Your opportunity to participate in the CIPR State of the Profession survey
1,000 people have participated in the CIPR's annual #StateofPR survey. The CIPR is keen to double the sample size. Please consider getting involved.
The CIPR State of Profession is underway. It aims to characterise public relations in the UK and spotlight issues and opportunities. The annual report will be published in February 2018.
It’s the largest initiative of its kind. In previous years the report has highlighted earnings, diversity, gender pay and management reporting.
I spoke to the CIPR’s Koray Camgoz to find out more.
#1 What is the State of the Profession survey?
It’s little bit like the PR industry’s MOT. Here's the 2017 report.
It's an annual benchmarking study looking at the trends, issues and opportunities facing public relations. Having run for almost a decade, it’s the established authority on public relations data, covering everything from salaries and skills, to diversity and recruitment.
#2 What were the key issues spotlighted by the survey last year?
We saw a big improvement in attitudes to diversity, but that didn’t translate to a growth in the number of practitioners from diverse backgrounds.
Last year’s study found that 91% of industry practitioners are white. For an industry largely based in London, that’s simply not acceptable. And given the advantages diversity brings to performance, it’s bad for business.
We also track the way people spend their time. That’s critical in public relations because the boundaries of our practice aren’t always clearly defined.
The table shows how respondents spend their time and the column on the right shows how that changed from the previous year. Strategic planning, photo and video creation and public affairs saw last year’s biggest rises.
#3 How would you characterise the UK public relations profession?
It’s an industry undergoing professionalisation. Each year, more practitioners sign up to Codes of Conduct and commit to continuing professional development. As a result, standards are rising and more businesses are seeing the value of strategic public relations.
#4 Have there been any recurring trends in the past five years?
The gender pay gap is a concerning reoccurring trend. The average difference between male and female earnings is £12,316. However, to understand how gender truly impacts salary, we undertake comprehensive regression analyses to consider other influencing factors such as seniority, or prevalence of part-time work.
These calculations reveal that the true gender pay gap in public relations is £5,784. Depressingly, that means gender is the third most likely factor to influence your public relations salary, behind seniority and length of industry service.
The data also shows that only 5% of women earned over £100,000, compared to 11% of men. The conversation around gender pay in society is growing louder and by April next year, all organisations with more than 250 employees will be required to publish their gender pay data. It will be interesting to see whether wider interest in gender pay has had an impact on this year’s figures.
#5 What are you hoping to discover this year?
This year we’re working with Chalkstream for the first time. We’ll be mapping the results against the new national data on the UK’s public relations population, so we’ll be able to see more clearly what the findings mean for the industry as a whole.
We’ve also included new questions to identify skills shortages so we can measure up what the industry needs versus what practitioners are offering. Last year we linked increased salary earnings to industry qualifications for the first time, so we look forward to exploring that in more detail too.
#6 How can practitioners get involved?
- Complete the survey: It takes between 10 and 15 mins to complete. We’re donating 50p for each response to charity and there’s also a chance to win an iPad.
- Share the survey: Email it to colleagues, share it on social using #StateofPR and help us deliver a crystal clear picture of public relations in 2017.
- Look out for the findings; The report drops in February next year. If you have any questions, please email me [email protected]
