Employee Engagement Inside PR: What the Research Reveals

Emily Page (00:01):

Before we begin, think about this. We often assume employees want bigger salaries or fancier perks. But what if the real wish is something simpler? Here's a story about searching for what really makes us feel at home. Even at work,

Doug Downs (00:20):

She had a house, she had a family, she had everything really, except what she couldn't quite name. Dorothy wasn't running away from Kansas. She was chasing something. She only understood deep down the feeling of belonging, a place where people truly saw her, listened to her and valued her voice. So off she went down the yellow brick road through a world that made little sense at first. Along the way, she met others, some longing for wisdom, some searching for her heart, some desperate for courage, different words, same desire. They wanted to matter through storms, witches and winding paths, they stayed together. When they finally reached the Emerald City, Dorothy learned what had been true all along. As Glinda. The good witch gently told her, how will you help

Dorothy (01:06):

Can you help me?

Glinda the Good Witch (01:07):

You don't need to be helped any longer. You've always had the power to go back to Kansas.

Dorothy (01:12):

I have.

Doug Downs (01:14):

In today's world of hybrid work and remote offices, employees aren't asking for magic. They're asking for connection. They want to be heard. They want opportunities to grow, and they want to know that they belong not just on paper, but in the culture of their organization. They want to know that when they speak, it matters. Because when people feel seen, valued and connected, something amazing happens. They don't have to look for home anymore. They help build it. And in a world of remote work, shifting priorities and silent video calls, companies who figure that out may just find there's no place like home today on stories and strategies, how purpose, connection and two-way communication are keeping employees engaged and why money alone won't get them to follow the Yellow Brick Road.

(02:15):

My name is Doug Downs

Farzana Baduel (02:16):

And my name is Farzana Baduel, and our guest this week is Olivia Farjado, joining today from Orlando. Hi Olivia.

Olivia Fajardo (02:25):

Hello. Happy to be here. Thank you for having me.

Farzana Baduel (02:28):

How are things in the sunshine state? Lucky you

Olivia Fajardo (02:32):

Sunny today. Thankfully

Farzana Baduel (02:34):

What I know, just the monotony of sunshine. My God, how could you live with yourself Now, Olivia, you are the director of research at the Institute for Public Relations, where you lead major studies on employee engagement, internal communications, and organizational trust. You've worked across agency and research roles specializing in how comms impact workplace culture and performance, helping leaders turn data into action shaping strategies that strengthen connection and belonging inside organizations.

Doug Downs (03:08):

Okay, and Olivia, your team recently published a study called Employee Engagement in the Communications Industry. Why study the comms and PR industry specifically rather than just the broader workforce?

Olivia Fajardo (03:21):

Right. Great question. So existing research has looked extensively at employee engagement just across industries, but we thought it was especially crucial to look at public relations and communication on its own due to the unique work environment that we all operate in. So we're facing really tight deadlines, relatively high stress levels, often balancing several projects or client accounts at once, all the different stakeholders that have different needs. So we thought that of course, it was worth looking into this as we exist in such a unique sort of workplace environment, and we didn't know of another study that took a deep dive into this topic for our industry. So we just thought that it was very important to look into it.

Farzana Baduel (04:07):

I always read actually on the most stressful professions in the world and PR ranks pretty high,

Doug Downs (04:14):

Like surgeons, police firefighters, right? All I think of stress, but you're right, PR is right up there

Farzana Baduel (04:21):

Considering we're ranking up there with police and surgeons and firefighters, I think we should be taken a bit more seriously. Right. Agreed. Agreed. Saving lives one press release at a time.

Doug Downs (04:32):

Yes.

Farzana Baduel (04:34):

Now, Olivia, the study which thank you so much for sharing with us and we going to share a link for our audience, our listeners. The study shows that 89% of communicators report being engaged much higher than general industry averages. I found that quite surprising and also very positive. I'd say now what's unique about communicators and PR professionals that makes them more engaged than other workers in other industries?

Olivia Fajardo (05:05):

So one key driver of engagement that came out of the data was meaningful work. And the reason that I'm prefacing this with that is because I think that communicators are unique in that we are more highly aware of our organization's mission, vision, values, goals for the future. We're very keyed into that, in fact that in a lot of instances. So I think that inherently allows communicators to see more meaning in their work. They see how their work is tied to that greater mission of the organization. So given that that's a key driver of engagement, I mean it speaks for itself.

Doug Downs (05:47):

I don't know if the C-suite sees that We so connected to it sometimes, but yeah,

Olivia Fajardo (05:52):

Agreed.

Farzana Baduel (05:53):

Yes. But it makes perfect sense and I've actually never thought it because we are the ones really thinking about values

Doug Downs (05:59):

And

Farzana Baduel (06:00):

Mission and purpose and alignment of our comms according to that lens. And actually it does bring us closer and that repeat and reinforcement of knowing actually what the corporate mission is, that's really interesting.

Doug Downs (06:13):

Yes,

Olivia Fajardo (06:13):

Yes.

Doug Downs (06:15):

So you got high engagement levels. You also found signs of strain, burnout, resource shortages, dissatisfaction, career advancement, not going the way you want of the issues he covered, burnout, resource shortages, career stagnation, which poses the biggest risk to keeping us engaged over time.

Olivia Fajardo (06:34):

That's a great question. So it's hard to say, but I would predict career stagnation because professional development stood out as one of our primary drivers of engagement in this study. So of course burnout and resource shortages are going to be huge challenges for us to address, but those factors didn't seem quite as pervasive as the relationship between engagement and professional development.

Doug Downs (07:01):

I think you could have a system where you have PD points for listening to a podcast. I might have a recommendation.

Olivia Fajardo (07:07):

That's exactly

Farzana Baduel (07:08):

Right. I wanted to know about flexibility because obviously ever since Covid, a lot of organizations have gone into remote working and a lot of organizations, I'm not sure in the US but in the UK has just pulled about the remote working and they want everyone to come back into the office. And a flexibility's always been a major factor, especially for those who have dependents, children, elderly parents, in my case, needy dogs who need me around. I've got a very needy cockapoo who guilt trips me every time I leave the house now. It's a major factor. So did you sort of come across that is a major issue in terms of schedule flexibility, location flexibility, and is it window dressing now? What did you see come through in terms of the sentiment of communicators when it comes to the organization and flexibility?

Olivia Fajardo (08:06):

So overall, surprisingly, communicators did seem very satisfied with their workplace location and a majority were actually working either hybrid or fully remote in our sample. So that doesn't mean everyone everywhere. But within this study sample, we did have a majority who were working in some sort of either hybrid or remote environment. I will say, in terms of it being window dressing, that likely depends on the organization. So some organizations I believe have truly embraced this idea of flexibility and it is part of their ethos as a company and they're really doing well at keeping those flexibility commitments to workers that might've started during Covid times or shortly thereafter.

Doug Downs (08:57):

That's going to place a bit of strain on communicators too, because especially internal, you got some folks that are hybrid, some folks working virtual and some that get the water cooler stuff. And I get to see farzana facial expressions when I bring up something I saw on Netflix last night. Our job as internal communications pros is to weave a fabric that makes for a cohesive narrative in all of that so that we stay engaged.

Olivia Fajardo (09:27):

So I think it might actually be more challenging in hybrid environments for that reason. When you're fully in office, you have everyone right there all the time. So that can

Doug Downs (09:37):

Just sort of,

Olivia Fajardo (09:39):

Yeah, so you're not dealing with, oh, so-and-so is here and maybe we're not all on the same schedule and that sort of thing. Whereas a fully remote workforce on the other hand, you could plan engagement strategies knowing that everybody is going to be connecting virtually or you can plan maybe meetings in person to do some peer connection. And I know we do strategy meetings where a fully remote team. So I do think that some organizations have it down and they're still committed to it. Others not so much. We're seeing a lot of return to office mandates right now, and we're saying you're going to be in the office five times a week if you don't like it, leave. So there are definitely some companies that have not quite stuck to their guns when it comes to flexibility, and I'm really interested to see how that does impact their employee engagement and retention as we move forward.

Farzana Baduel (10:38):

And did you see any patterns in your data? Because you obviously had people who are remote hybrid as well as full-time in the office. Did you see any varying levels of engagement?

Olivia Fajardo (10:47):

We were expecting to see large differences and we statistically did not see those differences.

Doug Downs (10:54):

Really?

Olivia Fajardo (10:55):

Yes, really. We also studied whether or not, you mentioned earlier farzana about how you are a caretaker here, dog child, and a lot of people are now. And we looked at differences between caregivers, their engagement at work, how their work situation was, and we didn't find a difference with caregivers either. It wasn't statistically significant, but actually caregivers were slightly more highly engaged than their non-career counterparts. So that was very interesting.

Doug Downs (11:31):

Yeah, I know there was one area that stood out the gap between being asked for feedback and seeing action and oh God, I know I've had this happen where we'll have entire sessions, brainstorming sessions, and then at the end, whoever was facilitating, they're coming to some conclusions that I never heard at all in the room. I didn't hear any of that in the room. There's a gap here between listening and action that the listening is lip service. Yeah, you saw the same in the study.

Olivia Fajardo (12:05):

Yes, we saw that. I was very prevalent in the data. So

(12:10):

I have several strategies based on what we found to sort of close this listening action gap that you mentioned. So first, it's incredibly important for leadership to provide transparency behind their decision making. That was a call that we saw from several respondents across the board. So organizations should provide context behind big organizational decisions to build employee trust and sort of foster that trustworthy relationship. Another strategy that I have, so progress toward the organizational commitments and goals should be tracked. Teams and leaders should be held accountable. There should be accountability systems in place where there's some sort of documentation, it's regularly revisited with the whole team and updates on any progress toward those goals should be shared openly. And also when, say for instance, leaders hear suggestions from employees and they cannot follow through on either a commitment that they had made or something that they had said that they were going to do earlier, they should quickly acknowledge the fact that they can no longer meet that commitment and explain why.

(13:25):

So it's a lot of that sort of give us the background information, let us know the reasoning behind things. And then lastly, one other strategy that I'll share is leaders should make sure to listen to employees at all levels of the organization. We saw a marked difference in the data between more senior leaders feeling like their opinions were valued and heard versus employees at other levels of the organization, like entry-level employees, mid-level employees. So there should be equal listening across the board. It might take a little bit more effort of course on the organization's part to reach out into maybe their broader audience of employees who aren't the most senior, but it's incredibly important to get a holistic view of the organization.

Farzana Baduel (14:13):

I completely agree, and I've seen some organizations I've worked with over the years that they've actually created a listening task force that is across geographies, across functions, and across seniority as well. And to really in this listening task force, there's no hierarchy

(14:30):

And it's active listening. And I always felt that was really brave of them and also just incredibly wise, because often they really need to understand that it's the diversity of thought across the employees that will give them that real macro perspective, which I always, I think is very good. Just going back to the listening action gap, do you feel that actually to do an exercise of active listening in itself has a value because it makes people feel heard, but then that ends up becoming completely eroded if there's no follow-up? Because you see a lot of these initiatives like, oh, sentiment is down for employees. Let's do a survey, let's do a focus group, let's do a listen exercise. And then it sort of ends up with a little bit of a rise in of hope that there's going to be a change or difference. But then afterwards there is, it sort of loses momentum and that's kind of almost worse than having done it in the first place.

Olivia Fajardo (15:29):

Right, exactly. I think of course that's going to depend on the situation that you're dealing with, but this is where the importance of that tracking toward whatever you said you were going to do comes into play. So at that point when you're saying, okay, we said yes to this earlier, and then time goes by and it sort of either drops off, no one hears about it ever again, it doesn't actually end up happening. You need to close that feedback loop. Leadership needs to be following up and saying, okay, maybe we're not there yet, but here's what we're doing to move toward that. Or we've decided that that's no longer a goal that we're able to move toward. Here's why. Maybe we can revisit this in the future if that's true. But open honesty and transparency I think wins in this case. And also that sort of frequency of communication.

Farzana Baduel (16:23):

When I look at back at my parents' generation, they would stay in companies for 10, 20, 30 years. They would be in the office five days a week and they'll go to their Christmas parties and all of that. And we are just operating in a different world. So tenure tends to be a lot shorter. You've got a lot more people coming in project-based work versus full-time, part-time, remote fractional

Doug Downs (16:46):

Leaders

Farzana Baduel (16:47):

And so forth.

Doug Downs (16:47):

Part-time leaders. Yeah. Yeah.

Farzana Baduel (16:51):

So how can communicators weave this incredibly fragmented group together through the power of communications to really try and ensure that everyone understands the organizational purpose and values? Because you said it's something really interesting that actually as comms people we're quite engaged because we're constantly thinking about our work, and one of our sort of lenses is what's the organizational value? Is everything we're doing aligned to it, but other people aren't thinking about it every day because they're not in the comms function? And with the challenges that they're working project-based a couple of years in and out, how can you create that connective tissue of culture around them and how can you get them to understand what the values and the culture is when people are sort of looking at their watch saying, well, I'm going to be out of here in about nine months,

Olivia Fajardo (17:44):

Right? Isn't that the question of the day? I wish I had an answer that applied across the board because we would have an amazing business idea right here if we did. So it's such a challenge that I think we're all facing right now, just between the changing workforce and all of the external change that's happening, that communicators are being expected to navigate and still keep that mission intact and communicate with everyone. I think this goes back to the best answer I have, which isn't a perfect answer, but goes back to that whole notion of giving your employees meaningful work. So maybe they are planning to job hop in the next year or so, and we actually asked in the study, are you planning to move careers in the next year? And I think, I don't remember exactly what the figure was. It wasn't extraordinarily high, but it also wasn't extraordinarily low.

(18:51):

So you do have a little bit of that turnover shown in the data as well. So I would say just allowing them to have some sort of connection to the work, whatever that means for their role. And that might be targeted depending on is this a contractor? Is this somebody who's not normally working a desk job that's in a manufacturing job? And you'll have to find a way to communicate with them that isn't email because they're not on their computers all day like your desk-based workers are. So I guess my answer is meeting employees where they are and finding a way to sort of loop that common thread into their day-to-day and make work more meaningful for them, whatever that means.

Farzana Baduel (19:40):

Olivia, thank you so much for your time today and particularly for that wonderful piece of news that actually us as communicators are one of the most highly engaged workforce. And definitely you can take this episode and show your boss and as evidence and proof that our industry actually we are very engaged and we should be valued and bear that in mind in the next salary review. You're welcome everyone.

Doug Downs (20:05):

Oh, hey Olivia. In our last episode, BBC journalist Helena Humphrey, she left a question for you.

Helena Humphrey (20:11):

Well, we were talking about attention spans, weren't we? And how much information were we? Exactly how much information there is out there, and it's something I grapple with all the time. How do you make sure that your message cuts through and resonates when we are faced with a surface of content on a daily and hourly basis? So I'd love to know such a great question.

Olivia Fajardo (20:40):

Such a great question. I think this boils down to I really doing targeted outreach, so there's so much going on, but all of it might not be relevant to us. So that's where this relationship with your different audience members comes into play, knowing what they're already talking about, knowing what they care about, knowing what's relevant to them, and really sort of shrinking down the message and targeting it to whoever you're talking to, I think will cut through all of the noise that is not prioritizing that as well.

Doug Downs (21:20):

Right on. So know the who and not so much the how many. That's less relevant. Perfect.

Olivia Fajardo (21:26):

Couldn't have said it better myself. Thanks, Doug.

Farzana Baduel (21:28):

Now your turn. Olivia, what question would you like to leave for our next guest?

Olivia Fajardo (21:33):

So one thing that I think about quite a bit, given everything that's happening and what we're seeing in the research, there's so much change going on and communicators are usually at the forefront when it comes to addressing this change. We're the ones that are being expected to help everybody navigate it in a sort of uniform way forward. So I want to know, what is your best tip for successfully navigating transformation?

Farzana Baduel (22:04):

Ooh, that's a good one. That's a really good one. Because there's just transformation every day, every hour of the day, every facet, right? Yeah. It used to be this special project for a special team once every 10 years in a certain corporate in a certain sector. Now it's just ubiquitous.

Doug Downs (22:22):

Do you mean navigating it in terms of leading it, pushing it in that direction or understanding what the hell is going on and which way?

Olivia Fajardo (22:31):

I think leading it, navigating a team in a certain direction to help everybody move through it. Because honestly, some things are outside of our control. I'm not sure we'll ever be able to fully understand it. Right.

Doug Downs (22:44):

Well, and we just talked about the way to lead is to foster an environment where team members are leading. So how do I steer the ship when I just told all the Osman to use a bad term? Do whatever you ro however you feel.

Olivia Fajardo (23:05):

I think you can give employees a sense of accountability and ownership, but they're still going to need a leader. No, it's just a matter of trusting them and finding that balance. And at the end of the day, especially when there's something large and scary going on, I think some of the research that was coming out during Covid era and all of that crazy transformation that was happening everywhere was that one of the main sources employees went to for sources of information when everything around them was scary and uncertain was their employer. So they're still looking toward leaders, especially during times of uncertainty and change.

Doug Downs (23:44):

So thanks again. We'll let you get back to the sunshine. Olivia, thanks for your time.

Olivia Fajardo (23:48):

Thank you both so much. This was wonderful. I really appreciate it.

Farzana Baduel (23:52):

Thank you.

Doug Downs (23:56):

Here are the top three things we got today from Olivia Fajardo. Number one, communicators are uniquely engaged due to purpose driven work. Her study revealed that 89% of communicators report being highly engaged, well above the average across industries. She attributes this to communicators, deep connection to their organization's mission and values. Number two, career stagnation and the listening action gap threaten engagement despite high overall engagement. Olivia flags that career stagnation is a growing risk. Professional development emerged as a key driver of long-term engagement, and when that's missing, people start feeling disengaged. Her advice, be transparent, follow through on commitments, make sure employees at all levels feel they're being heard. Number three, flexibility, fragmentation and the role of culture. Building the study found no major engagement differences between remote, hybrid and in-office workers, but Olivia Warrens that fragmented workforces, contractors, part-timers, short tenured employees, fractional leaders still post challenges to culture and cohesion. Her recommendation, meet employees where they are, personalize how values are communicated, and create connection through work that feels purposeful.

Farzana Baduel (25:13):

Do you know, I was thinking as you were saying that I think that we could be entering into a golden age for internal comms because now all of a sudden they're free from all of the newsletters and Gods, what they were sort of told to do. And since Covid, they've been invited to C-Suite because all of a sudden we're remote. We are hybrid. There's challenges around culture and fractional teams and so forth. So actually this is the time. This is the age for internal comms.

Doug Downs (25:42):

This is the age. So many channels, but so many targets. That's the key, right? Find the right target, then you'll have the right channel.

Farzana Baduel (25:49):

Absolutely. Now, if you would like to send a message to our guest, Olivia Fajardo, we've got her contact information in the show notes, stories and strategies is a co-production of Curzon PR Public Relations, JGR Communications and Stories and Strategies, podcasts. If you liked this episode, please leave a rating and possibly a review. Thank you to our producers, please. Oh, yes, please. Yes, please. Big, big thank you to our producers, David Olajide and Emily Page. And lastly, do us a favor forward this episode to one friend, and thank you so much for listening.