Let’s start charging for the value we deliver instead of the hours we work
A recent poll showed that agency PRs are routinely working two days of “unpaid overtime” each month. Now, this is quite possibly the least surprising industry news of the year, but it has highlighted the issues we face as a profession as we strive to offer a healthy blend of work and life.
In response to the poll, several commentators wheeled out suitably bland industry tropes like, “we really need to tackle over-servicing guys”. But by only talking about the symptoms we’re ignoring the underlying cause, which is that the industry’s commercial model is flawed.
The industry standard of charging a retainer fee for a number of hours is a bit like your Bon Jovi tour jumper; outdated, full of holes and no longer fit for purpose. We should be charging for the value we add rather than the hours we deliver.
PR isn’t formulaic. The huge number of external variables that threaten to derail our carefully thought-through capacity planners doesn’t really bear thinking about, so it’s hardly surprising that everyone’s working such long hours — people want to do a great work, not just their hours.
As an industry we’re brilliant at adapting to change on behalf of its clients. We stay up to date on everything, constantly adopt new tools, and help clients navigate potentially treacherous changes in their business environment. But when it comes to our own commercial models we’re lucky if it gets a cursory mention in an end of year planning meeting.
We’re always banging on about wanting better representation of PR at board level. That starts with taking a stand and retiring PR by the hour in favour of a model that reflects the value we deliver to our clients, not the hours we spend sitting at our desks.
