Posted on Current PR Conversations PR Vision

Responsible communication leadership: putting employees first

By Dr Kevin Ruck Following the financial crisis in 2008, management thinkers and others have rightly questioned the role of business leaders in society. Often fingers point at business schools, regarding their failure to incorporate ethics into programmes. In addition, governance is back in the spotlight. As the UK department store British Home Stores (BHS) went  into administration last week (a situation similar to going into “Chapter 11” in the USA), questions are being asked...

Posted on Current PR Conversations PR Sense

Who talks to (and about) colleagues like that?

What qualities do you most dislike in a PR practitioner? “Being absorbed with ‘The Message’ and forgetting all about the specific context of the communication that is needed.” Gregor Halff’s response to Q8 of the PRoust Questionnaire I have long been a believer that “language shapes consciousness,” primarily in regards to deliberate words chosen, particularly when reasonable, more-inclusive and dynamic terms exist. For example, mindfully using gender-neutral titles, such as chair rather than chairman or firefighter...

Posted on PR Axis

How to build better relations with employees

The first chapter in Part III of Your Public Relations, the 1948 book we are serialising at PR Conversations, is authored by Kirk Earnshaw, industrial relations editor of Modern Industry Magazine, said to have been “a foremost authority” in the field of labour relations who offered “sound public relations procedures to industrial relations”. Alongside sharing insight from Earnshaw’s chapter, this post offers a review of the newly published book, Internal Communications: A manual for practitioners...

Posted on PR Axis

Stop with the hocus pocus – employee communications is for muggles

A European internal communications veteran explains: In order to help organisations use communications to get results, practitioners should call on simple skills and experience—not a book of runes, silver bullets or magic fairy dust By Liam FitzPatrick, FCIPR The first time I saw a Harry Potter film I had a strange sense of déjà vu. Where else had I seen people listening raptly to unintelligible men and women in strange outfits? Why did the concept...

Posted on Classic PR Conversations PR Sphere

The endless fight for the (PR) power

By Sean Williams Who owns corporate messaging? This is navel gazing of the first order, and the fact that I’m writing this post is testament to how we can start arguments with all the seriousness of Lindsay Lohan’s newest brace of public shenanigans. Judy Gombita’s recent Social sniff test post skewers the idea that “everyone is an employee brand” advocate; its associated comments by some smart thinkers covers some, but not all, of this ground....