The Journey Has Ended.... Or Has It?

Yesterday was the final day of training for me. Mixed feelings sets in again as I will miss working there but at the same time glad that I get to go back to my student life again but I have learned many things and actually understood more about the theories of PR.

I believe everyone noticed this when the were doing their training is that every little thing, no matter if it is the packaging to the people behind the managing process, an aspect of PR is there.

In my case, I had a lot of contact with the guests not because it was part of my job description but because it is unavoidable. Being in the service industry especially I believe everyone is considered the PR person figuratively.

I managed to ask the Front Office Manager a few days back about the absence of a PR position in the hotel administration and her reply was simple. 'They do not know what tasks are there for him' but I think its more towards 'whats LEFT for him to do'.

Here are a few of the main tasks a PR person does in an organisation in general and who is currently doing it in my case:-

#1 - To be the advocate of the employers/owners

Right now this is the job task exclusively for the General Manager where he
will go to meet the owners and board members of the hotel and get their feedback.

#2 - To be the advocate of the employees

This too is exclusively the task of the General Manager where he fights for the needs of
the employees.

#3 - To be the advocate of the guests

This task falls upon several people,mainly the Quality Assurance Officer, the Banquet
Service Manager, the Food and Beverage Service Manager, and the Sales
Executives/Directors. They will listen to the guest requests and act upon it and if the
guests are not fully satisfied they will rectify it as best as they can. Even the General
Manager is part of this task if necessary.

#4 - To be the 'Image Engineer' of the establishment

This is a part of everyones job description and it falls upon the managers to ensure that
the other employee follows it. Every one is a part of making, maintaining, and if
necessary repairing the image of the establishment.

Those are just a few of what a real PR person does but just to prove my point that PR plays an integral part in everything and I believe it has been around even before they said it was important or noticed its existence. It came so natural to everyone that nobody actually noticed it.

So a small city like Miri, unfortunately, the PR position is still deemed uneccesarry not just because it is yet to be understood but its because some companies actually separated the tasks and given it to different positions (either unconsciously or vice versa) but I might just have a solution to changing their minds (Hopefully its convincing).

Everyone will usually say that its the 'in thing' and that its is necessary. I will say that it not only lightens the load of many positions in the establishment but also makes the administration process more stream-lined. Of course with the stream-lining not only are the load lightened but also there is a high posibility that one could increase the productivity and thus ultimately increase revenue and /or profits.

To be fair, I understand that at the moment it is still a growing profession here in my city and not many people would understand it let alone know how to utilize it but I guess they will learn sooner or later like I have about how its like to actually do it instead of analysing case studies and theories. I will continue to learn as a go along while I hope to succeed in this profession in the future.

Well, thats all from me this time. Hopefully my views are shared. As usual, thank you for reading and please do leave your comments.

Have a nice day and have fun everyone!

Peace.