Sales, marketing and procurement

Public relations and communications assistant

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Building, protecting and maintaining a positive reputation for brands, organisations and individuals.

Summary

This occupation is found in organisations that come from the public, private and third sectors. Typically, public relations and communications assistants work in agencies or in-house for employers.

The broad purpose of the occupation is the building, protecting, and maintaining of positive reputation for brands, organisations, and individuals. The role also concerns the way those brands, organisations and individuals communicate about themselves, their products, or their services with a range of audiences, via different methods. 

In their daily work, an employee in this occupation will communicate and build relationships with different people. This includes the media, stakeholders, the public, internal colleagues, and various audiences to get their client’s or organisation’s message across and influence opinions and behaviour in the most effective way. 

An employee in this occupation will be responsible for researching and understanding their clients’ or organisation’s goals. They will then use their communication expertise to support the day-to-day delivery of effective campaigns to deliver specific objectives or organisational goals. Typically, this would include developing written and non-written content, contributing towards campaigns or new business proposals, and managing and sharing information with stakeholders. An individual will spend time researching various audiences and stakeholders. They will analyse and report on the impact of campaigns and programmes. 

The occupation requires using one’s own initiative while supporting those leading on campaigns and programmes and involves working closely with colleagues in a team environment. 

As a core element of their role, public relations and communications assistants will be required to have a good knowledge of current affairs, the media, the public relations industry and how it informs their role. They will understand how their role supports the wider organisation structure. They will apply codes of practice, legislation, and regulation in respect of their organisation’s areas of operation. This will apply not only to legal and ethical responsibilities but will include the central placement of inclusion and sustainability.

Public relations and communications assistants will use IT systems and software to support campaigns. This may extend to the production of non-written content such as film production, live streaming, image creation and infographic production.

Typically, employees will be mainly desk-based, although travel to meetings, events and training is routinely part of the role.

Typical job titles include

Knowledge, skills and behaviours (KSBs)

• Knowledge
• Skills
• Behaviours