Fishburn Hedges

08.11.2011

Everyone remembers the first day at their first job.

Mine was nothing unusual. Back in (ahem) the early part of the last decade, I somehow managed to find myself stepping into a financial PR agency and nervously introducing myself to reception.

Eventually someone appeared to welcome me – looking quite surprised to see me - and briskly led me through to a semi-cleared desk, (contents: phone and a dusty computer) where I was left to fend for myself. Mid-morning, a colleague came over with two sheets of paper – an invitation and a sell-in list – and told me to “fill the room for the client’s results day”. I sat staring at the list for half an hour, petrified, until I gathered up the confidence to go back to the colleague and ask him what on earth I was supposed to be doing.

As it turned out, the colleague – and the rest of the agency – was helpful, warm, and friendly, and I have good memories of my time there (although I don’t remember whether anyone came to the client’s results day). But it was an old-school, sink or swim approach, which reflected the agency’s no-frills approach to its work. But it didn’t suit everyone – at times the agency struggled to hold on to its more junior staff, and whilst their approach to inducting new people wasn’t the only reason, it almost certainly didn’t help. I left after a year, little the wiser about the world of PR and not much more valuable to them than when I’d started.

“So what?”, you might ask. For some, careers in PR may seem “brutish and short”, and at times, investment in proper training, care and attention for graduate-level recruits may be seen by some as too time-consuming and expensive, especially during tough times. But the evidence suggests that if they leave, replacing them can be tricky: the CIPD reports that 77% of private sector businesses have difficulties filling some positions, and the same report estimates a cost of £2,000 per junior hire – not including the valuable time spent.

That’s the commercial rationale – on a more human level, giving the appropriate support and training to inexperienced recruits is also surely the “right thing to do”. At Fishburn Hedges we have long recognised – not to mention seen in action - the value of our trainees and our scheme has now opened for its fifteenth consecutive year. Our trainees aren’t pampered, but they aren’t abandoned either – they get a mixture of training throughout their first year, but are also immersed in client work, almost from day one. We’re particularly proud of our ongoing commitment to our trainee programme, and of our trainees’ commitment to us - of the more than fifty trainees we have hired over these fifteen years, almost twenty remain with us today.

The PRCA’s Trends Barometer suggested last month that more consultancies are expecting to recruit fewer university leavers. More bad news for those struggling to find a first job in a competitive market, but we look forward to welcoming our next group of trainees next year. Hopefully we’ll have cleared a desk in time for their arrival.

Posted by Charlie Howard