Is the communications industry fit for the future?

The dpa subsidiary News Aktuell, together with Faktenkontor, asked PR professionals from companies and agencies how they assess their professional field in the context of permanent change and in which areas there is a need for improvement.

Seven out of ten PR professionals believe that they will still be attractive to their employers in five years' time. However, the communications industry is still a long way from true equality in the executive ranks. Only one in six employees at a media outlet reports a gender balance among managers.

"In view of advancing digitalization and globalization, our working world is undergoing a multi-layered structural change - and that even before the Corona pandemic. We need to find new ways of dealing with permanent change," says Eljub Ramic, Managing Director of News Aktuell Switzerland, about the motivations behind this year's trend report and how the results fit in against the backdrop of the pandemic. "Communicators have a central role to play in this regard. After all, they mediate and accompany change and are also those affected themselves. That's why we asked communications professionals, among other things, how they assess their professional field in the context of a constantly changing world of work, how advanced digital technologies and new forms of work actually are, and what skills they need for the future."

Lack of resources as a brake on digitization

Digital technologies are rather or even very important for the daily work of almost all communications professionals (90 percent). But there is still a lack of implementation. Although digital transformation is well advanced at half of the companies and agencies (50 percent), it is still not very advanced at the other half (50 percent). The main obstacles to change are a lack of time in day-to-day business (50 percent), a lack of budget (45 percent), but also outdated ways of thinking in management (27 percent).

Messenger services are popular

When it comes to the actual use of digital technologies, messenger services are way out in front. Well over half of communications professionals already make intensive use of WhatsApp, Skype and the like (57 percent). SEO software (54 percent) and collaboration (52 percent) as well as digital measurement and analysis tools (51 percent) have also become established in everyday life.

New forms of work are booming

The new forms of work associated with digitization are already well advanced in the industry. An overwhelming majority of PR professionals have the option of working from home (90 percent) or part-time (89 percent) and have the flexibility to schedule their work (83 percent). In addition, two-thirds of communicators say they already work in flat hierarchies (68 percent).

Increasing importance of change and internal communication

Communications support for change processes already plays a major role in companies today. Well over half of the PR experts state that change communication and internal communication are currently important in their company or for their customers (63 percent). Nevertheless, a very large majority of respondents agree that these two disciplines will become even more important in the future and would therefore like to see them intensified. A full 91 percent are in favor of a strong or very strong role for internal communications in the future, and 85 percent believe that change communications will become more important.

Too often, however, implementation fails due to a lack of interaction and integration as well as a lack of dialog. The respondents complain most that managers do not set an example of change enough (52 percent) and do not involve their employees sufficiently in change processes (51 percent). Another hurdle for change communication, in the view of the PR experts, is the lack of dialog: 48 percent criticize that change communication is still too often focused on "sending" and too little on "dialog.

Strong change of the communication job 

Almost two-thirds of PR professionals predict that their jobs will change significantly within the next decade (61 percent). However, very few fear losing their jobs (three percent). The vast majority of PR practitioners are optimistic about the future: seven out of ten communicators surveyed think they will completely or mostly meet the demands of the communications job in five years' time (72 percent).

PR armor of the future: digital competence and adaptability

Whereas in the present, classic specialist skills such as copywriting skills, a strategic and conceptual approach, and broad general knowledge play a very important role, in the future, skills with technical demands will take on an ever greater significance. According to the respondents, producing multi-media content in particular will become much more important in the next five years (31 percent), but data-driven measurement and analysis will also become much more important (28 percent). Accordingly, an overwhelming majority of respondents believe that digital competence will be just as important as social, technical and methodological competence in five years' time (73 percent).

Personal responsibility in the job is the most important prerequisite for satisfaction

When it comes to personal satisfaction and the meaningfulness of their own work, communicators value personal responsibility and self-determination above all. Even ahead of work-life balance (60 percent) and trust in managers (55 percent), this aspect is rated as very important by respondents (61 percent).

Team before boss: New leadership on a good path

When it comes to teamwork, the communications industry is already well positioned. In more than half of the media outlets and agencies surveyed, PR leaders currently already place a great deal of trust in their employees (55 percent) and promote collaboration, networking and communication (51 percent). However, only just under one in three new leaders in the industry currently lead democratically (31 percent), actively develop visions (29 percent) or accompany, steer and exemplify change within the team (29 percent).

Gender Equality: Flexibilization, Baby Leave and Wage Transparency

A balanced gender ratio at management level is now reported by more than one in three PR agencies (36 percent), but male managers continue to dominate in the media departments. Only one in six PR professionals from a company states a balanced ratio (17 percent).

In order to promote the professional development of the genders equally, companies and agencies currently offer above all flexibility instruments such as part-time work (89 percent), home office (88 percent) or flexible working hours (73 percent). By contrast, paternity leave for fathers in management positions has hardly been promoted to date. Only one in six employers actively encourages male executives to take baby leave and thus indirectly relieve the burden on women (16 percent).

Even less established in practice is the disclosure of salaries (8 percent). Accordingly, there is a great need to catch up on these two aspects: First on the wish list of communications professionals is the promotion of parental leave for male executives (37 percent), second a transparent salary structure on the part of their employer, but also the possibility of job sharing at management level (29 percent each).

Nevertheless, a part-time position is currently the number one career killer for most respondents, as 88 percent of female and 91 percent of male respondents believe that management positions in communications are still predominantly advertised as full-time positions and, as a consequence, are usually filled by men.

More results

• Only five percent currently use AI for writing media releases and other texts. Only one in ten respondents plans to use AI for copywriting in the future (8 percent).
• In each case, an overwhelming majority of respondents say that they cannot do their work without digital technologies (90 percent) and that the associated new forms of work motivate them (87 percent) and make their work more productive (77 percent). Nevertheless, three-quarters complain that digitization means that too much information is shared on too many channels (76 percent).
• Flexibility and curiosity or open-mindedness are the most important social skills that communications professionals currently need (67 percent each). Adaptive skills such as these, but also the willingness to embrace change, will become much more important over the next five years in the view of PR experts.