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7 ways you can improve internal efficiency at your PR firm

by | May 31, 2023 | Public Relations

We all know the main purpose of a PR firm is to help other organizations manage their public image and reputation. A lot of the time, this is done through improving their communication and allowing their voice to come through in a more authentic way.

Many people don’t think about how PR firms manage to get this message across and how they operate internally. If you are reading this article, then it’s likely that you want to improve the efficiency of your PR firm internally, but you aren’t sure how to actually make this happen.

By the end of this blog post, you will have a good idea of what needs to be done to improve the efficiency within your PR firm, so that you can improve what you do externally! Let’s get started.

Set clear goals

One of the first things you should look to do is set clear goals within your teams. Depending on the size of your PR firm, you may have multiple departments with fully kitted-out teams ready to go. If these teams don’t have a direction to head in, then it’s likely that they will be wasting a lot of time, and generally being less efficient than they otherwise could be.

Of course, your PR firm will have one overarching goal at the top: success. But there needs to be plenty of smaller goals along the way to help this major goal be reached, otherwise, how are any of the team supposed to know how to get there?

To this end, you should set mini goals within your teams that are relevant to the work they do day-to-day. These goals could be to do with upcoming projects, or they could be financial goals, it’s likely it will depend between departments. You should work with department heads to help create these clear goals and make it clear how they can be achieved and when they will be achieved.

Create realistic deadlines

On that line of thinking, you should ensure that any clear goals you set have realistic deadlines set up. This refers to the overarching major goals, as well as the mini-goals that you will set up along the way. You should work with department heads to find out when the goals can be achieved by, and what’s ideal for all members of the PR firm.

Realistic deadlines are also a great way to help motivate your team. If they can visualize when something needs to be done, this can help motivate them to finish it on time. This will especially be the case if there are incentives for reaching certain goals, especially ahead of deadlines.

On the topic of incentivising your team, you should set up incentive schemes to help motivate your team during projects, as well as their day-to-day working life. These schemes can improve the happiness of your team, and can improve the efficiency within the whole PR firm.

Streamline communication channels

With communication being so important to PR firms, they will not be able to work as effectively as they possibly could if they are not able to communicate well internally. That’s why you should streamline the communication channels across the firm.

This can be achieved by implementing efficient communication pieces of software, such as instant messaging platforms, and collaborative software that everyone can work on together. You should use software that makes it easy for the team to communicate together, whether your PR firm is a remote set up, or in a physical office.

Encouraging open and transparent communication will be key. If you’re unsure how this can be achieved, speaking to your team directly and giving them surveys can help you get the answers you’re looking for. Of course, as a leader, you should still ensure that you make the decisions and prioritize communication when it’s time to do so.

You will be able to find out what your team is thinking effectively through software and platforms such as Vevox, which allows you to poll and question your team effectively. This can help you get instant engagement and feedback in regard to communication, and is also something that can be used to increase efficiency within projects and the team in general.

Invest in training and development

It’s also worth mentioning that your team needs to be constantly looking to stay up to date with the latest trends and innovations within PR. This means you should provide ample time and resources towards their training and development, otherwise they may end up stagnating and falling behind competitors, and just being less efficient overall.

You will be able to partner with training providers who can give your team training courses online, or in person. These could be general courses to boost their leadership skills, or it could be specific skills that help boost their PR abilities. You will not want you or your team to fall behind the expected standards within the PR industry.

Utilize automation tech

You and your team will be able to improve the efficiency of the PR firm, if they are able to use their time more effectively. To this end, you should be doing all that you can to prevent wasted time doing mundane tasks. You won’t be able to do much good PR if everyone is doing hour-long tasks that could be automated.

That’s why you should look into automation tech that you can implement into your working day. Plenty of PR software tools can automate repetitive tasks and streamline other tasks. You should also look into CRM systems that give you more control over the management of your team and clients.

Monitor and evaluate performances

As well as looking into using the most modern tech around, you should ensure your team are using them well and feel happy with everything you’ve provided for them. That’s why you should monitor and evaluate their performances.

You can regularly assess individual and team performance to see if everything is going according to plan. You should use performance metrics to identify areas for improvement and see who is doing great and who needs extra help via constructive feedback.

Encourage work-life balance

We spoke briefly about the benefits of incentivising your team earlier in this post, but we would argue that any PR firm looking to improve efficiency will benefit from promoting a healthy work-life balance across the team.

This can help prevent burnout across your team and enhance your productivity! It should go without saying that more productivity will inevitably mean your PR firm is more efficient. But how do you encourage a work-life balance? Well, for one, you could encourage more breaks during work time, and offer more flexible working arrangements.

Many businesses, not just PR businesses, have started to embrace the flexible working world, and this is done through a mix of remote working and office working. There are even some businesses that will only be remote businesses, but it is becoming rare to have an office setting that is not open to flexible working.

Flexible working and remote working allows you to find employees from outside your traditional entrapment area, which means you can find more employees that suit your job profile. If your PR firm hasn’t looked into flexible working, then this should be something you seriously consider! If you follow the tips we’ve mentioned, and speak to your team, then you should find ways to improve efficiency across the PR firm. 

Emily Roberts
Emily Roberts is a young writer who is passionate about literature and blog writing.

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