What Employers want in Public Relations

Charles Savidge

cs351916@ohio.edu

 

When you talk to somebody outside of the field of journalism and say they work in public relations they probably don't think about the ethical decisions involved in what that person does. More likely than not they will figure that they are the person that does write-ups and the messages that are sent out to the public and works on the marketing team. While this notion may not be entirely incorrect it doesn't take into account the idea that the person working in public relations has their own ethical standards and how that is an aspect that is worth hiring for. That added layer of ethics and journalistic practice can help a companies foresight when working with or having the attention of the press. It can allow them to see how what they do would be perceived by the public. This isn't just people outside of the journalism field, but employers too that often miss it.

Photo source: The McKendree Review

In Mark McClennan's piece What Are the Top Ethics Challenges, Skills and Deficiencies Facing Public Relations Professionals?, he talks about the study conducted by The Commission on Public Relations Education. The study found that over the three years of working with employers they ranked ethics as a top three factor when hiring but they struggled to identify it in prospects when hiring, and that their current employees were not meeting expectations. These issues occur for a myriad of reasons whether it be lack of training or employees not speaking up with their higher ups. Both parties seem in agreement that there is a disconnect. While companies may see this as a value for employees to speak up, they aren't necessarily giving the the proper training to their employees such as situational training. A new employee on his first job may not be wanting to speak out in fear of losing their job.

In the article, PR Ethics and Reputation: PR Professionals Are Not “Yes Men” When Pressured to Be Unethical, New Baylor Study Finds, they talk about how important ethics are in public relations are and how it is in the employees best interest to have ethics. What motivates the people in public relations to speak out about their ethics is that once they violate those ethics everyone knows it and it will make it really difficult to continue their future within this industry. While some companies may think they want a yes man, the issues that come with that and the lack of foresight can be very harmful to a firm and their public perception, which can impact stakeholders and revenue.

In the end when a person that works in Public Relations does what's right and sticks to their ethics, it ultimately helps the firm and their stakeholders.