Cultivating talent to ride the digital revolution

Joanne's commute takes two minutes. Based in Hong Kong, she works on proposals, brainstorms ideas for a campaign with coworkers in Singapore, monitors her clients on social media, meets with her manager 40km away and still has time to tend her garden during her lunch break. Joanne works from home.

She experiences one of the many measures that we believe accounts for Waggener Edstrom Worldwide's enviable staff retention rate. More importantly, these benefits are part of our effort to seize the opportunities of a changing industry by attracting a new generation of PR talent. We call it the 'Innovation workplace'.

Ultimately in PR, the end product we give our clients is our people. Consequently, the competition for PR talent has always been intense. Now we are faced with a new dynamic as attracting talent becomes central to cultivating a workforce that will assure the PR industry maximises the opportunities of the digital revolution.

The young people entering the workforce today are digital natives, fluent in the tools and channels that have so suddenly taken our industry by storm and threatened to overwhelm even the most experienced professionals. Industry players that are determined to be at the forefront of this sea change will make attracting the new generation a core strategy.

However, with a new generation come new expectations and new challenges for attracting and retaining nascent PR talent. How we overcome these challenges depends on how well we transform our employment approach to meet the needs of Generation Y. At Waggener Edstrom Worldwide, our strategy is guided by three main considerations.

The first is career path visibility. Research has found that Gen Ys in Asia cite lack of support as the main reason for leaving a job. They also have a greater need to have a clear understanding of their career paths.

At Waggener Edstrom Worldwide, we have found that the most effective way to address this trait is by giving employees total ownership of their own careers. From the first day on the job, employees are assigned a buddy, an informal channel of communication to ensure that everybody is on the same page from the outset.

Managers are trained to act as mentors, working in partnership with employees to map out career goals and frequently checking in to monitor progress and course correct if necessary. Managers are also required to have one-to-one meetings with reports once a week, not to assign tasks but to address challenges and offer guidance. The overall goal is to provide young employees with visibility into their career paths, a strong support network and a sense of belonging.

The second is growth opportunities; Today's PR practitioner has a broad and diverse skill set, making PR an ideal career choice for a generation that has grown up during the information revolution.

As Gen Ys are drawn to companies that offer self-development opportunities, today's PR companies need to invest more in training. We start this process by training our staff in three key areas: client management, team management and business acumen, giving them a strong foundation in the essential skills needed for a career in PR. External experts are also hired to offer training in more narrow and refined areas of knowledge.

PR companies can also tap into the wealth of knowledge within their own organisations. At every opportunity, Waggener Edstrom Worldwide employees are provided with training and knowledge sharing sessions by internal experts from around the world. Supplementing these benefits is an exchange programme allowing employees to experience work in one of our 17 offices worldwide. A considerable investment, training is, nonetheless, crucial to a successful retention rate.

Two further factors are flexibility and trust. Technology has allowed Gen Y to find shortcuts and innovative ways to complete tasks. Given the right amount of space and trust, they can be incredibly creative, productive and highly-efficient, albeit with unconventional work methods.

Joanne working from home is a good example. Our telecommuting benefit has been extremely successful and has not affected quality of work. In fact, we have found that giving our employees the freedom to choose their own work locations from time to time is more conducive to creativity, and we encourage this phenomenon by supplying laptops with Microsoft Office Communicator and web cams.

With digital natives occupying a rapidly increasing share of our audiences and workforces, a carefully planned approach to attracting and retaining talent is an investment that the PR industry cannot afford to undervalue.

At Waggener Edstrom Worldwide, we have stayed on top with 'Innovation communications', our unique approach to fostering new ideas and changing perceptions for our clients. However, it is 'Innovation workplace' that will ensure our successful future in this changing industry.

This article was originally published in the 26 August 2010 supplement PR Communicated.