Companies should stop treating PR practitioners as though they are witchdoctors. They went to school to be professionals not magicians. PR is a management support function.PR practitioners need support from all departments and service providers to do their work. As such organisations must exercise division of labour. PR tasks are based on strategic planning.PR return on investment is long-term and as such there should be less expectation on instant fixes.PR is one of the relatively young professions as opposed to law but that does not mean their job descriptions are revised without a logic.
Why flood PR departments with all the company tasks.PR should be treated like a highly specialised strategic profession. Highly specialised and do not need a dozen of titles like witch doctors.PR professionals are not client relationship managers, smiling machines, art directors, and media tea girls.
Of recent organisations seem to be in habit of offloading any role to PR practitioners all in the name of cost cutting which is unacceptable. Some Ugandan Organisations are moving away from hiring third party outsourced agencies that boost PR work. Damage from such a risk may actually cost more to the organisation in question. Why would graphic design be a core task of a PR officer? They may be communicators but not art directors. A PR agency is not an alternative to the in-house PR team but more capacity. Sometimes in-house PR teams may be tied down to company politics and the agency proves handy. Advertising or media monitoring agencies do not have the same deliverables like the internal PR teams. The in-house PR team shocking on company politics may not individually make company documentaries, speak for the organisation, monitor media, write, manage events, do marketing, do customer care, and design graphics.
Some companies treat their PR teams as people who are simply paid to spend company revenue. Company PR teams should not be looked at people who drain company resources. African witch doctors are known to love asking for lots money from their clients whether they are healed or not. PR spending results can be assessed. Today some companies present their reputation and media coverage in a part of their balance sheet or due diligence. It is high time companies get in the habit of appreciating PR return on investment known measurements.
PROs are not witchdoctors who treat all diseases. They are earth beings who work with available resources and whatever is humanly possible. The wrong company operating models and inefficiency of the organisations causing service issues may not be washed away by one media cover-up response from PR. PR will obviously be the ear to the organisation.PR will counsel but will not stop inefficiency if management does not get involved. PROs are not fix it all experts. Spin can no longer survive today.
Some organisations fear to meaningfully engage PR teams as though are witches. This is sometimes as a result of ignorance about the roles of PR. They only involve PR at the last minute. Organisations must allow their PR teams to orient new staff on PR roles.Some tasks are just supervisory to PR
The roles of PR practitioners continue to significantly evolve world over but being witch doctors will not be part of them. Before PR practitioners did not execute social media assignments because it was not there. Even if it is a new addition, it fits in the traditional PR role of Communication and marketing. Fundamental tasks of PROs are: reputation management, media relations, communication, counsel management, research, advocacy and lobbying, event management, advertising, employee relations, branding, marketing, organisational diagnosis and content development, sales, and customer service. PR is not about the looks as it is with witch doctors. You can not measure PR by the number of times smiles, roles and job titles.
Ivan N Baliboola.
PR & Organisational diagnosis specialist
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