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PRSA ECD Takeaways: February Leadership Forum, Recruitment

Posted on Mar. 20, 2023  /  Subscribe 0

PRSA East Central District (ECD) recently hosted a leadership forum: Finding your talent flow – a yogi guide to recruitment and retention. This was led by Dan Farkas, a lecturer of strategic communication and faculty advisor at Ohio State University. Additionally, he runs a business, Dan Farkas Interactive, which is focused on storytelling. 

This session was eye-opening, targeting primarily on the recruitment of recent graduates in the PR industry. Here’s what Dan had to share …

FOUNDATION: TAKE CARE OF YOURSELF

Dan encourages folks to think about what platform they're on to engage talent.  

• If you’re on a zoom call, he recommends ensuring talent is fully engaged through the senses of seeing and hearing to the best of your ability.
• If you’re in person, he recommends you rely on all senses, if possible. This could mean allowing folks to bring in food/drinks OR offering it to engage the senses of smell and taste. This could also mean shaking hands to engage the sense of touch and overall bring a feeling of connection. 

STRENGTH: REDEFINE CORE COMPETENCIES

In Dan’s experience, he discovered that younger talent wants clarity and reasoning behind the work they’re doing. If there’s ambiguity, it  can lead to anxiety and that may lead employees to not commit to staying in their role. 

He also shared that as employers we should focus on intangible skills (or “soft skills”) because those are harder to teach and should be of higher value. You can always train new talent on tangible skills – writing a press release, developing a strategy, etc.,– but having empathy and/or a desire for connection is rarely teachable. 

LENGTH REFRAME: EDUCATIONAL VALUES

The average brain isn’t fully developed until the age of 25 but graduation takes place at approximately the age of 21. So, Dan encouraged attendees to find ways for new talent to lengthen their professional development and education. 

He recommended that employers should do an assessment of what skills new talent have to identify gaps and areas for improvement. 

He also cautioned against “conference tan” where you get excited about a one-off conference or professional development session but then taper off and forget about it. He shared, “consistency is more important than perfection.”

ADJUSTMENT: BALANCE MATH AS A RAY OF LIGHT

Dan shared that work is what we do but not who we are, and I agree. To me, this translates to needing to treat and view talent as humans first. You have to think about moving talent in the right direction by offering fair:

• Caregiving benefits;
• Educational support;
• Parent aid;
• Equal pay commitments; 
• And effectively be able to relate to your potential and current employees …

Overall, this was a unique take on recruitment that I think can help PR pros reframe how they position their openings and even the retention of current teams!

Megan Bonelli is a Senior Communications Strategist with DTE Energy and is the 2023 PRSA Detroit Treasurer. 

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