CorpComms Magazine

With one-third of a million jobs in Britain's public sector facing the axe, public relations professionals in local and central government were probably not cheerfully singing Auld Lang Syne as 2011 dawned.

Already, top government communicators including Matt Flanagan, the former 10 Downing Street head of strategic communications, Jayne Nickalls, chief executive of web portal Directgov, John Suffolk, chief information officer, Alex Butler, transformational strategy director at the Central Office of Information (COI) and Andrew Stott, the government's head of digital engagement, have pre-empted the expected public sector cuts by announcing their departures.

November's resignation letter from permanent secretary for government communications Matt Tee had the alarm bells ringing ever louder, warning that it will be difficult to justify the continuing existence of his role as 'head of a smaller communications profession'.

Andrew Lewin, a former COI web technical specialist, predicted on his blog that this 'chill wind' will wreak similar change on the rest of government departments' communications teams in 2011 and he's far from alone.

The latest unemployment figures, issued in December, show a 33,000 fall in the public sector payroll and The Office for Budget Responsibility has said that one third of a million public sector jobs will go.

Like other public sector workers, central and local government communicators will hope they can transfer seamlessly to the private sector but some experts on both sides of the public-private divide have their doubts.

'The private sector is a total meritocracy,' says Sally Costerton, chairman and chief executive of Hill & Knowlton in Europe, the Middle East and Africa and chairman of the Public Relations Consultants Association.

'It is much easier to measure success. A campaign increases sales or it doesn't. It influences government strategy or it doesn't. In the public sector, that's much more difficult to do. That's going to be one of the biggest changes.'

Some communicators within the public sector are much more critical of it. 'People are going to have a rude wake-up call,' says Alex Aiken, director of the communications and strategy communications department at Westminster City Council.

'If communications people want to transfer from the public sector to the private sector, they're going to have to demonstrate a hugely professional attitude.

'The private sector is about business discipline rather than public service and that will be a big reality check for lots of people.

'They've got to leave behind the medals they have won and the awards they've been given in the public sector. That's all history now. They have got to start again.'

Aiken's remarks will be controversial in the public sector, where many other public relations people speak of high levels of professionalism as well as the sheer breadth of operations to communicate, ranging from national and local government to hospitals, prisons and police and emergency services.

'The public sector is incredibly professional these days,' says Paul Mylrea, the former communications chief for the Department for International Development (DFID) who is now head of press and media relations at the BBC and president of the Chartered Institute of Public Relations.

Stressing that his comments relate to his CIPR role, he adds: 'The time when there was a difference in the professionalism between the public and private sectors has long gone.

'In some cases, there's a greater difference between being at a PR agency and an in-house communications function. And even within the public sector, there are vastly different organisations and vastly different approaches to communications.

'Some are very product or services-driven and very consumer-oriented. Others are more directed at stakeholders. You've got to adopt the right behaviour, depending on where you are.'

Mylrea's sentiments are echoed by Philip Dewhurst, a senior consultant at financial PR firm College Hill, who has worked in the public sector as head of PR for Surrey County Council as well as in top communications jobs at Railtrack, nuclear company BNFL and Russian gas group Gazprom.

'People coming out of public sector communications will find jobs in the private sector because there's been a huge improvement in professionalism of communications in the public sector and there are really good people out there,' he says.

That's no accident, adds John Sherwell, who worked at PR agency Golley Slater before becoming head of communications at Brighton and Hove City Council.

He says his team measures return on investment in the same way that the private sector does and has visited the communications departments of McDonald's, British Airways and power group E.On to pick up best practice. Brighton and Hove has also embraced innovations in digital media, while communications consultancies owned by Westminster and Brighton & Hove councils but operating as limited companies are bridging the gap by advising private sector as well as other public sector clients.

'What's happened in the past is that these kinds of practices have not been brought to bear on the public sector organisations,' says Sherwell. 'This is why we've been tarred with the brush that we're all 'Yes Minister'-type people, but there are some truly excellent practices in public services and the sector should be working hard to challenge itself to do even better.'

Indeed, Sherwell adds that some of the people he has come across in the public sector 'would knock six shades of midnight' out of some people in the private sector.

As a result, he says he is more worried about private sector organisations poaching the council's best people than he is about the public sector cuts. 'Good organisations will have seen the cuts coming and planned how to get through,' he says.

Another communicator who is proud of the skills levels in the public sector is Ashley Wilcox, corporate communication manager at the London Borough of Camden and chair of the CIPR's local public services group.

'Communications people are adaptable and it is basically still about communication, whatever sector you work in,' he argues.

'I don't think people will have a problem switching from one to another. There are a lot of people working in communications in the public sector and we have skill sets that are highly transferable. I think public sector communications people can add a lot of value in the private sector.'

It is a debate that will no doubt continue to rage between the public sector's detractors and its defenders but what do the recruiters who place communications specialists on both sides of the divide think?

Some agree a change in approach will be necessary for those bridging the divide, though they stress that the 'Yes Minister' culture has long faded in Civil Service communications as a new army of professional operatives has penetrated Whitehall, while many regional public sector jobs formerly regarded as outposts are similarly filled by people of commitment and skill.

They do expect a flood of public sector communicators seeking private sector roles, however, and warn there will be no sinecures.

'Some people in the public sector would find it difficult going into the private sector because it's very targetdriven and there's probably a greater sense of urgency,' says Geraldine Davies, head of practice at Ellwood & Atfield.

'But the current Government is very radical and seems to be turning every department upside down so I don't think there's one public sector culture anymore.'

Ros Kindersley, managing director at JFL, another specialist recruiter, believes that the ease with which communication workers can transfer sectors will depend exactly where they have been working in the public sector.

'Those who have been on the hard national news agenda will find they have useful transferable skills, particularly if they have been involved in environmental sustainability,' she says. 'But those with local authority experience are going to find it much more challenging because all their experience is regionalised.

'Someone coming from internal communications for a council in Wilmington-on-Sea is not going to find a similar job anywhere else.'

Indeed, recruiters VMA Group recently held a careers surgery for worried public sector communicators and chief executive Julia Meighan reports that the concerns of some will be justified. 'Many of these people have worked in the public sector for 20-30 years and have no idea how different it will be,' she says.

'You have to think differently about communications in the private sector. Private sector communications is less politics-based and more driven by short-term profit goals. You have to manage your budget in a different way.'

So where will the best opportunities lie for displaced public sector communicators? Meighan believes those with experience of utilities, transport, regulated industries and professional services have an advantage, while Costerton singles out energy and renewables, healthcare, digital media and campaign planning and Dewhurst sees opportunities at Eastern bloc and Middle East companies listing in London.

Elsewhere, Kindersley suggests communicators' public service ethos will be of interest to charities and Wilcox believes their political skills will be useful beyond trades unions and political organisations.

'If you have political nous you could also move to the private sector,' he says. 'If you have insight you can add real value there.'

At the very top, issues management experience is likely to be in demand right across the private sector. Costerton says Hill & Knowlton is primed for strong growth and is always looking for talented communicators, while there are some key examples of successful public-to-private moves.

Davies cites the move of Julia Simpson, a former Home Office communications director and 10 Downing Street adviser, to British Airways as communications director and Tom Kelly's progression from Tony Blair's spokesman to communications director to airports group BAA before returning to the public sector at the Financial Services Authority.

'Communications directors in government departments play massive roles,' she says. They tend to have very large teams and manage very complex issues and they are as used to juggling various matters at the same time as communications directors are in the private sector.

'They also have massive experience in issues management. There's no way you can run the lobby for Number 10 if you can't handle that.

'Where they lack experience on the City and financial side they can pick that up. Everyone has issues to deal with when they get into new jobs. As long as you keep your eyes wide open, it's fine. If you're top of the tree in government communications, you're pretty used to that.'

Those who are not so loftily situated, however, may need to work on their professional development work and obtain guidance.

'Those people who are going to move across should be thinking now about how they gain experience that allows them to move into the private sector,' states Mylrea.

'To be honest, this is something they should be doing anyway. At the BBC, we make sure people get experience in several areas and when I was working in government, I made sure people got experience working in different departments so they could keep their skills up to date.'

The public sector cuts, however, could also accelerate deeper changes in working practices for the whole communications industry as public sector communicators consider not just where they will work but how their roles, skills and modes of operating need to develop.

'I think the whole landscape for communications jobs is going to change to a certain extent,' says Kindersley. 'People are already going to have portfolio careers, for example, a succession of three-month contracts, and a jolt like this loss of 25 per cent of the supply of public sector jobs is going to make people focus even more on applying transferable skills. My advice is to be as entrepreneurial as possible and to be prepared to slightly change tack.'

For others, it may be grimmer, at least in the short-term. 'The main problem now is whether all the people who are moving out of the public sector will find jobs in the private sector,' predicts Mylrea. 'The issue is just whether there will be enough jobs. Everyone is going to find that a challenge.'

share me: del.icio.us | digg | reddit | Tweet