The Public Relations and Communications Association (PRCA) have published its latest piece of research, examining in detail how PR businesses are reacting to the current circumstances in financial and human resources terms.
The research reveals:
– 15% of respondents have applied for business interruption loans, and a further 10% will be doing so
– 60% of respondents have furloughed staff
– 50% of respondents have implemented staff pay cuts, and a further 10% expect to do so
– Where staff pay cuts have been implemented, almost two-thirds of cuts have been in the 10-25% bracket
– 60% of respondents have been personally financially impacted
– 50% of respondents expect to make redundancies.
PRCA Director General, Francis Ingham MPRCA, said:
“These numbers show the gravity of the current circumstances.
“The scale of furloughing, pay cuts, and anticipated redundancies dwarfs anything seen during the financial crash. Given these numbers, the low take-up of business interruption loans shows that there is something wrong with the current system. If the loan model cannot be made to work, then the Government should give serious and urgent consideration to a grants model instead.
“At a time when business leaders are making painful decisions for their colleagues, it is good to see that they are sharing the financial burden personally.
“We need to be honest with ourselves – the industry will end 2020 smaller than it began it. But as our international confidence tracker concluded earlier this week, the inherent strength and flexibility of PR means that we should nevertheless be confident about the future, and confident about the strength of the recovery that lies ahead.”
PR professionals completed the Pulse survey carried out by The Pulse Business.
Full results:
Has your organisation applied to the Coronavirus Business Interruption Loan Scheme (CBILS)?
10% Yes it has and our application has been accepted
5% Yes it has and our application is pending
0% Yes it has and our application has been rejected
10% We are planning to
75% No we have not
Has your organisation furloughed staff?
0% Yes it has furloughed more than half of the team
35% Yes it has furloughed about a quarter of the team
25% Yes it has furloughed less than a quarter of the team
5% The organisation is planning to furlough some staff but the numbers are not clear yet
35% No it has not
Has your organisation implemented staff pay cuts?
20% Yes we have for everyone
30% Yes we have for some of our staff
10% We are planning to but the numbers are not clear yet
40% No we will no
What percentage did you cut your staff salaries by?
0% More than 50%
6% Between 25-50%
63% Between 10-25%
31% Less than 10
Have you personally been or do you expect to be financially impacted e.g. loss of bonus, pay cut etc?
60% Yes I have been and here’s how
5% Yes I expect to
35% No I have not
Do you expect to make redundancies in the next three months?
0% Yes we will and it will affect at least half of our staff
5% Yes we will and it will affect at least a quarter of our staff
45% Yes we will but the numbers are not clear yet
50% No we will not
