Bye Bye 393

Today was the final day of my placement and I felt both relieved and sad. I used the day to gain as much feedback as possible and I also went over my report and recommendations with my supervisor. I was then taken out for morning tea by the team. It was such a pleasant way to finish off my placement.

Doing my placement in house at a private health fund was certainly an eye opener; I was involved in issues management, internal communciations and event planning. I wrote speeches, media releases and countless question and answer documents, yet also had plenty of days with nothing to do and believe me, it wasn't from a lack of asking. I found that when it was busy it was really busy and at all other times the pace was significantly slower.

That's not to say that the team were sitting around with nothing to do, as quiet patches allowed them to complete other tasks including emailing, developing member and staff magazines etc.

Having said that, the 20 days put everything I learnt in PR to the test and below are the most important things I got out of the placement, which I didn't learn at univeristy.

1. Don't be afraid to ask lots of questions.

The most valuable tool I learn was to be inquisitive and ask lots of questions about PR practices and the organisation that you are involved in. Doing this helped when creating documents, so that I was able to get the tone of the article right and had enough knowledge about the content and who would receive it.

and

2. Don't Rush

When I first started my placement I was so determined to show my supervisor how fast I could finish my the tasks he had set me. This didn't pan out so well as the work weren't well thought out and was just rushed. Over time I learnt to work at slower pace and tweak articles constantly until the wording was just right. Just by working at a slower pace I recieved better feedback and ended up spending less time later down the track making amendments.

I hope everyone's placement went well.

-liz

When do you start to believe your own spin?

Doing a placement in house has not come without its challenges.

During my placement, I noticed that many of the corporate employees have an almost deluded idea of the organisation. They don't see past the front door of head office and have no connection with the non corporate employees.

Yesterday I had a meeting with my supervisor and he wanted to know what my recommendations for the organisation were. I said that I was a little shocked that during there recent brand overhaul that they had no meetings with their staff to ask for their suggestions or any issues they had with the organisation. They only sought out the point of view of a selected group of members and potential members and readjusted the brand to suit the needs of the members, with not so much as a second thought about the staff.

I studied PR Corporate 360 last semester and during that time I learnt that having a happy organisational culture was arguably the most important factor in an organisation and that if employees were happy, it would be reflected in their dealing with customers. This has worked for organisations such as Virgin, where CEO Richard Branson goes out and chats with employees on all levels of the organisation and asks for their ideas and suggestions, many of which are later implemented. I asked if the CEO at my placement did this, he does not.

My supervisor seemed a little embarrassed by this and said that it was easy to think that all was perfect when you had been working at the organisation for quite some time.

My question is; Do those working in house start to believe their own PR or is it possible to have an objective point of view whilst working inhouse at company?

What duties are a PR professional responsible for?

Since starting my placement I have seen my boss  asked by people across all parts of the organisation to write up statements and organise things for them. Which has made me wonder in regard to in house public relations, what exactly are the duties of PR professional and when is alright to say no? 

Is it the duty of PR to write up marketing strategies and any other forms of letters on behalf of the marketing and internet communications team? 

I don't know the answer to this but it seems that it's as hard to define Public Relations as it is to define the duties of the job itself. 

I have never thought about the ambiguity of PR but I have seen my boss complete many tasks that I would never even dreamed of having to do in PR. These tasks seem unnecessary and can at times impinge on other more important tasks that need completing but they do come under the PR umbrella such as writing emails on behalf of the CEO and writing up statements for the marketing team as well as proposals in unrelated departments.  

Can you say no to these tasks or do you complete them given that they are communications driven? And if you were to say no, then who completes them?

-Liz

Hi Everyone,

I am eight days into my placement and it's going really well. I'm really enjoying my time here and have been made very welcome.

I have been asking for advice on how to get a job and everyone has said it would be best to work in journalism for a few years and then move on to PR, which is something I didn't want to hear, as I don't particularly enjoy my journalism major and was hoping upon graduating that I would have to deal with it again but hopefully that won't have to be the case.

Yesterday was really exciting as the speech I wrote for the company's CEO was getting filmed by channel 7 news with Paula Voce. It was great to see my work getting used.

At times it can be frustrating to see FAQS and letters to members and staffs get edited but I understand that it takes time to perfect a lot of skills and am taking on board any tips and trying to learn as much as I can.



I hope everyone elses placement is going well.