Charity leaders can do more to support their communications professionals, particularly as we see a rise in those who cover all or most areas of their organisation’s comms functions.
According to data from our new Salary and Organisational Culture Survey Report 2024, these generalist communicators are more likely to be unhappy at work than comms specialists,
Each year our survey benchmarks salaries and reviews how charity communicators feel about their work.
While there are lots of factors that can influence how we feel about our job, some trends we’re seeing this year are issues around workload and happiness.
Piling on the pressure
The number of those saying that their role covers all aspects of marketing and comms jumped from 17% to 27% in our sample size this year.
One survey participant said that while they had a good salary for a comms lead, they were also expected to be a marketer, graphic designer, web developer, SEO specialist, volunteer coordinator and policy writer.
Another said: “There’s only so much a mission can be attractive amid a cost-of-living crisis and many stressful days trying to be a jack of all trades yet master of none – and that is often how it can feel within charity sector comms.”
Piling on the pressure isn't just more likely to lead to burnout – those saying they cover all areas were less likely to feel that they had a good work-life balance, at 69% compared to 81% overall.
Of course, this can also have a negative impact on the quality of work produced as well as on staff turnover and morale.
Set realistic expectations
Most generalist communicators told us they often feel stressed at work, while only 38% felt their workload was manageable compared to 50% of specialists, and only 10% felt their charity gave them the help they needed to manage their wellbeing effectively.
Charities must set realistic expectations within job descriptions, clarify team structure with clear remits, prioritise effectively, and think about other ways to deliver tasks (such as outsourcing or packaging up projects for temporary support) to alleviate potential workload pressures.
Leaders should also think about the tools their teams can use to manage their workload, identify pinch points, monitor unrealistic delivery plans or reduce the time tasks take. This issue isn’t just isolated to generalist communicators but would likely make a major difference to these individuals.
Strategic use of AI
Digital tools are continuing to drive innovation and we’ve seen a more even spread this year across the types of tasks communicators are using generative AI to help support their work.
The most popular uses of the technology were copywriting (39%) and event transcription (21%), with an increase in those using it to help with grant writing or fundraising asks (from just 5% in 2023 to 18% in 2024).
Being considerate and strategic about our use of AI is equally important, and this year 17% of charity communicators told us that their organisation has an AI policy or guidelines to support staff (up from 4% in 2023).
However, this low figure also shows us that there is still more work to be done in the sector around AI guidance and adoption, with a taskforce set up this year to focus on this.
Team connections
Happiness can also come from better team connections, particularly for solo communicators or small comms teams.
Only 54% of communicators surveyed felt cross-team communication was effective in their organisations, so thinking about processes and ways of working is also key to making improvements.
Investing in personal development is another way to show you value communicators. Encouragingly, 81% of people said they had been offered the same amount or more training opportunities during 2024 (compared to 74% in 2023), though there were over 50% of respondents who told us they do not have any training booked in over the next 12 months.
Most of all, it is crucial for charity employers to just talk to their communicators and find out what will help them.
Our people are our biggest asset and, while there are many external factors beyond our control, there are lots of things we can do to make sure our communicators feel really seen and supported at work.
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