CIPR

Speaking on CIPR TV live at 12.30pm on Thursday 2 June, Chartered Institute of Public Relations (CIPR) President Paul Mylrea will outline the next stage in the Institute's long-term strategy to bring greater diversity to the PR profession.

In 2010, the CIPR established the Diversity Working Group to develop an inclusive culture, raise general awareness within the PR industry and to increase the number of PR practitioners from all backgrounds.

Building on the efforts of past CIPR Presidents such as Chris Genasi, the Working Group undertook to examine the scope of the issues through a series of meetings and dialogues. The Working Group has now settled on a dual strategy aimed at tackling issues across the profession and embedding diversity practice within the CIPR itself.

The CIPR has identified a number of issues that hold back the recruitment and retention of talent from the widest possible range of backgrounds. These include awareness of PR as a career option, access to careers, recruitment, re-employment and return to work, and the 'glass ceiling'.

The CIPR intends to show leadership through five key areas of work:

• Improve understanding of PR in communities in which it is not a visible career option
• A best practice approach to internships
• A competence-based approach to recruitment
• A best practice approach to re-employment and return to work
• Steps to tackle glass ceiling issues.

Each of these areas will be developed across the next 12-18 months. See notes (below) for specific proposals.

As well as adding to existing efforts in the profession on diversity, the CIPR will re-examine its own policies, procedures and services to ensure that they meet expectations in terms of employment, access and inclusion.

Commenting, Cornelius Alexander, Chair of the Diversity Working Group, said:

The CIPR Diversity Working Group has spent a long time examining and discussing the issues that are affecting diversity in the PR profession and is ready to move the debate forward. We are keen to ensure that both the industry and the CIPR take a constructive step towards seriously addressing diversity and improving access to the industry in the next 12 to 18 months.

Commenting, CIPR President Paul Mylrea said:

Diversity is a challenge for PR, which is a profession with a relatively small workforce and one in which jobs are often highly sought after. However, broadening the appeal of the profession to people for whom it may not be a visible career option, making internships accessible to the widest range of applicants and doing more to retain, re-employ and promote talent makes good business sense as well as being the right thing to do.

ENDS

For more information, contact Phil Morgan, CIPR Director of Policy and Communications on 07794 265 678 or Diversity Working Group Media spokesperson Helen Ashley on 07976 804314.

Notes to editors

1. This CIPR TV show on diversity will be shown live at 12.30pm today (Thursday 2 June 2011).

2. The five work strands include:

Improve understanding of PR in communities in which PR is not a visible career option

• The CIPR will reach out to communities where PR is currently not a visible career option
• We will work with others across the industry to achieve this, asking agencies and employers to lend support and expertise and to work with us to make this happen
• We will seek to embed this in the work of the CIPR as an ongoing benefit to the profession
• Our first outreach event will be on disabilities.

A best practice approach to internships

• We will bring forward a best practice guide for employers on how to set up an internship that meets ethical standards put forward by the Government, the CIPD and in best practice cases already existing in the PR industry as well as the established CIPR Work Placement Charter
• We will establish minimum expected standards for a best practice internship
• We will seek to balance out the need to ensure that internships are at the same time ethical and open to the widest possible number of people, without seeking to make it harder for employers to offer valuable opportunities to people seeking to gain access and experience.

A competence-based approach to recruitment

• We wish to help establish recruitment criteria for entry level jobs in the profession based on ability and potential and to work with employers and recruiters to establish a competence-based approach to employment in public relations
• The CIPR will engage experts and provide employers with guidance on how best to deliver this approach in practical terms.

Best practice approach to re-employment and return to work

• CIPR will examine its training programmes to see what they are providing and how it could better assist practitioners returning to work after an extended absence
• We will establish a mentoring scheme aimed at members who are returning to work
• Better guidance for both the returning practitioner and the employer will be made available.

Steps to tackle glass ceiling issues

• The CIPR will clarify the position on glass ceiling issues relating to under-represented groups in senior management through further research
• The CIPR will engage with employers and members and will seek guidance from beyond the industry in developing a best practice approach to addressing glass ceiling issues.

3. About the CIPR: the CIPR is the professional body for PR practitioners in the UK. With 9,500 members involved in all aspects of PR, it is the largest body of its type in Europe. The CIPR advances the PR profession in the UK by making its members accountable through a code of conduct, developing policies, representing its members and raising standards through education and training.