- March 7, 2023
- Posted by: Die Redaktion
- Category: BEST PRACTICES
The PR job market is a good seismograph for transformation trends in our professional fields. At the end of June, AG CommTech hosted two renowned headhunters for communicators in a live interview. Gabriele Kaminski and Christian Loecker are managing partners of GK Unternehmens-und Personalberatung from Mainz. CommTech members were able to tune in and participate in the discussion. Richard Tigges from Audi has summarized the most important questions and answers.
GK Unternehmens- und Personalberatung has been on the market since 1991, is now part of an international network and sees itself as the leading German-speaking personnel consultancy in all areas of communications – from classic disciplines such as press relations and internal communications to digital media, corporate publishing, events, public affairs, investor relations and brand communications.
Richard Tigges: Let’s start right away with our key question: What skills will a communications department need in 2030?
Christian Loecker: In the ongoing transformation that most industries are currently undergoing, the importance of internal communications and change support is increasing, whereas in the past, media relations experts were almost exclusively sought after. In the past, one hiring criterion was how strong the network to journalists was. But the number of media professionals who are brought “to the other side” for this reason alone is noticeably declining.
Gabriele Kaminski: Today, on the other hand, candidates who can take on 360-degree responsibility for issues, who have strong consulting skills, who are able to deal confidently with uncertainties, and who have an understanding of intercultural issues are particularly interesting. And when it comes to a management position, a forward-looking understanding of leadership is increasingly in demand, because without agile collaboration, there is somehow hardly any industry left today. With the keywords empowerment and personal accountability, by 2030 at the latest, the last bosses should be saying goodbye to control and monitoring fantasies.
Richard Tigges: Today, sustainability is considered a “license to operate”. What kind of communicators are you looking for?
Christian Loecker: There are not even a handful of universities in Germany today that teach sustainability communication comprehensively. We are looking for communicators who have a holistic understanding of the topic, for example because they have previously taken a technical or economic path. This has become more important than editorial expertise. And it’s no longer just about climate and the environment. In addition to ecology, the social and governance components of the ESG triad are gaining in importance.
Richard Tigges: We talked about agility at the beginning. Let’s end our conversation with the impact of agile collaboration models in PR on organizational charts in 2030!
Gabriele Kaminski: In some companies, we have been observing far-reaching changes toward a pure project organization for some years now, for example at Lufthansa or Deutsche Telekom. Others develop hybrid forms. The bottom line is that we see a clear trend toward more flexible roles in communications departments. On the one hand, because this is in line with the trend towards agility, and on the other hand, because this is often the only way to master the complexity of today’s tasks. A large number of young candidates are not only willing to do this flexible project work, they even want this change in their daily routine.