CorpComms Magazine

On the surface, things are pretty rosy for the UK's public affairs practitioners. Their ubiquity, importance and salaries have risen exponentially. And yet, despite this, some still harbour concerns about being cut off from mainstream communications and key strategic decisions regarding external messaging.

Public affairs is increasingly a polarised profession. Those at the top end are commanding handsome salaries and wielding board influence, while those at the bottom of the pile often feel marginalised and misunderstood.

'Normally public affairs practitioners get buy-in from the CEO or operational management - but rarely from both,' notes Ben Atfield, a director at recruitment specialists Ellwood & Atfield. 'Public affairs is often not understood by a lot of employees.'

Ben Abbotts, head of public affairs at London-based communications agency Lansons, agrees. 'Too many organisations only think about public affairs in a relatively narrow way,' he comments.

And it is no wonder people are confused, given the hazy boundaries between public affairs, corporate affairs and corporate communications. People who work in public affairs can expect to be branded as everything from public policy manager or public affairs manager to head of public affairs, head of government relations, head of corporate affairs - or anything in between. 'The commonly used definitions don't help matters, but it is an evolving discipline and different organisations use it in very different ways,' Atfield says.

Measured approach
There are ways to help communicate your worth to the rest of your organisation, however. 'You have to align yourself with the key corporate objectives. Then other parts hang very neatly off it,' says Jim Boyd, head of corporate affairs at transport operator Go-Ahead.

The importance of public affairs within your company will be affected by your corporate sector and the level of management buy-in. As with so many other professions, it can be hard for people in public affairs to have their effectiveness quantified by meaningful performance metrics, so choosing the right barometer by which to monitor performance is key.

'In the broadest sense, public affairs is very much about reputation management - increasingly I find myself getting involved in key strategic issues, whether it's product differentiation, strategy or crisis management,' Boyd explains. 'I'm incredibly lucky here as the focus tends to be on a broader reputation theme. At other organisations it falls more under a legal/regulatory side. When that happens, the potential for influence can be stifled.'

At the same time, however, the regulatory element can be a blessing for public affairs practitioners as it makes their knowledge more pertinent to the fate of the company. 'Companies that are under more regulatory pressure need to communicate with regulators as much as they do with other stakeholders,' notes Oskar Yasar, managing director of VMA Group. 'In those areas, public affairs will be a central part of corporate communications messaging.'

'Public affairs has to be fully integrated with communications; it should be an anchor for all PR activity,' Abbotts insists. Supermarket giant Asda is one such company. It has one public affairs manager who reports to the head of government and public affairs. This department head, along with a public policy manager, in turn reports to Asda's new corporate affairs director.

'So much of what goes through corporate communications also affects the store and government policy, and therefore involves government affairs,' says Guy Mason, public affairs manager at Asda. 'It's inconceivable that we would make decisions without the corporate communications team, and vice versa.'

The supermarket chain boasts a tightly integrated team that combines its corporate and consumer communications departments. Its corporate communications team also reports to the corporate affairs director. 'We have an extremely open atmosphere, both in our desk positioning and our communication style,' comments Mason. 'We've recently restructured our reporting format, so now we are constantly swapping ideas and information. We keep an informal 'huddle' meeting style so we are updating each other throughout the day.'

Integration becomes more of an imperative for organisations spread across various geographical locations. The public affairs team at Asda spends a considerable amount of time travelling from its Leeds headquarters to London, Edinburgh, Belfast, Brussels and North America, so team members have to remain in constant communication.

At other firms, chains of command vary and heads of public affairs can end up reporting to the legal department, the chief executive or even the treasury. 'CEOs and boards often welcome a candidate who has that technical rigour,' says Simon Nayyar, managing director of public policy at Citigate Dewe Rogerson. 'But public affairs practitioners often report to corporate communications as well.'

A healthy remove
Even so, Atfield believes there could be benefits for public affairs people who keep their distance from mainstream communications. 'I think public affairs people who don't report directly to communications often have a better chance of demonstrating the value they bring,' he says. 'If you report to communications, it can be difficult to measure your effectiveness; the legal team is often measured by different metrics, and public affairs people tend to fare better under those metrics.'

While some companies categorise public affairs as a division of corporate affairs, others opt for stand-alone government relations departments. 'When there's talk of increased taxes on larger vehicles, we'll speak to our government relations team and ask, What have you been saying to the MPs?' says Simon Warr, head of corporate communications and public affairs at car maker Jaguar and Land Rover.

Although Warr's communications and public affairs team is integrated, it has traditionally worked separately from government relations. 'We have had public relations and government affairs under the same umbrella, but only if the individual heading them really understands the differences in approach,' he explains. 'Often they require quite different skills.' And these differences in style can be crucial: corporate communicators normally opt for simplicity and consistency of message, while communications with government tend to be more nuanced.

Warr thinks you need a different approach but concedes some of the methodology is similar in message drafting. 'Sometimes we take a message the government relations team has developed and simplify it for the media,' he says.

Demarcation lines
So how do companies decide who does what? In the main, says Warr, government relations is responsible for anything purely political or anything that has an overtly political raison d'etre. Unfortunately, when it comes to doling out the work, it's not always so clear-cut. 'It starts to get a bit grey with groups like the Confederation of British Industry or other external bodies. The responsibility could just as easily sit with corporate communications and public affairs as it could with government relations,' Warr adds.

So where does the remit of public affairs and government relations end, and that of communications begin? 'Branding is not so appropriate for people in government relations,' Warr asserts. 'Yet it is one of the biggest issues for us in the communications department.'

Even so, there are still benefits to being distinct from corporate affairs. It may make it easier to win direct board influence, for example, and it could reduce the chance of your efforts getting lost in the melee of work undertaken by the corporate communications department.

At the same time, corporate communications departments are increasingly valuing the input from public affairs and government relations. Many agree there are tangible benefits for all sides to maximising dialogue between all departments, and public affairs is increasingly recognised as having a role to play in reputation management, stakeholder communication and managing risk.

Modern requirements on communications have never been higher, and a lot of heads of communications realise they need to be informed as much about political and regulatory matters as they do about uses of digital media and word-of-mouth marketing.

With marketing departments and advertisers finding it harder than ever to divorce their own agendas from wider political considerations, it could pay to push for a more integrated approach to managing public affairs.

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