The next twelve months will be a mix of sun, cloud, wind, snow, rain and balmy weather. Canât tell you what will happen or when, or what will dominate, but we can be pretty sure there will be some of everything.
So letâs be optimistic. Hereâs to lots of sun and balmy weather, with the occasional breeze and snowflake for contrast, and the odd drop of rain to make our trees and fields green and help our crops grow.
We’ve had a frustrating time recently trying to fill various account-handling positions on our team. We’ve tried all the usual channels of recruitment with little success and are starting to wonder why this might be.Â
With the job market in the doldrums, we fully expected to be inundated with applications from high quality candidates eager for a job with a well-established, award-winning agency with a great client list. Our team retention rate is high, we offer fantastic training (and have continuted to invest in this area despite the recession) and nurturing careers is absolutely paramount to us. Since October, we have celebrated five promotions within our team, undertaken external training sessions approximately once a week, continued to operate regular and timely appraisals and not operated a pay-freeze. Our team is our most important asset and we treat it that way.
A recent survey suggested that many PR professionals are moving in-house in search of greater job security and a better work-life balance. There also seems to be a fear factor at play: fear of taking a risk, fear of leaving the comfort of a current job, fear of being caught looking for a new job. All these worries are entirely understandable in an uncertain world, but it doesn’t have to be that way!
If you’re reading this and considering looking for new opportunities and greener pastures, please visit our jobs page to find out more about working with us or drop a line to our HR officer, Fiona Dickie (fiona@focuspr.co.uk). We’d love to hear from you and might justoffer you the next step on your career ladder!
Focus PR's Hilary Meacham (left) and Sally Alexander
We were shortlisted recently for a European Excellence Award for our month-long media relations-driven campaign aimed at bringing Cowes Week 2010 to life through business columns, sailing press and lifestyle media. The Awards are hosted in a different European city every December and were set up to honour outstanding achievement in communications on an international scale. Â Â Last year we collected an award for our Cadbury Twisted social media campaign in Vienna and this year we flew to a very snowy Prague to join in the celebrations.
We sat in the majestic ŽofÃn Palace amidst a sea of different nationalities, all of whom were getting on like a house on fire, and checked out the competition in our category (Sports and Lifestyle). Our campaign for Cowes Week had secured a total circulation of over nearly 800m and included nine pieces featured on TV, 10 pieces on radio, 97 pieces of print editorial in national newspapers, consumer lifestyle media, sailing titles and online; so we knew we were in with a chance. Also in our category were entries from the Youth Olympic Games, the Prague International Marathon, Puma Bulgaria entered by Publicis Consultants and a campaign called âHow fit are you at 90?â entered by komm.passion.Â
As we looked through the entries we realised we were one of only a handful of UK consultancies and, whatâs more, one of the few independent PR agencies present, up against large multi-nationals such as Edelman and Hill & Knowlton â a huge achievement in itself! Unfortunately we lost out to the kom.passion campaign. However, despite not winning the award, we felt a tremendous sense of pride at having been shortlisted two years in a row for the same client and to be part of such a buzzing and vibrant industry on a European scale.Â
It has been a tough year for PR agencies with communications professionals Europe-wide feeling the bite of recession and the need to adapt to the ever-changing media landscape.  It was clear, as Marc-Olivier Voigt opened the eveningâs celebrations and as the night went on and we saw creative entry after creative entry, that every single person in that room felt an enormous sense of achievement simply by being among some of the industryâs best in a tough economic climate. A heart-warming thought against the -8°C winds blowing outside!
