Work/Experience: the chicken and egg argument

I'm sure I'm not the only one who has been frustrated by job vacancy ads that demand "experience in the field" as a requirement. How would I ever have the experience if no one gives me the work? I need experience to get work, but I need to do the work to have the experience. Which one comes first? It's the classic chicken and egg argument, isn't it?

That's why I think we need to show appreciation to organisations that give the chance for people to gain some work experience. I'm very thankful to Baptistcare for giving me a go under the wonderful PR & Marketing team. I just finished my 20-day placement and I have gained invaluable experience during that time.

I have had the chance to use and sharpen my writing skills by writing for its quarterly magazine Reaching Out. It has taught me confidence and resilience in communicating with different kinds of people. I have learnt to look at the bigger picture of public relations and communications, both internal and external of an organisation. I have gained some insights into the aged care and disability services industry. Overall, it has given me a taste of working in the real world of professional PR. 

Now at the end of my internship, I'm happy to say that the work experience I've gained has resulted in some job offers. I will be working as a freelance writer for Reaching Out magazine and as a casual Human Resources/Marketing officer. The HR/Marketing officer is a newly created role that, as the name suggests, integrates HR and marketing. My tasks will include writing creative job ads that fit with the overall PR theme of Baptistcare, promoting programs/initiatives of the HR department to Baptistcare employees, re-writing procedures/policies in layman language, and bridging communication between the HR team and the PR & Marketing team. 

I am excited to assume these roles and see where they would lead me. Hats off to Baptistcare for giving me work experience that opens doors to employment.

Events: a memorable and engaging PR tool

I never really understood why organisations hold events. I mean, they are good fun, but why? They require a lot of planning and organising and cost a fortune. Some events don't even seem directly related to the main goal of the host organisations. Is there anything to be gained from holding events?

Into my ninth week at Baptistcare, I've been involved in planning the Annual Recognition Awards Night. It is an event that celebrates and acknowledges the achievement and dedication of employees at Baptistcare. I am impressed by the amount of time and money that is committed to holding this event (especially considering it is a not-for-profit organisation). The event is in September, but the planning began as soon as last year's Awards Night was over and the organising started in February. Without giving away confidential information, let's just say the event costs no less than five digits. What impresses me even more is the efforts my supervisor puts into the event. She pays attention to details such as colour scheme, table decoration, photo booth - you name it. She bought a secondhand boat for the photo booth and dried star fish and shells for table decorations (the theme is "Nautical" and the venue is a sailing club). She doesn't hold back. 

My supervisor is the "Events Coordinator" of the organisation. As the name suggests, she coordinates every event, from a multicultural lunch to celebrate "Harmony Day" at the main office to a launch party of a new facility in Rockingham. I was quite surprised that there is a position dedicated to organising events. I just didn't get it - why does an organisation take events so seriously?

After musing on it for a few weeks, I think I've gained some understanding. Events, as trivial as they may seem, are a powerful PR tool. The power lies in an event's capacity  to engage those who attend and leave a memorable impression in their minds. Events are an example of two-way symmetrical PR. If executed well, they work better than brochures or advertising campaign. Imagine trying to increase awareness about the work of an organisation helping victims of human trafficking. Fact sheets and information booklets may be informative, but nothing works better than, say a night of photography exhibition or movie screening followed by testimonies from the victims themselves. 

Have you ever been to an event that truly captures your attention to an issue or an organisation? What do you think was the X factor that made the event work?

Why did the spider go on the internet?

Because he wanted to be on the web!

Everyone wants to be on the web these days, including organisations big and small. We are in an era where the first point someone consults for information is no longer the Yellow Pages but Google (which might lead to the online Yellow Pages). While print marketing materials still have their place, what an organisation puts on its website will most likely be its first avenue to attract a customer. It has become so important to have and maintain an online presence that companies have a staff member (or even a group of staff members) dedicated to the task. The past week at Baptistcare I was asked to use most of my time coming up with recommendations to improve the Baptistcare website. 

I began by surfing the website and writing down aspects that I dislike or I think are not user-friendly. I then proceeded to look at 15 competitors' websites and write down good elements that can be adapted to Baptistcare's website. It was a time-consuming and exhausting task, but it was a necessary process to get an idea of what content and presentation are provided online by other organisations in the industry.

After doing my research, I made the following observations:

1. Most of the websites I looked at had rich content but it wasn't written in succinct, informative forms, which is a big obstacle in the communication process. If a user has to read the information twice and stop to process it, most likely that's a sign you are not getting the message across.  

2. Colour combinations, font type and size, spacing, and picture placement are very important to make a website look attractive and user-friendly. I personally prefer a clean and elegant look, with photos organised neatly in a photo gallery. 

3. I think "smart functions" like cost calculator and postcode search are especially helpful in the aged care and disability services industry. However, none of the websites I looked at had any of these functions. (I suspect one of the reasons might be the complexity of cost calculation, but I wonder if there's any way to enable an estimate)

4. Custom photos (photos taken by the organisation) make the websites look more authentic and personal. However, most of the websites I looked at use stock photos due to privacy and cost. The disadvantage of this is there is a high chance another or a few other organisations are using the same pictures. The websites that did use custom photos gave real and tangible images of what the organisations are like and the services they provided, which I think make a better impression to a potential client. 

5. Providing helpful resources, such as fact sheets and list of tips, increase the usability of a website. These resources also make a website more than just a once-off information portal, but a place one can always come back to for more information - which makes the website a valuable resource itself.

Those are some of my observations. What do you think make a good website? What positives and negatives have you observed organisations have on their websites?

Who are your audience?

I just finished my fourth week at Baptistcare and it has been a rewarding experience so far. For the past few weeks I've been mainly busy writing for its quarterly magazine Reaching Out.

As a student majoring in Journalism and PR, I was excited to be given the task of writing stories for the magazine. I'm ecstatic that my supervisor has entrusted a big part of the magazine to me. I have written two stories for the Autumn edition to be published in a couple of weeks, and now I'm working on three stories for the Winter edition, one of which is a cover page story. The cover page story is about Baptistcare client George, a single dad who gives his life to caring for his two boys with autism. We went to interview him last week and it was a great experience.

As I was writing these stories, I found myself having a battle in my head. A battle I later on figured was the classic Journalism vs PR duel. Having been trained in journalism to always question PR stories and to only write 'newsworthy' stories, I struggled to write some of the stories. I constantly asked myself "So what? Who will want to know this?" and often the answer in my head was "Who are you kidding, no one wants to know about this!" I was tempted to say to my supervisor we should probably change the stories. 

But then I realised I had forgotten to ask myself a very important question: who are your audience?

All along I subconsciously had it in my head that I was writing for a newspaper, whose audience are the general public. Of course no one would want to know about another Baptistcare employee who just received a diploma! But I forgot that I wasn't writing for the general public. I was writing for a specific public. My audience are Baptistcare's employees, clients (and their families), supporters, sponsors and the local communities who have been reached by Baptistcare. Of course they'd want to know about a Baptistcare staff who just received an award.

I realised what my lecturers said was right. You need to keep your audience in mind when you write. In the bigger picture, it's part of tailoring your PR strategies and tactics to your stakeholders. Reaching Out may seem like 'just a magazine', but in the grand scheme of PR, it is a tool chosen by Baptistcare to keep its stakeholders informed and engaged with what's happening in the organisation. 

That realisation was quite a light bulb moment for me. It has shown me that it is possible to use my journalistic skills in PR without compromising the glorified 'news values'. The news values depend on who your audience are. Identify your audience rightly and you will write newsworthy stories for them. 

Not-for-profit doesn't mean no business

Hi, my name is Alfinda Agyputri and I recently started my internship at Baptistcare. I'm working under the Events Officer Laura McRae in the PR & Marketing Team, or what they call "Strategy and Innovation Department". I'll be interning here for 10 weeks, doing two days a week on Mondays and Tuesdays. I work at the Support Services Office, which is the main office, in Welshpool. 

In my final year of studies, I realised my interest in not-for-profit sector compared to corporate or consultancy because I prefer being committed to a cause rather than a business or a company. I chose Baptistcare because being a Christian I like the idea of working for a Christian organisation. Baptistcare is also student-friendly, so I thought it would be good for me to be interning with an organisation that actually puts effort and care in mentoring the students. 

I used to think of not-for-profit organisations as being small and having "minimal organisation", but it's certainly not the case with Baptistcare. It is an extensive organisation with more than 1400 staff, 13 residential aged care facilities and 8 retirement villages, as well as disability services and community aged care spread across metropolitan and regional WA - and the organisation is still growing.

Baptistcare main office in Welshpool

I began my first week on 4 February. I attended the weekly team meeting where they went through everyone's to-do list for the week. So my tasks were:

1. Update the media contact list

So far Laura has been relying on email addresses she found on different media websites, but she wasn't sure if the press releases she sent ever reached the right people. Laura also asked me to look at options for media monitoring services because Baptistcare doesn't monitor its media presence. I suggested to do media monitoring internally because it was too expensive to outsource it to another company. 

2. Interview two clients for stories to go on Reaching Out, the quarterly magazine. 

One of them is a father with two young boys with autism who recently moved into a new home. The other one is a resident at one of the aged care facilities who was reunited to an old friend she hadn't seen for 30 years through the Baptistcare's 40th Anniversary advertising campaign. Having done a second major in Journalism, I really enjoyed writing interview questions and thinking of the story angles we could do.  More story ideas came in and I was asked to interview people for three more stories. One of the stories has been published on the Baptistcare website and issued as a press release. You can see it on news or media releases.

3. Think about how to utilise some free paintballing tickets that were given to Baptistcare by a sponsor

4. Think about re-working Baptistcare website

We had another meeting to discuss the Baptistcare Annual Recognition Award Night to be held in September. We looked at different venue and theme options, and discuss various concerns that need to be addressed based on last year's feedback. After that Laura asked me to proofread the sponsorship document for the event. I gained an insight into event planning in the real world and what is involved with obtaining sponsorship.

My first week has given me a taste of doing PR in a real organisation. I learnt how to communicate with people both internal and external to the organisation.

Alfinda Agyputri

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Curtin Bentley