Industries
Why agency employees leave and how to understand why
Creatives, planners and account teams leave for reasons beyond pay. How to run an exit conversation in an agency, spot patterns by account and act on them.
7 min readRead article
Marketing, Advertising & Creative Agencies · PR agencies
HR for PR Agencies: Media Relationships, Crisis Hours and Retainers
A PR agency's value sits in its people's relationships with journalists and clients, and in how they behave when a story breaks. Crisis hours, sensitive information and slim retainers test the team more than any normal week.
Not sure what you need? Tell us about your business in six short steps and we will come to the first meeting prepared.
Share your requirementsA PR agency handles media relations, announcements, events, reputation and, when things go wrong, crisis response, for clients on monthly retainers. Account teams pitch stories to journalists, write releases and statements, track coverage and report results. The work is relationship-heavy and public: a wrong word to a reporter or a leak of a client's plan costs a retainer. Weeks can be calm and then a client's crisis arrives on a Saturday night. See also HR for marketing agencies.
- Plan
- Hire
- Onboard
- Manage
- Develop
- Perform
- Engage
- Retain
- Exit
- Improve
When HR is weak in PR agencies, you may see
- The journalist knows one person
- A crisis arrives on a Saturday
- Confidential information is everywhere
- Retainers are slim and scope drifts
- Writing quality is uneven
- Pressure from clients lands on juniors
- Reporting is manual and heavy
These are the places the people side of this kind of business tends to give way. The rest of this page works through them.
Who does the work in PR agencies
HR here has to work for each of these groups, not only the office. The set-up below is written with all of them in mind.
- Agency head and partners
- Account directors
- Account managers and senior executives
- Media relations specialists
- Content and release writers
- Event and influencer coordinators
- Media monitoring and reporting analysts
- Corporate and crisis communication consultants
- Interns and trainees
Where HR strains in PR agencies
The journalist knows one person
Media contacts are held personally, and a resignation takes both the relationship and the client's trust.
A crisis arrives on a Saturday
A client's incident needs statements, calls and monitoring through the weekend, and nobody has agreed who is on call or how time off follows.
Confidential information is everywhere
Teams know launches, results and deals before the public does, and a careless chat or post can do real harm.
Retainers are slim and scope drifts
Clients ask for one more release or event, and the account team absorbs it without anyone recording the time.
Writing quality is uneven
Releases go out with errors because the review step is a favour, not a rule, and juniors are afraid of asking.
Pressure from clients lands on juniors
Demanding client contacts shout at junior executives, who have no easy way to raise it.
Reporting is manual and heavy
Coverage reports are built by hand each month, taking days from people who should be talking to media.
HR topics for PR agencies
Start with the topics that matter most here: Employee Relations; HR Analytics and Management Reporting; Policies, Compliance and Governance. Then work through the rest. Each topic is written for marketing, advertising and creative, not in general.
Employee Relations
Two routes — one for complaints, one for conduct — kept separate.
HR Analytics and Management Reporting
A short monthly pack management actually reads.
Policies, Compliance and Governance
Policies a manager can apply, and obligations with owners and dates.
HR Strategy and Workforce Planning
How many people, in which roles, by when — and what they will cost.
Organisation Design
Structure, reporting lines and who is allowed to decide what.
Recruitment and Talent Acquisition
Requisition to joining, the same way every time.
Onboarding and Probation
A first day that is the same for the fifth joiner as the first.
Employee Administration
Records, attendance, leave and the day-to-day HR that must simply work.
Compensation, Payroll and Benefits
Salary structure, payroll inputs and a month that closes on time.
Performance Management
Goals, reviews and ratings that hold up in a conversation.
Learning and Development
Training planned from need rather than from the calendar.
Career and Succession Management
Named backups for the roles that cannot be vacant.
Employee Engagement and Experience
Communication, recognition and the conditions people actually work in.
Health, Safety and Wellbeing
Induction, records, incident reporting and follow-through.
Retention and Attrition Management
Who leaves, when, why — and which of them mattered.
Exit and Alumni Management
Resignation to relieving letter, in a defined order.
HR Technology and Automation
Records that survive people, and approvals that do not queue.
HR Operations and Governance
An HR function that runs the same way every month.
What a working HR set-up looks like
The pieces a PR agencies business puts in place, in an order that makes each easier. Open any card for the detail.
Share media relationships on purpose
Each key journalist list is owned by a pair, with introductions logged and a monthly review, so contacts are not lost when one person goes.
What this coversHide
Share media relationships on purpose
Each key journalist list is owned by a pair, with introductions logged and a monthly review, so contacts are not lost when one person goes.
What this coversHideEach key journalist list is owned by a pair, with introductions logged and a monthly review, so contacts are not lost when one person goes.
Write a crisis duty roster
Named people for weekend and night response, fair rotation and compensatory time off, set in the attendance, shift and leave process.
What this coversHide
Write a crisis duty roster
Named people for weekend and night response, fair rotation and compensatory time off, set in the attendance, shift and leave process.
What this coversHideNamed people for weekend and night response, fair rotation and compensatory time off, set in the attendance, shift and leave process.
Teach communication and confidentiality
A short, practical session on what may be said to reporters, on social media and in group chats, built from communication skills training.
What this coversHide
Teach communication and confidentiality
A short, practical session on what may be said to reporters, on social media and in group chats, built from communication skills training.
What this coversHideA short, practical session on what may be said to reporters, on social media and in group chats, built from communication skills training.
Set a review rule for anything that leaves the building
Every release, statement and pitch has a second reader and a stated turnaround, so quality does not depend on goodwill.
What this coversHide
Set a review rule for anything that leaves the building
Every release, statement and pitch has a second reader and a stated turnaround, so quality does not depend on goodwill.
What this coversHideEvery release, statement and pitch has a second reader and a stated turnaround, so quality does not depend on goodwill.
Create a route for client abuse
A simple way for staff to report unacceptable client behaviour to a partner, with a response, using the grievance and disciplinary process.
What this coversHide
Create a route for client abuse
A simple way for staff to report unacceptable client behaviour to a partner, with a response, using the grievance and disciplinary process.
What this coversHideA simple way for staff to report unacceptable client behaviour to a partner, with a response, using the grievance and disciplinary process.
Count the work that fills the week
A basic view of hours per client and per task type, supported by HR reporting and analytics, to find reports and tasks that eat time.
What this coversHide
Count the work that fills the week
A basic view of hours per client and per task type, supported by HR reporting and analytics, to find reports and tasks that eat time.
What this coversHideA basic view of hours per client and per task type, supported by HR reporting and analytics, to find reports and tasks that eat time.
Start by checking where you stand
Before changing anything, find out what is true today. These checks take an afternoon and tell you which of the topics above to start with.
Share your requirements- Ask each account lead which three journalists they could call on in an emergency, and who else knows them.
- Write who is on call this weekend if a client's crisis breaks, and how they are compensated.
- Look at your confidentiality instructions and whether a junior has read them.
- Compare the scope of your five largest retainers with the work actually done.
- Check who reads a release before it is sent.
- Confirm with a qualified professional the employment, confidentiality and defamation rules that apply to a PR agency like yours.
Confirm with a qualified professional. What applies to you depends on your business, your state and your arrangements, and it changes. This page describes practice. It does not state a legal position.
How GullyHR helps
The services below fit this kind of business best. Each starts by recording where you stand, and every later report compares against that. We do not promise outcomes.
- Communication skills training
Practical training in media conduct, client calls and written statements for executives and managers.
- Grievance and disciplinary process
A clear route for staff to raise client abuse and for the agency to handle confidentiality breaches fairly.
- HR reporting and analytics
A view of hours by client and task, so scope drift and report overload are seen and priced.
- Professionalism and work ethics
Guidance on discretion, conduct and social media behaviour for teams that hold sensitive client information.
Start with a free conversation, or see the paid HR Diagnostic.
Our HR transformation approach
- 1
Assess
Understand the business, its workforce, current processes and HR challenges.
- 2
Identify gaps
Find the missing, weak, inconsistent or person-dependent processes.
- 3
Design
Create the structure, processes, policies, SOPs, dashboards and systems needed.
- 4
Implement
Help HR and department managers actually adopt the new system.
- 5
Automate
Digitise repetitive and approval-based workflows where it is worth doing.
- 6
Measure
Track hiring, attendance, employee cost, performance, training and attrition.
- 7
Improve
Strengthen the people-management system continuously, not once.
Blogs worth reading first
From the GullyHR blog: one on HR in marketing, advertising and creative, and one on each of the topics this page points to.
HR Process
A grievance procedure for a company with no HR department
An employee brings you a complaint about their supervisor. What happens next should not depend on who is in the room. A grievance procedure a small company can actually run.
8 min readRead article
HR Process
The 6 HR reports a founder should get every month without asking
Six numbers, one page, same format each month. What they are, how to define them so they mean the same thing twice, and what each one tells you.
8 min readRead article
HR Process
What should an employee handbook include?
A practical contents list for an employee handbook in a growing Indian business: what to cover, what to leave to policies, and how to keep it usable and current.
5 min readRead articleMore on the GullyHR blog.
Questions owners ask
Share key lists between two people, log introductions and meet journalists in pairs. Some contacts will still move with the person, so build agency-wide relationships too and agree notice and handover in the employment terms.
Agree a roster, a fair rotation and time off in lieu or other recognition before the crisis arrives. Confirm the rules on working hours and compensation with a qualified professional. Unplanned heroics produce resignations.
What counts as confidential, who they may discuss it with, how to handle chats and social media, and what happens if they slip. Make it short, with real examples, and repeat it at induction and once a year.
Yes. A weekly entry per person against client and task is enough. Compare it with the retainer scope each quarter. It supports honest conversations about scope or fees.
Give staff a safe route to report it, support them quickly and let a partner raise it with the client. A team that learns the agency will back them stays longer.
We would ask who holds your key media relationships, how weekend crisis work is rostered and who reviews a release before it goes out. A good first project is a crisis duty roster plus a confidentiality and conduct session. Scope is then written down for you to accept or change.
More on HR for marketing, advertising and creative
All 8 business types in marketing, advertising & creative agencies · Find another business type
Advertising agenciesSocial media agenciesBranding studiosDesign agenciesDigital marketing agenciesSEO agenciesEmployee Relations in marketing, advertising and creativeHR Analytics and Management Reporting in marketing, advertising and creativePolicies, Compliance and Governance in marketing, advertising and creative
See all HR topics for marketing, advertising and creative, or another industry.