Skills development in communication now a top priority

Daniel Munslow

Author of the research, Daniel Munslow - an independent communication consultant and IABC International Executive Board Director - explains that “the gradual shift to a more business-centric approach to communication is evident in that a number of strategic organisational drivers have made their way onto the priority list for communicators. As the business landscape becomes increasingly complex and change is being regarded as business as usual, leaders have become a vital communication tool. We see that 47% of communicators believe coaching leaders is an important skill and 31% want more training on it. In 2015, only 5% regarded it as important and 30% wanted to be trained on how to support their leadership teams”.

The poll surveyed 386 senior communication practitioners from 251 different companies across Africa. While the majority of respondents were from South Africa, approximately 8% were from Ghana, Nigeria, Botswana, and Kenya. Polling was conducted during February 2016.

An increase in the importance of leadership communication, organisational development, and culture, alongside business acumen are key in today’s rapidly evolving corporate landscape. “Knowing what culture is, and how to shape it, is knowing the difference between communicating and engaging. Knowing how to influence your management team and engage your whole organisation in embedding a more empathic culture has become key. The same applies to engaging with external stakeholders”, says Munslow.

The role of the corporate communications professional is changing, with a view of becoming more influential. Despite all indicators pointing to the critical need for skills development due to skills shortages and retention factors, over 50% of companies have seen fit to cut their training budgets in the past year; with 60% saying it will be cut further in the coming financial year. While part of a broader macroeconomic reality, which also sees 64% of communication budgets either remaining the same or decreasing by up to 20%, the medium to long term effect should be considered.

“When one considers that around 22% of staff say they leave their organisation due to lack of training, coupled with a staggering 29% of communicators who say there is a skills shortage (up from 25% in 2015) and they cannot find the right people to fill key communication roles, it is baffling to think that there has been such a reduction in training despite the downward pressure on budgets.” Munslow adds, that “a simple cost benefit analysis could show the cost of replacing those 22% of people who leave versus the cost to upskill and retain them”.

Encouragingly, despite an extremely difficult economic environment to operate in, 40% of respondents still strongly agree that the influence of the communication function will increase over the next two years. This is down from 58% in 2015, but still a positive indication. The variance is likely attributed to organisations cutting training budgets and struggling to retain staff on the back of lack of skills development, not to mention other cut backs in the number of staff that increase pressure on the teams that remain in place and more pressure on measurement and evaluation to produce tangible ROI.

“But long term, perhaps the downward trend has had an unexpected positive turn. A record number of in-house communication practitioners are now reporting into executive and managing director level functions within their organisations. This could indicate the growing recognition of the strategic role communication can play in reputation management and internal operational efficiencies through an engaged workforce”, suggests Munslow.

The continuing increase in the use of social media as a primary communication platform among consumers has given rise to organisations needing to rethink their social media and even crisis communication strategies. 39% of respondents indicated they employ a full time in-house social media expert, with a further 12% outsourcing the function to their agency. For the others, social media is managed by existing team members.

Munslow says 40% of respondents had to handle what they called a social media crisis over the past 12 months. “This will no doubt give rise to a rethinking of crisis communication policies and readiness, given the need to proactively manage online reputation. It is not possible to wait a day to respond to social media comments that pose a reputational risk. In reality, many organisations are still grappling with agility around social media and crisis readiness. We still, sadly, see organisations facing a crisis on a Friday and only issuing a statement on Tuesday. It is hard to rebuild trust after four days of silence when in crisis.”

Daniel Munslow presented this research at the World PR Forum held in Toronto in May, and will share these and other insights at the 2016 PRISA conference during his presentation slot on 18 August. The Conference, themed Advance, Rise, Grow, is a two-day conference which will be held on 17 -19 August culminating with the Loeries Creativity DStv seminar on 19 August at the Southern Sun Elangeni & Maharani Hotel.

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