Prospect launches sister company Prime HR

Prospect launches sister company Prime HR

Former Cohn & Wolfe Director and Prospect Founder launch HR Start-Up PRIME with stark employer warning

Former Cohn & Wolfe Director Paula Grant and Prospect Founder Colette Brown have launched a new company offering HR services and consultancy to the PR industry called Prime. Prime has been launched in response to the increasing trend for ad-hoc consultancy rather than retained staff by agencies due to the recession. The founders assert that paring back HR investment will be counter-productive for agencies in the long-term andPrime will offer support to agencies with or without HR teams.

“The knock-on effects of seemingly ‘easy wins’ to claw back budget like training and development will have dire consequences for agencies in the mid-long term. We discovered that pay freezes and longer working hours were easier to accept than the lack of career planning, personal development and investment in individuals”, said Grant.

According to Prime’s research, 80% of PR agency staffsay they are just ‘sitting tight’ in their current role until the economy and job market improves.* As 2009 draws to a close, employees are feeling the negative effects of reductions in HR spend.  Prime spoke to 50 PR employees* confidentially about their views on their employers’ attitudes to HR issues such as training and benefits in the recession. 

·        92% of people stated that the recession had affected their job-seeking behaviour.

·        80% felt that employee welfare was of little or no importance to their employer.

In addition:

In the last 12 months, have there been changes to your benefits / remuneration package in the following areas?

•         66% responded yes to salary freeze.

•         34% responded yes to training and development freeze.

Grant said: “The impact of people leaving is enormous – you can count the cost both in monetary terms and manpower to replace these people, but also the enormous impact of clients moving when their client handler leaves the agency.

“Employers have cut back on headcount, both support and client-facing staff. In addition, they have been noticeable reductions if not a total stop on training and development spend, salaries increases and often freezes on employee benefits.

Whilst cutbacks have given businesses some short-term financial relief, the longer-term impact of these cuts is going to be at a far higher cost. “

Brown said; "The recession has opened up opportunities in this space as companies look to outsource some core functions but still require expertise for everything from advice on handling redundancies to how to streamline their training. For smaller companies things like ensuring contracts are in place and EU laws are being to adhered to are not optional. Now is the time for agencies to invest in their talent and infrastructure to secure their teams, grow their people potential and set them selves up for success.”

Grant left Cohn & Wolfe in February 2009 and has been freelance consulting until now. Grant and Brown forged a working relationship during Grant’s tenure at C&W.

Prime will operate separately to recruitment agency Prospect.

www.primellp.co.uk

*Research Information

Prime spoke to 50 agency staff using Survey Monkey anonymously over the past month.