The key to success

As we prepare ourselves for our final week/s of our placements, we shouldn’t consider this as the end, but as the beginning of a very challenging and rewarding career. The conclusion of our internships, and for many of us our degrees, is not the closing of one door and the opening of another. Rather, it is the key that enables us to unlock the door to our future career.

I truly believe that the knowledge and skills I have developed over the past 15 or so weeks have provided me with a solid foundation as a PR professional. I now have a taste of what the real world is like, and I can’t wait to get the full experience. I now have a strong ability to work independently and take initiative, I have developed my interpersonal skills as well as got a tremendous amount of writing practice. 

One of the most rewarding outcomes of my internship is establishing a connection between theory and practice. I’m sure I am not the only one who has found that some things are exactly like what we learn at university, but often best practice isn’t always used. A prime example that I encountered at Alcoa is the use of social media. I don’t think there is one of us who would agree that social media isn’t important in this day and age, right? And that’s why I was shocked when I learned that Alcoa of Australia don’t have any social media accounts or actively manage its online reputation. I was even more surprised when I discovered that introducing social media into Alcoa’s communication mix is currently being pitched to top executives, who are largely against the idea. This made me realise how difficult it is to convince top level management about the importance of public relations activities, and that you should never assume that basic best practice concepts are easily adopted. 

So as we begin to unlock the door to new opportunities, we must remember that this is only the beginning. We must continue to develop our skills and abilities, learning from our mistakes as we go. This is the only way that we can continue to open more doors for ourselves and continue to grow as PR professionals. I wish you all the best of luck in your future careers and hope your experience has been as rewarding as mine.

Source: http://www.rtrmarketing101.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/07/key2success.jpg

 

Hear Ye! Hear Ye! My first town hall experience.

As I made my way down the stairwell with the Managing Director one step in front of me, I was in awe watching a colossal amount of people emerge from their offices and pile into an awkward room somewhat similar to a basement. A town hall meeting had been scheduled for employees at the Booragoon office to fire questions at two visiting US representatives from the executive team of Alcoa Inc. I’ll be honest and say I had no idea what to expect. Obviously I knew there would be a discussion of some sort but I didn’t exactly know how a town hall meeting operated in action.

I found refuge on the edge of the room behind a few people. Unfortunately I wasn’t one of the lucky few that arrived early and claimed chairs, so I stood with the majority of employees in a room. I stood back, listened and watched very carefully. I took note of the facial expressions of the employees, both those who chose to speak and those who chose to stay silent. I watched the body language and presenting style of the two American representatives, as well as carefully analysed their answers to employees.  If you ask me, as an outsider, I thought they spoke extremely well. They tried to make it personalised and speak with the employees, not at them. They (seemed to be) transparent, authentic and honest; when they didn’t know the answer they admitted it but promised they would follow it up and get back to them. The speakers tried to incorporate humour into their responses, which I believe was done professionally and helped to build rapport with their audience.

In all, I consider my first town hall a beneficial learning experience. It's a great tool to promote two-way dialogue with employees especially during a period of corporate change. It does have it short falls, of course. I noticed that there tended to be two or three common employees who asked a number of questions, leaving the large majority of employees without a voice. Sure, those questions could have been what they were thinking anyway. But there are likely to be some employees that had really good comments and/or feedback for the Americans, but didn’t have the courage to speak up. Alcoa would therefore need to use this tool in conjunction with other tools to maximise employee engagement.

Realising that my knowledge of town hall meetings was lacking, I did some research into what makes up a good town hall. I must say this one ticked pretty much all the boxes. This website I thought would be a good resource for anyone else looking to expand their PR toolkit, providing clear guidelines on how to conduct a town hall meeting (if you're interested). From this list, I was interested in the post-meeting tasks. Things such as creating a public wiki for a Q&A and communicating ideas that have been implemented from the meetings sounded like great initiatives. I know that sometimes these aren't always feasible, but I definitely think they are important considerations. Another interesting thing I found was the use of online technology to conduct town hall meetings, particularly for multi-national corporations like Alcoa. I don't know if it would be as effective as real face-to-face meetings, but could still bring other Alcoa regions together to help maximise efficiencies and develop sound relationships across borders. One example of this technology was cinchcast - there's a link available if you want to read more.

So even if it did mean standing up for an hour in a tiny and hot room, I definitely believe my first town hall experience was a good one. It’s easy to sit back and critique such events, however I know that it is easier said than done. I look forward to trying to use this new-found understanding town hall meetings to produce better outcomes in my future career.

P.S. As previously promised, check out my Instagram danika_welly to see my workspace photo showing my two very different work environments. It certainly keeps me on my toes and makes every day exciting!

Independent woman

I think we are all finding out things during our internship that we think is unconventional or unique. For me, it is being in the metals industry, whereby one week I get to wear office attire and sit on the third floor working on a media release, to the next week going out into the refinery to talk with employees wearing a hard hat, protective goggles, work boots and DAP (a spray to protect you from caustic burns) strapped around my hips.

What I think sets my internship apart from most though is the independence I have. My supervisor is based in Booragoon however I am mainly based at the refinery in Wagerup. I liaise with her each week on my tasks, but I don't actually interact with her too much since being based in Wagerup, but rather update her and seek feedback or assistance on specific projects that I'm working on. My tasks come from over the company, including both refineries, the mining sites and the corporate offices.

It has been a great opportunity for me to develop autonomy in the workplace, encouraging me take initiative on tasks at hand and perform time management. One thing I never realised was how long it takes to read and answer emails in the morning. I have to allocate at least an hour to read, respond and action necessary tasks from my emails over the previous week. And I'm only an intern!

I feel privileged to be given the chance to showcase my ability to work independently because it not only allows me to develop work-ready skills, but it also provides me with the opportunity to tackle a variation of tasks each week. I love a challenge and being able to walk into work knowing that I have a full on day, and never quite knowing exactly what the day might throw at me.

Each week I am building on my knowledge of the company and fostering relationships with employees from a vast range of operations across the refinery. Being a local girl, I love seeing people I know or having a mutual connection with people in the plant. I think that's what makes it so easy to be independent. I don't ever feel alone; having such an open and inclusive working environment means that everyone is so approachable and friendly (so far at least!). The autonomy I've had over the past few weeks has provided me with the courage to grow professionally and personally. I am really starting to feel like an independent (and professional) woman!

So what I am now realising, after reading some of your amazing blog post, is there is no typical internship. Every internship, every company, every PR job we will have, will be different in some way. So let's be independent women (or men!!) and own whatever it is we're doing, taking advantage of every unique and wonderful opportunity thrown our way.

P.S. Keep an eye out for photographic evidence of my non-conventional workspace (and my stunning outfit) soon to come…

Boosting PR's credibilty - is it as simple as changing its name?

We all know how powerful language can be. But have you ever stopped and considered what damage the term "public relations" might have on our profession? Now, because of my internship, I certainly have. 

When I met the Director of Corporate Affairs (CA) for Alcoa, along with my supervisor (Manager Corporate Affairs), I was quizzed on my education and degree. Both had studied at Curtin University some years ago, my supervisor in Marketing/Communications and the Director in creative writing.

I was asked what my degree was called "these days". When I answered "public relations", the Director let off a little giggle and a look of disbelief as he processed my answer. My supervisor commented that this was a surprise given that spin doctoring is strongly associated "public relations", in which the CA head then agreed.

This had me a little confused. We have been taught that as PR professionals that a major challenge for our profession to trying to gain credibility in the corporate arena and eradicate misconceptions of spin doctoring and press-agentry. However, how can that ever be achieved if key players in our own industry still associate public relations with such misleading terms?

A few days later, in a meeting I was asked to sit in on, a point was raised that the generic contact for the department will be changed from "PR" (before the remaining address) as it is outdated and no longer represented the name of the department (which is now called Corporate Affairs). I agree that "info" or "queries" is probably better suited than "PR", however it  got me thinking even more about what public relations really meant in the corporate world.

It began to dawn on me that maybe the issue isn't necessarily with our profession, but rather the term "public relations" as we struggle to gain credibility for our role in business. Think about it. There actually aren't many jobs advertised with the term "public relations", but rather jobs titles (and even departments) tend to refer to communications, corporate affairs or specific PR fields such as employee or media relations.

It's an interesting question. Should we be advocating our profession as communications rather PR professionals? Does "corporate affairs" or "communications" suggest a more strategic role in an organisation than "public relations"? Admittedly, it probably does.

So maybe, as part of the efforts to improve the credibility and promote a more strategic function of PR professionals, we should look at the language we use. After all, language and sending the right message to our audience is (one of) our specialties, right? Who knows, maybe in 20 or 30 years' time, when we are all experienced  professionals in the field, public relations will be an old term and we'll tell our interns that back in our day, our degree was called public relations.

I'm not suggesting that we should stop calling ourselves PR professionals or any radical action. It's just food for thought. But I am suggesting that you start challenging what you think you know and looking at PR from a different view during your internship. Also, keep in mind the wide range of job titles PR professionals are qualified for when looking for jobs. Chances are, your first job out of university will be some variation of the profession!

Sink or swim

First days in the office generally involve setting up accounts, checking emails, meeting fellow colleagues and getting a feel for the organisation. I, like I'm sure the rest of you, certainly experienced these on my first day. But I was thrown into the deep in with one of my first tasks being to attend a meeting alongside the Senior Communications Advisor with the two of the top executives for the company - the Chairman/Managing Director and President of Alcoa Mining. We discussed an internal video about changing corporate culture that was being filmed later in the week. The two execs were thanking and encouraging positive corporate change which will be used an introduction into a focus group session that will provide better insight into the Alcoan culture. My first day also involved proofreading an internal newsletter, formulating content for a media release, gaining background knowledge on key programs and partnerships, and discussing content for the new website.

My level of flexibility, initiative and time management were really tested straight away as I was in three different offices/locations for the first three days! This is because of the widespread offices and refineries across the region extending from Wagerup (near Waroona) to Booragoon in Perth. I have been given a company laptop which I use at each location and I am found a suitable work area. I think my professionalism and attitude when dealing with this flexible work arrangement was really positive and showed my potential to my supervisor. I am looking forward to see what other tasks require me to ‘step-up’ and provide me with a challenge for the remainder of the internship.

I am back in the original office tomorrow (Booragoon) ready for the filming of that corporate culture video. Wish me luck!

Ready, set, go!

For the past two days I have completed my induction for Alcoa at its Pinjarra Refinery, which means I am now able to start my internship next week! I am really excited to work for Alcoa - this is actually my dream employer. I had the opportunity to complete my work experience with their community relations team during in high school and that was one of the primary reasons I chose to study public relations. I will start at the Booragoon office on Monday for four days then continue one day a week at various sites, particularly with Wagerup's community relations team again (located in Waroona).

Most of the induction covered information that was irrelevant to my internship given that I will be working in the office and not on-site, covering health and safety for working on the refineries or mines. However, I gained a great of knowledge from my induction. I was able to better understand what activities Alcoa does within the public relations field including their major partnerships, awards, media policy and employee volunteerism. I realised they are an industry leader in a variety of areas, especially environment and community development. Did you know that they have one of the longest and most successful environmental partnerships in Australia? They recently celebrated their 30 year partnership with Greening Australia. I am excited to learn more about their community contributions and success stories to develop my abilities in this area.

I also learnt a lot about the aluminium industry and the company. For example, I think it is pretty incredible that 75% of the aluminium that was first developed by Alcoa is still in use today! Also that Alcoa are currently the only company that is involved in every stage of the aluminium-making process. I bet you didn’t realise just how much you use aluminium - it’s used for trains, cars, laptops, mobile phones, DVDs, outdoor furniture, bottle tops and, of course, beverage cans. These were just some of the interesting facts I learnt, so I am really looking forward to what the remainder of the internship will bring. If you want to learn more about Alcoa, you can follow this link.

Wish me luck for my first day in the office.