benefits and challenges.
What to do about this problem is certainly a topic worthy of further debate; however, the important starting point is to acknowledge and address that this mid-level gap is present, and that it will continue to affect the state of communications staffing and what corporate communications departments and senior agency positions will look like in the future. To prevent a worsening trend, hiring managers should continue to have an open dialogue around the issue and to seek more creative solutions to retain and develop their existing staff, and to attract new talent.
Why is this happening?
It all began with the tech bust.
"Public relations agencies took such a tremendous hit at the end of 2000 into 2001," said Maryanne Rainone, senior vice president and managing director at Heyman Associates. "Agencies started losing accounts and business went away. They stopped hiring interns and entry-level account executives. They also had to down-size, so they let people go who may have started in 1999 and 2000 and then did not hire entry-level people for a while. As a result, all of these potential communications pros had to find jobs in other disciplines.
"So now here we are, six or seven years down the road, and we are seeing a big gap at the account supervisor level at PR agencies. We are seeing the same in the manager level in corporate, non-profit and education communications departments as well."
In fact, a global survey of PR leaders conducted earlier this year by The Holmes Report found that the ability to attract and retain top talent is a No. 1 concern for public relations agency principals around the world. In a series of electronic roundtable discussions hosted by The Holmes Report, a panel of experts including company head Bill Heyman addressed this issue and how it is affected by the mid-level gap.
Clients are finding creative ways to address this shortage, including: keeping people in mid-level positions longer but giving them broader responsibilities so they can continue to grow; promoting promising people into the mid-range sooner; and branching out to seek professionals from other industries. Each of these options brings its own benefits and challenges.
What to do about this problem is certainly a topic worthy of further debate; however, the important starting point is to acknowledge and address that this mid-level gap is present, and that it will continue to affect the state of communications staffing and what corporate communications departments and senior agency positions will look like in the future. To prevent a worsening trend, hiring managers should continue to have an open dialogue around the issue and to seek more creative solutions to retain and develop their existing staff, and to attract new talent.
