And could Agile ways of working help?
In May, our two UK professional bodies for the PR and comms industry shared some “shocking” data.
From the CIPR and PRCA 2023/24 Mental Wellbeing Audit:
- 91% of PR professionals reported poor mental health in the last 12 months.
- The number of PR professionals diagnosed with a mental health condition has increased from 25% to 33%.
- 29% of PR professionals rate their stress levels between 8-10 (with 10 being extremely stressful), despite the shift to remote work.
- 58% of respondents cite overwhelming workloads as a primary source of workplace stress.
I first heard of this in the Facebook-based community of practice The House of Marketing and PR. Industry leader Stephen Waddington and colleagues described these stats as shocking, but sadly I wasn’t surprised, let alone shocked. People were asking why are people in the PR and comms industry so knackered.
The general discussion within that community pointed to three factors:
Pandemic recovery: Not just the physical effects of Covid, but culturally in the world of work: “a pressure to behave as if it never happened… pace of things has massively accelerated since the world opened up again and at times it just feels relentless,” commented one practitioner.
Always On culture: 24-7 news cycles, traditionally long office hours, reactive response rate, especially for those working in media relations (I have one media contact who LOVES a Friday media request – for that day).
Weak professional boundaries: I often comment that PR is an industry of people pleasers – eager to say yes and deliver (often against a muddy brief), not valuing our no.
Our data
We’ve generated our own data as part of our research and testing for the Agile Communications Academy. We surveyed 140 people and of those, more than half said that high workload was their biggest challenge at work.
Other challenging factors were lack of time, team communication, task prioritisation and struggling to focus.
I put my hand up here and say I HEAR YOU!! I’ve struggled with, and worked hard to, maintain my mental health since I was a teenager.
Post-pandemic, I struggle with maintaining focus and creating opportunities for deep-flow work. Given the bulk of my client delivery work is largely in strategic thinking on complex, gnarly briefs, this is something I need to fix.
That’s why I created our first course, Agility for PRoductivity – I need these structures and strategies as much as I am teaching them.
How could Agile help our industry?
- Focus on value delivery: When it feels like you are getting NOWHERE with your to-do list, take a step back and think, which of these tasks/priorities will ACTUALLY nudge the needle? Will they get your closer to your goals for your role, your organisation, or yourself?
- Visualise your workflow. We do this in two ways – physically with pen, paper, Post-it notes to get a strategy or project out there in the open. Then digitally so it’s available to all – through Miro boards, Trello, and occasionally a colourful Gantt chart (we call this Gagile). When we are struggling to focus, detailed and wordy plans/strategies won’t cut it – we need visual and simple.
- Understand the difference between Work Execution and Workflow activities: This tip is from fellow digital and Agile coach, Scott Fulton. So much “work” time is taken up with distracting workflow activities that can steal your productivity – emails, admin, meetings that could have been emails, emails that should have been meetings… Wisdom from my professional crush Grace Beverley: she says don’t start the day with admin as it can destroy your creative/productivity flow.
- Map your capacity. Get honest with yourself: How long do you really have to deliver valuable work within your week? How many hours are you contracted to work? How often do we knee-jerk to requests to “can you just “comms” this, please? At Agile, we plan 80% of our workload for the month ahead, booked into the time we have available each month.
- Create team communications structures: As an Agile coach, I have long been advising on the benefits of a stand-up meeting. As an independent practitioner, there wasn’t much call for them on my own. But when I started employing awesome humans again, it took the support and discipline of fellow Agilist Lyssa to really bring some structure to our Stand-Ups. They are now a crucial part of our working day and just one example of how we work to improve communication and visibility of workload – even in a team that is largely remote-working.
- Embrace analogue systems as well as digital tools, plus face-to-face collaboration as well as online.
This is a BIG one for me. Traditionally, Agile teams would be co-located and software dev teams were encouraged to get liberal with physical Agile tools. Think pen, paper, sticky notes, sharpies, user journeys up on walls, and roadmaps pinned up for all to see.
Hybrid working has its advantages and disadvantages when it comes to productivity. One risk is over-reliance on digital tools to communicate and collaborate – emails, Teams/Zoom calls, and digital dashboards. So much nuance and meaning gets lost in these systems – stay human and physical in how you work.
So there you have it, a few reasons why people in the PR and comms industry are so knackered.
Intrigued by our Agile approach to productivity? Excited about the idea of being less overwhelmed?
Check out our on-demand course Agility for PRoductivity.
Or would you like some one-to-one Agile coaching for your comms team? Contact us!
