Introduction
The Works focuses on permanent positions at all levels in the corporate, financial, technology and consumer sectors and, due to growing demand, we now also have a consultant dedicated to handling international assignments. As such, we stay in very close touch with what is happening in the PR recruitment market and the relationships we have developed with both agency and in-house employers enable us to collate the most useful information on salary levels and other important trends in the industry.
2007 proved to be a very strong year, both for us and for the PR profession as a whole. In many areas, talented candidates were at a premium as consultancies worked harder to retain their most talented staff and the best prospects could be more selective about the roles they would consider. Moreover, employers were increasingly looking for specialist and sector knowledge as well as PR skills, limiting the field of candidates further still.
This had a knock-on effect on salary levels, but perhaps less so than might have been expected. Instead, increasingly important factors for candidates were ‘softer’ HR issues, such as work-life balance, career development and training. For similar reasons, we also continued to see a rise in the popularity of in-house positions, which are perceived by many candidates to provide better work-life balance and the opportunity to focus on one brand and its issues.
After several years of solid growth in the industry, the next 12 months look a little more unpredictable. The credit crunch has not yet had a significant impact on the number of vacancies we are being asked to fill but the consensus of many in the market is that 2008 promises to be a little more challenging than last.