News from the FIR Blog

As the world struggles with what’s next for the workplace in the wake of the global pandemic, take time to consider your career path as a communication professional. Join Neil Griffiths, Amanda Hamilton-Attwell, Mary Hills, and Brad Whitworth for a Circle of Fellows focused on career assessment and planning, IABC’s Global Standard, strengths, professional development, certification, and more.
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In this lively panel discussion, four IABC Fellows will explore the current ethical challenges facing communicators, discuss the role a code of ethics can (or cannot) play, and talk about how individual communicators can impact the public perception of PR and business through their own ethical behaviors. The session is scheduled for noon ET on Thursday, October 21. You’ll be able to ask questions in real-time using YouTube Live’s chat function.
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There are dramatic changes afoot among employee populations. The biggest of these are pandemic-related, including hybrid workforces and employees required to adjust to new at-work realities, including continued social distancing and other measures designed to blunt the spread of viruses. In addition, employees are leaving their jobs in record numbers, part of the “great resignation,”… Continue Reading →

We have an exciting and different sort of program coming this month to the Circle of Fellows.

During the recent IABC World Conference, Brad Whitworth and Mark Schumann led a highly rated interactive session that examined how we use time to positively impact worlds we hope to change, lives we want to touch, and differences we need to make. Brad and Mark will reprise much of that session — joined by Alice Brink and Jane Mitchell — as the five of us talk about what we are doing with our time.

Here’s how Brad and Mark describe the upcoming conversation: “We fill our days fighting the realities of time. Maybe it’s time to stop the clock, take time to reflect, and recommit to what we contribute to make ours a better world.”

The two will also unveil the first draft of a “time manifesto” that emerged from the session at the conference. The August Circle of Fellows participants will be invited to contribute their ideas to this living crowd-sourced document during the session and will receive a copy of the manifesto afterward.

So be sure to join us next month for the Circle of Fellows. It will be time well spent.
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Crisis communication begins long before an organization experiences a crisis. Planning to communicate in a crisis involves considerable preparation, running the gamut from ensuring contact lists are up to date to establishing an organizational culture that is prepared to swing into action when things go south.

Organizations that prepare are able to identify most issues before they become crises. But every organization will experience a crisis when decisions must be made quickly and communicated deftly and frequently across multiple channels. Missteps can exacerbate the situation but a strategic approach to a crisis can help the organization recover quickly with its reputation untarnished (or, at least, ready to be rehabilitated quickly).

At noon ET on Thursday, July 15, join four crisis-tested IABC Fellows for a conversation about crisis communication and leadership. The conversation, moderated by IABC Fellow Shel Holtz, will cover the preparation and execution of crisis communication, including a look at the leadership role communicators can play.
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What does it take to ensure success, both personally and professionally, as an organizational communicator? You’ll hear the personal and professional stories from five renowned communicators during a live-streamed episode of Circle of Fellows scheduled for 7 p.m. ET on Thursday, June 17.

Personal success is all about you: Are you getting the jobs you want? Are you moving up the organizational hierarchy? Are you earning a salary commensurate with your contribution to the organization and the skills you bring to the table? Professional success focuses on your ability to move the needle in your organization through communication strategies and tactics and earning recognition among your peers.
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Internal communicators have been partnering with Human Resources for years. In larger companies, HR even has communicators of its own to handle messaging about people-related matters. Changes in the workplace have led to substantial changes in HR’s role, many of which are potential flashpoints, which now add external communicators to the mix. Consider the recent news about Basecamp, in which a decision by the company’s leaders to ban political discussion from internal forums led one-third of the company’s employees to quit.

In this episode of Circle of Fellows, five IABC Fellows will discuss the relationship between communications and HR in an environment in which purpose and values drive employment decisions, employees expect companies to take a stand on issues that matter to them, and employee activism is on the rise.
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Return on Investment (ROI) is a term that is tossed around loosely in some circles. Strictly speaking, ROI is expressed as a percentage determined by dividing the return (or benefit) of a monetary investment by the cost of the investment. That’s not what most communicators measure, yet the industry frequently refers to the ROI of communication. Is that a number that applies to communication? Can communication contribute to an organization’s overall ROI? What are valid alternatives to ROI that company leaders will appreciate when communicators share them?

Four IABC Fellows gathered at noon ET on Thursday, April 15, 2021, to discuss these and other questions.
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Corporate Social Responsibility has never been hotter. With younger workers insisting on working for purposeful organizations, a surge of interest in investment funds that focus on sustainable companies, and organizations embracing comprehensive ESG (Environmental, Social, Governance) initiatives, communicators have their hands full. From reporting ESG results (annual ESG reports jam-packed with data are becoming commonplace) to pitching companies’ CSR commitments, challenges abound. Simply checking off CSR boxes (donation made: check) no longer cuts it.

At 10 a.m. ET on Thursday, March 18, four IABC Fellows will spend an hour discussing the communications role in developing and promoting modern CSR efforts. The live-streamed panel (listed below) will take your questions in real time. You can ask your questions or share your observations in the YouTube chat or via Twitter (add the hashtag #COF67).
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What does it take to be successful as an independent communication consultant? How do you transition from your current corporate role, with all the support and resources that come with it, to working on your own? How do you drum up business, manage multiple clients, and handle all the administrivia (like contracts, invoicing, accounting, and… Continue Reading →