How to Stop the Revolving Door at PR Agencies

PRWeek reports on a new survey by the PR agency consulting firm StevensGouldPincus of 150 PR firms, which found that turnover averages 20% per year, with larger firms (billing $25 million or more) seeing turnover rates of 24% per year. In other words, the entire agency, other than the founders or top executives, turns over every four to five years. Sounds about right based on my experience in agencyland.

This is hardly a surprise: agency work can be brutal, with low-paid staffers expected to produce media miracles for clients (I heard a story once from an agency staffer whose client expected no less than the front page of USA Today’s Life section for a story about a new product they were rolling out).

SGP offered some suggestions for reducing turnover:

• Give employees the option to telecommute or work flexible schedules


• Give staff the technology to take advantage of those flexible options


• Never take on a boring client simply for the sake of revenue

Here are Catching Flack’s further suggestions:

• Pay better. Pay bonuses for outstanding work during years the agency does well. Offer better-than-average benefits.


• Do more training. Even more important than pay, in my opinion. People don’t generally come into the business with a lot of practical knowledge about how to do PR, and for some reason, the industry doesn’t put a lot of emphasis on it — it’s sink or swim. [In contrast, a prominent law firm I know spends two years training newly hired associates in their way of representing clients. And that’s after new hires have been to law school and passed the bar.]


• Tap into staffers’ creative knowledge. Too often, strategy comes from the top down and staffers are expected to simply implement. Involve younger staffers in the creative process. These days, their social media expertise might be especially useful.

Got any other suggestions for staff retention? Share them here with your colleagues.