Reflecting on 2022 and all its challenges

Any hopes that we may have harboured at the beginning of 2022 of entering a somewhat calmer year post-pandemic, establishing new working routines and reconnecting with our colleagues and stakeholders, were somewhat dashed. With war in Europe, escalating inflation, an energy squeeze, a cost-of-living crisis, the death of a monarch and three prime ministers in quick succession, 2022 has been anything but calm. Corporate communications professionals have been affected personally and professionally, and it’s having a knock-on effect on executive search.

While 2022 has been a challenging year, many businesses and corporate communications agencies continue to thrive and hire despite global economic activity experiencing a slowdown and the UK economy facing a recession. As the year draws to an end, let me share a few of the highlights, as viewed through our executive search lens.

Hiring remains strong

We have placed a variety of senior level people in roles, including Directors of Communications & Marketing, Directors of Comms, Heads of Corporate Comms, Heads of Financial Comms, (Senior) Comms Managers with asset managers, law firms, private equity, global re-insurance, private infrastructure companies, global engineering firms, ground-breaking health-tech businesses, as well as listed FMCG and sustainable investment initiatives. We have also undertaken search campaigns for comms professionals in corporate reputation, crisis and financial comms agencies at CEO, Partner, Director and Associate Director level. The placement split has been 80:20 for in-house roles and agency roles.

We have filled a few one-year contract roles alongside our permanent roles, filled all our exclusive searches and everyone happily passed their probation. We also wrote about the differences between executive search and recruitment here.

Counteroffers continue to rise

As we revealed in our last trend report, we have encountered a lot of employers counter-offering candidates this year, a continuation from 2021. We have seen it with high quality in-house comms professionals as well as sought-after agency professionals although more in the ‘middle ranks’. Counteroffers were mostly coming from the current employer (agency and in-house), offering more money and sometimes an improved title to stay.

Healthy salary increases when moving jobs

When moving jobs, the average salary uplift has increased although it’s down on the year before. The average uplift in base salary when moving jobs through The Works Search was a healthy 16% increase in base salary over 2022. However, this was an eye-watering 24% average in 2021, 13% in 2020 and 13% in 2019. It’s clearly ‘normalising’ although it’s higher than it was just two years ago and may stabilise here at this higher rate. We talked more about it in this blog post: comms professionals do you know your worth?

Employers responding to cost-of-living increases

To alleviate the financial burden placed on their employees by the cost-of-living crisis, we have noticed that some comms agency employers have been offering financial support, especially for more junior employees, in the form of pay increases, support with home heating and broadband bills, and one-off bonuses.

Junior levels in high demand

Although we do not focus on placing comms people at a junior level, this doesn’t stop us from knowing that many agencies have continued to cry out for Account Executives, Account Managers and Account Directors in volume for most of this year. There remains a deficit of people at these levels and agencies were having a nightmare hiring. The demand has resulted in inflated salaries being offered and accepted. Quite a few agencies have hired people without any comms experience to get around the shortfall with a view to training them up and moving them up the ranks.

Companies embrace hybrid working as the norm

Agency bosses have frequently said that it’s ‘all about keeping their employees happy’ as we have returned (some reluctantly) to the office this year. Hybrid working has continued to evolve, becoming the norm for most comms professionals with many working from home 2 or 3 days a week which we discussed here. We have noticed that some agencies are setting specific days in the office to keep things easier to collaborate, hold meetings, learn and socialise.

Greater commitment to embedding diversity, equity and inclusion

We have noted more mindful hiring when it comes to gender and ethnicities too as we predicated last year in looking ahead in 2022. In short, now more than ever, companies are recognising the importance of diversity and inclusion, and genuine social consciousness will only become more pronounced across the industry. By building diversity, equity and inclusion into their hiring strategies, companies are showing that they want to embrace, celebrate, and truly advocate for DE&I. When a company’s hiring practices reflect a diverse and inclusive company, then that company will become a place where diverse candidates are going to want to stay, and more importantly, feel empowered, included and given fair opportunity to succeed.

A strong benefits offering is a must

Good wages are important, but so are good benefits. We have seen several agencies starting to pay closer attention to their company benefits and revise them to make them more attractive. Offering employees a range of benefits that help them cut the cost of their everyday life can increase loyalty, focus and productivity, attendance and optimise recruiting efforts. We look in more detail here at how important it has now become to not just look at the salary on the table, but also consider the benefits being offered and we also looked at agencies and what holiday allowance they offer and took a closer look at parental leave policies.

In-house roles remain firmly at the top of the wish list

Let us not forget just how staggeringly high the desire for in-house roles remains – 69% of comms professionals polled in our annual Salary Guide saying, once again, that jobs within in-house comms teams are 6 times more attractive than agencies. While the way we work has changed fundamentally for the long haul, comms professionals’ desires have not wavered, and in-house roles still win hands down in terms of desirability.

What do professionals want when moving to an agency?

Comms professionals value different things throughout their career but there were common themes this year when asking for an agency role. They are most interested in agencies with a clear sense of direction, offering integrated campaigns which cross disciplines for learning, forward-thinking leaders, interesting client campaigns, and a clear career path.

What is most desired for in-house comms professionals?

FTSE 100 companies, followed by FTSE 250 and large consumer-facing brands are always of interest. Technology, fintech and healthcare came up a lot as are desirable sectors. Challenger brands which are changing and growing. Companies going through any sort of change also hold strong appeal alongside issues-rich companies. However, firmly off the wish list are tobacco, defence, oil and gas, and mining.

Key themes of 2022

‘Purpose-led’ and ‘sustainability’ are the key words for the year. Companies are demonstrating their commitment to sustainability, DE&I, wellbeing, and their purpose. A regular request from comms professionals is to work with companies which are ‘purpose-led’. They want to communicate a purposeful narrative beyond making money, and work for company they believe in, doing the right thing.

Final words

It’s been an interesting and busy year although moving into the later part of the year, we started to hear of some in-house corporate comms teams facing ‘recruitment pauses’ and Directors of Corporate Comms looking to ‘make savings on their budgets’. As the UK moves towards recession, these savings may lead to shavings, and shavings lead to cuts as companies tighten their belts. We will be sharing our thoughts in the coming weeks about what may lay ahead.

Thank you to everyone who continues to support The Works Search team this year, so much of our work comes from our network and we are grateful for your kind recommendations. We enjoy working with you and will continue to share our knowledge and insight, and network with you.

Wishing you a wonderful and relaxing Christmas break. If 2022 is anything to go by, we have another interesting and challenging year ahead of us. We look forward to seeing you then.

Sarah
MD, The Works Search

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

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