Lots of things are important, but an increase in budget would be best spent on increasing staff size, according to the 2021 Communications Benchmark Report
Tony Silber, Editorial Director, Ragan Communications
What would you do with an increased communications-department budget?
That’s a question we asked part of the Ragan Communications Leadership Council’s 2021 Benchmark Report. The results—culled from more than 700 respondents—were fascinating. Respondents were allowed to select up to three of the following options. Which would you have chosen?
- Hire more full-time staff
- Hire more contractors/freelancers
- Conduct a communications audit
- Redesign our intranet
- Employee wellness
- Technology
- Build a brand journalism digital platform
- Improve communications metrics
- Invest in team training
- Roll out an employee communications app
- Launch a podcast
- Invest in virtual reality, augment reality or artificial intelligence
As it turns out, the results weren’t even close. It’s true that all kinds of budget constraints are perennial challenges for communicators, as are ever-present distractions and last-minute requests. They’re all impediments to effectively fulfilling the communications mission.