Public sector comms: It’s time to move on from ‘more with less’

It’s a phrase that needs throwing in the bin. And then someone needs to set fire to the bin. And then throw the flaming bin in the sea. 

I get the “less” bit. 

The public sector feels like it is at a tipping point moment. The planned abolition of NHS England is a scary and pivotal moment for the thousands of comms people working in health. And the ongoing Local Government Reorganisation will mean joint budgets, potentially merged (maybe smaller) teams. 

How and why we’ve got here is for another blog post. But, I guess, we are where we are, for now at least.

But “more”?

What we’re talking about is having (in some cases) half the resources we used to have, and being expected to do, not different or other things, but actually more things.

It’s an equation that has never computed. And it’s not about to magically start computing any time soon.

Every public sector comms person I know works ridiculous hours. They work nights. They work weekends. They work on holiday. They work when they’re off sick. 

Not only that, but humans really do have only so much capacity for information at any one time.

There is not more that realistically can be done at this point. 

“Better” however? Well we might be on to something there…

Budgets are being cut, as sadly are headcounts. But it’s still going to be possible to do good work that makes a difference. It’s going to require a total mindset shift in how comms is engaged with, but it is possible. 

Here are some potential starting points:

Having a strategy (and actually following it)

Everyone talks about strategies, and everyone agrees they’re needed. How many understand what’s involved and what they mean in reality?

They mean lots of things. They’re an intellectual and strategic framework for how your organisation engages with the outside world, and among itself. 

I get that this might sound a bit highbrow but there’s a simpler way to understand why comms strategies are important.

They mean prioritising: doing task A and saying no to task B.

When they’re good, everyone has been involved in creating them. Senior leaders have been involved and own the agreed direction. They also understand that they’re bound by them and their responsibilities to make them happen. 

It means that the thing they’ve just thought of doesn’t happen because it’s not part of the strategy. It means they’re getting told “no, because...” more often.

That can be a hard thing to hear at first. But hear it they must, if comms teams are going to continue to do good work with reduced capacity.

Shifting the proactive / reactive balance

Reactive comms are a part of life. There’s no getting away from it in a public service. Stuff happens and you need a professional comms function to deal with it. 

But we must get to a point where that’s not the normal day to day. It should be extraordinary and activated when needed. 

The needle needs to move towards better planned activity that comms teams can bring their best skills to. 

Yes, that means having a robust, co-produced comms strategy but fundamentally it means changing cultures from where comms is about responding to events, into ones where comms is enabler of driving pro-active agendas for the future.

Taking the ego out of comms decisions. 

How many “things” comms teams do are because of someone “wanting” something; irrespective of whether it’s part of a strategy or adding anything particular to their organisational objectives?

I don’t have hard data on this, but I’m willing to imagine out loud that such a lot of time and capacity could be saved by taking random, last-minute exec requests out of their workflow.

A good performing organisation with comms as a strategic function driving its engagement will reflect well on everyone associated with it. Senior leaders need help to trust the process and trust the expertise of their comms teams.

Giving comms teams the right tools for the job

“We need to do more video”

“We need more engaging content”

“We’re spending too much on external agencies”

All good points. So give comms teams the right tools to resolve all of this, and they will.

That means:

• Better smartphones.
• Better laptops with the right software and / or subscriptions.
• Access to file sharing sites without being blocked by firewalls.
• Stuff like half-decent microphones, tripods etc.
• A bit of training on how to use it all…

Sure, this stuff might cost a grand or two out of this year’s budget now. But it will save a fortune in agency fees in the future. It will also allow comms teams to create much better content in the here and now, and for the foreseeable, while growing the skill base of teams for the long term.

The fact is comms teams are dealing with factors way out of their control and difficult situations that they just have to deal with. There is no more money (for now), and no cavalry coming over the hill. 

But given their importance to our organisations, they need supporting.

The good news is that with just a few simple but important steps, communications teams can continue to deliver great work and value to their organisations; whatever the challenges they face.

So, let’s consign “more with less” to the flaming dustbin of comms history; and start thinking in terms of “better with support”. 

Who knows, it might just catch on…

Ben Capper is founder of Grey Fox Communications and Marketing. Ben’s blog was first published on comms2point0 - the website owned by Creative Communicators founder Darren Caveney.