Look beyond the pound signs to retain your best people

While money talks, top talent want more than just remuneration. Winning the war for talent comes down to a strong employee value proposition and understanding that preferences vary between demographics. Although salary is often the headline figure, increasing numbers of employees report that pay is only the starting point and when looking for a new job, many seek to work for employers whose values align with their own.  

These were a few of the findings that really stood out when we polled 403 PR and comms professionals in our recent salary survey to gain insights on salaries, bonuses, benefits, pensions, redundancies, job moves, and how employees are navigating the current challenges of an uncertain market. 

Professionals showed an overwhelming preference for working in-house over an agency. While our report revealed that in-house roles are four times more appealing, we also noted significant efforts on the part of the agencies to attract and retain employees. Higher pay increases, people moving up the ranks faster, improved benefits – the agencies know that they are up against fierce competition and working hard around the constraints of tightened budgets to retain their people. 

Salaries are increasing, albeit slowly 

Against what can only be described as an unpredictable economic backdrop, companies across the industry are taking a cautious approach when it comes to salary increases. 

Pay rises are down for corporate communications professionals to an average of 5.5%. This is a significant drop from the average increases of 10% given the previous year.

Overall, 70% of professionals received a pay increase, which marks another significant drop from the year before. 

Agencies gave out more pay increases, averaging 6% compared to the 5% average uplift given in-house. We say well done to agencies in this respect. Times are tough with budgets being squeezed across the board, and the strong appeal of in-house roles simply cannot be ignored.

One of the most noticeable trends we have seen over the last five years is that agencies have increased their pay brackets quite substantially from entry level to senior account director level. This is where the biggest shifts have happened when we look back over the years.  Professionals moving up the ranks in agencies are being paid significantly more than they were five years ago. Account directors were typically paid £40,000-60,000 five years ago and now that has shifted to £55,000-70,000. This is down to supply and demand – account directors are thin on the ground, which pushes their salaries above levels of inflation.

People are moving up the ranks faster too. We have seen professionals make director level in eight years, where it used to be 10. This is the new norm.   

Is there a difference between in-house and agency compensation?

The big difference isn’t shown in the salaries being given to in-house and agency professionals, but when it comes to bonuses, the balance tips in favour of in-house.  

Our report showed that 71% of in-house comms professionals received a bonus, a slight increase from the year before. Conversely, only 47% of professionals received a bonus. This is the lowest figure we have seen in several years – a new ‘all time low’ in bonuses for agencies. Agency professionals received an average bonus of 13%, which pales against the generous 21% average awarded to in-house professionals.  

That said, overall, comms professionals seem content with their pay. The increases may not be as large as in previous years, but 82% of those polled said they were happy with their pay. 

Companies are not always offering the benefits employees want

Our survey found that the top five most desired benefits among the comms professionals we polled were:

1. Private healthcare for themselves and their family.
2. Work from anywhere, for up to a month.
3. Private dental cover. 
4. Enhanced maternity/paternity pay. 
5. Sabbaticals. 

There are still numerous benefits that companies offer that employees are no longer interested in – free breakfast, fresh fruit and snacks, cycle to work scheme, travel insurance, recruitment referral bonus scheme and childcare vouchers.

This shows how the focus on employee wellbeing is swiftly moving away from being just an added benefit of employment. Employee expectations have expanded beyond free fruit platters and discounted gym memberships into other aspects of working life.

For example, employee healthcare packages as standard are becoming more common, and within those packages we are seeing increased emphasis on day-to-day wellness – with many companies offering access to free wellbeing apps, discounted health-tech, counselling and therapy sessions, money off healthy eating and incentives to keep active.

Polling comms professionals on their employer pension contributions, we found that in-house comms employers generally offer 8% to those in head of comms positions and above, while at agencies, the average employer contribution is 5% for directors and above.

These figures have barely changed since we last raised this question back in 2018 – at which time the average employer pension contribution was 7% for in-house professionals and 4% for agency professionals.

We recognise that agencies have worked to improve the amount and value of the benefits they offer, no doubt as part of their retention strategies, as one of the main factors for losing talent to client side is the perceived idea that salary and benefits are better. However, pension schemes have clearly been overlooked. Pensions are an important benefit, with more senior professionals considering it a vital benefit as they age and given that the movement of great talent is towards in-house, it’s just one more reason senior comms professionals will look to move in-house or choose to stay there.

Perhaps it’s time for companies to review the benefits they offer and trim the long list down to a favoured handful – spend more on what’s really wanted.  We recommend looking at what people want at different stages of their life too and curating the benefits offered. Yes, this is an HR headache, but in a competitive market, this is worth the pain. 

Looking beyond the numbers

Organisational benefits and a fair pay package do not always equate to employee wellbeing.  We are also seeing a shift towards employers looking at their own culture and management practices to try to improve employee wellbeing across the board. Ensuring clarity of role and duties and providing manageable workloads can go a long way to improving employee satisfaction, as can clear communication of performance benchmarks and celebrating achievements of individuals and the business alike.

When we look at the overall findings, professionals’ values have shifted. What they want from a role is not just a healthy wage, but a sense of purpose, a challenge, the opportunity to embrace personal development, to feel as though they are making a difference.

Our advice to leaders is to take a fresh look at not just your compensation packages but also your environment – identify opportunities for your people and play to their strengths, curate your benefits to align with what they want, offer meaningful work, flexibility, a compelling vision, and show a greater awareness of invisible disabilities (such as neurodivergence, PTSD, brain injury, dyslexia, autism and ADHD) – make equality and inclusion a reality in the workplace. These things can be just as appealing as pay.

Sarah Leembruggen is the managing director of The Works Search, an executive search consultancy for the corporate communications sector.