Public Relations

Competency Frameworks

#FuturePR roundtable discussion

London - 6pm, 14 January, 2014

Further reading

Participants

John Brown, director, Hotwire

Steve Ward, founder & director,CloudNine Social Media & Digital Talent

Louisa Bartoszek, Director of Media Relations, BNY Mellon

Simon Collister, senior lecturer, University of Arts, London

Tanya Ferris, director, Carter Ferris

Alastair McCapra, CEO, Chartered Institute of Public Relations

Prof. Anne Gregory, University of Huddersfield and chair, Global Alliance

Russell Grossman, Group Director of Communications, Department for Business, Innovation and Skills

Alex Singleton, associate director, Whitehouse; and author, The PR Masterclass

Liton Ali, Training Director, The HenshallCentre

Dr. Jon White, independent consultant & visiting professor Henley Business School

Stella Bayles, PropellerNet

Aston Lincoln, student, Buckinghamshire Chilterns University College

Stephen Waddington, director, Ketchum Europe

#FuturePR manifesto

• The public relations profession is undergoing tremendous change. The skills required to work in this fast growing discipline remain a work in progress

• #FuturePR is focussed on discussion in three areas:

– Competence, qualifications and training

– Agile and real time management

– Structures, tools and workflow

Benchmarking

• There is no barrier to entry and requires

no formal qualifications or Continuous

Professional Development (CPD)

• Rapid change coupled with a lack of rigor

means that it is not possible to benchmark

the skills of one practitioner against

another, or one agency or in-house

position against another

Competency framework drivers

• The cost of poor hiring decisions (risk and rehire) is unknown

• Training needs are difficult to identify, define and address

• No international benchmarks, professional accreditation or training

• Competency frameworks are commonly used in other professional to tackle these issues

ECOPSI Framework (1/2)

• Counselling (build relationships,

consulting, coaching)

• Organising/executing (planning, making it

happen)

• Managing (cross functional awareness,

business focus)

• Performing and creating (craft e.g. writing,

design, presentation)

Further reading

ECOPSI Framework (2/2)

• Analysing/interpreting (research, listening)

• Supporting/guiding (vision and standards,

ethics, developing others)

ECOPSI Framework

UK Government Communication

Competency Framework

• Competences are structured around four

stages of a strategic planning process:

Insight, Ideas, Implementations and

Impact

• The framework sets out competences

expected in each area across three tiers

aligned to civil service grades

Further reading

UK Government Communication

Competency Framework

Discussion areas

• Would communications and public

relations functions benefit from a

competency framework?

• What would a competency framework look

like for public relations (strategic vs.

tactician)?

Next steps

• Produce a blog or discussion paper based

on this roundtable discussion

• Share content with broader industry for

comment including the CIPR and Global

Alliance project on Competency

Frameworks