More diversity, more personal – what PR needs to attract talent

In our special 75th anniversary print edition of Influence magazine, we heard from young public relations professionals about their experiences, their hopes and aspirations. This month, we’re publishing longer interviews with our panel; here's Tani Fatuga, senior communications consultant at Hard Numbers:

I’d been interested in working in communications for some time, but it was during my role as a buyer at Tesco – my first job after university – that I really had my eyes opened to that world, as I had to work closely with the comms team and attend press events. I attempted to move into a comms role by applying for a lot of jobs and taking on opportunities like shadowing the PR manager, but I wasn’t successful as I didn’t have enough experience. 

So I set myself a time limit – I’d do two years in my current job and if I hadn’t secured a comms role by then, I’d do a master’s degree to help me get my foot in the door. And that’s what happened. I left Tesco in 2018, did my master’s and off the back of that, secured my first comms role in 2019 as a consultant within financial services PR. 

However, Covid struck shortly afterwards and unfortunately the agency I was with couldn’t keep me on; it was a case of last one in, first one out. 

I left that role after just nine months and took on freelance work before securing my next role at Stand to work on their financial services clients. It was during this time I decided I wanted to focus on tech and in June 2022, made the transition to Hard Numbers. 

The value of working in-person 

Looking back at the time I’ve been in the sector, I can see that I wasn’t afforded the opportunity to build relationships in the way I would have liked, because of the pandemic.

Now, I have no problem picking up the phone or emailing journalists to try and get those meetings in but I think it's important from a career-development perspective to have the opportunity to network. It would be great to see more PR networking events as they don’t exist in the way they did before the pandemic. 

And it’s ironic really, because we’re comms professionals but we don't have the structures we need to really communicate effectively and build those relationships. 

But the same goes for networking within companies too. A lot of people don’t want to work in the office five days a week for a variety of fair reasons, but there is value in being around people; you learn so much just from overhearing colleagues’ conversations. 

When I think of my own career, there’s been times where I’ve been able to sit down with the MD and pick his brains about a strategy. That doesn’t happen when you’re working virtually because everyone’s laser-focused on their to-do list and mightn’t have time to respond to your Slack message. 

More diversity in comms leadership 

Looking at the wider industry, I’d like to see more transparency around the difference between working in-house and in an agency. You’re more likely to receive fair pay in-house for instance and it would be useful to know that when you’re new in the industry. 

Industry-wide mentorship would be great. We’re encouraged to seek out our mentors, but it can be quite daunting making that first move and reaching out, on social or LinkedIn etc. If there was something similar to the CIPR buddy scheme that we have as part of the Chartership programme, that would be really useful. 

Most importantly though, I’m hopeful for a more diverse industry on all fronts and as a Black woman, I’d love to see more people of colour sitting in leadership positions throughout the comms industry, not just in the agencies that are founded by them. If we really want to have diversity of voice, we need to actually see it from the top down.

That’s also important in encouraging more diverse people to come into the industry. I used to look at company websites to understand who was in the business, and seeing only white faces wasn’t welcoming. 

Then there are the feelings you have to deal with once you’re in the profession – that I can't bring my whole self to work and can't speak candidly. 

I worked at an agency once where it was obvious that I was the diversity hire. It felt that they didn’t actually want me there, didn’t value what I had to bring to the table. They just wanted to make it clear that they had a Black woman within the business, and that they were therefore ‘diverse’. That needs to change. 

I’m really hoping for a more diverse industry, not a tokenistic one; trust me, no one wants to feel like the diversity hire. 

Advice for moving into PR 

I’d advise anyone coming into the industry to become part of some kind of governing body or association. Being a member of the CIPR has been super helpful to me, particularly from a training perspective because there's so much on offer. 

But working in an environment where you have the autonomy to ask for the training you feel you need is also really important; I've had quite a bit of training since I've started my career, but every time I’ve requested it myself.  

Fortunately, Hard Numbers really encourages a growth mindset and tries to bolster our learning and find new ways to develop. Also, everyone here automatically becomes a corporate member of the CIPR, so if you want to work towards your Chartership it's really encouraged, and via that process you have to join webinars and understand things like ethics and strategy, which will all ultimately help in your development and progress your career. 

Tani Fatuga is a senior communications consultant at PR, media and marketing agency Hard Numbers.