In-house comms teams are 6 times more attractive than agencies

The Great Resignation – which saw droves of professionals across all industries leaving their or switching careers during the post-pandemic era – is far from over. Findings from our Annual Salary Guide revealed lots of movement during 2021 – an impressive 33% of the corporate comms professionals we surveyed moved roles.

While the pandemic was the impetus for the Great Resignation, the phenomenon is very much still alive, albeit in different shapes and forms. Employees are ready to walk away from jobs that do not meet their needs, and while they still want to be paid well, and fairly, it isn’t all about the money. They want to have the right work environment, they want flexible working hours, a positive culture, interesting and challenging work, and if a company isn’t offering the full package, they will look for it elsewhere without hesitation. But where are they going?

Where did professionals move to in 2021?

27% of the professionals who changed jobs moved to an agency and a whopping 58% moved in-house; the rest have left the industry or are freelancing. The trend continues for professionals to favour in-house over agency as more than double the number of employees took up in-house roles compared to those on offer in agencies.

Our research also showed that corporate comms professionals are nearly 6 times more likely (65%) to want to move in-house than to an agency. A meagre 11% want to go to another agency, which is the same percentage we reported in our previous survey. More people are leaving the industry – up by 3% from the previous survey. Becoming self-employed has become slightly less popular, 2% down from the previous survey

This combination of high turnover and the enormous desire for in-house is stressful for agencies to manage. Agency owners and MDs will doubtless be short of people to fill delivery levels (Account Managers and Account Directors) as it’s a common theme across the industry. In-house comms teams have also been affected by the high turnover – you can see that from the volume of roles available when you look on LinkedIn. In-house Comms Manager roles are a-plenty, which means choice for those interested in moving.

How can employers keep their teams together?

If companies begin to shape their practices around how they treat people, and how their work environments are structured, they might find that they no longer have so many great people walking out the door.

Employers, we urge you to ask yourselves if you are still falling short on flexible work offerings and staying in touch with employees’ individual needs. Remember, everybody has their own bucket list of things that they expect at a company they’re working for and when companies contradict commitments they’ve made, there’s too many opportunities out there for people not to look elsewhere and find a company that can meet their needs.

Tighten up your hiring process!

In this active market, it is wise for agency bosses to think about how they can compete with the big corporates (not easy when the in-house company benefits can often outshine agency benefits). They will lose delivery levels to other agencies but when it comes to Account Directors and Associate Directors and more senior roles, their sights are often set on an in-house comms role.

In-house comms teams need to be aware that they are not the only company hiring so being agile and moving through your interview process in just a few weeks is a good idea. If it normally takes you months and several rounds, we can pretty much guarantee no one will be left in the process at the end – they will have taken other offers in the meantime. Speed is your friend. Get agile, tighten your process, and keep up the momentum. As executive search consultants, we have had to adapt to the market and for some search campaigns, we deliver great candidates as we find them, rather than a presenting a shortlist at 3-4 weeks.

Final thoughts

Good employees don’t want just a job, they want to embrace a meaningful purpose – they want the ability to enrich the lives they touch. With a myriad of factors at play in retaining talent, perhaps the simplest way is for companies to ask employees what they value. It doesn’t take long to ask the question – what is keeping you here today? And what can another company offer you that will make you think about leaving us?

For a free download of our full Annual Salary Guide 2022, click here.

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