The most important public relations work performed during the 1990s may be conducted within the nation's businesses.
H.J. "Jerry" Dalton, president of the Public Relations Society of America, said in an interview this week that employers will have greater demands of their workers during this decade because of the shrinking work force and a smaller pool of qualified employees.Dalton said 60 percent of the new workers entering the work force will be women who have never worked outside the home, minorities (a goodly share immigrants who do not speak English), and people who do not know how to read. Dalton was in Salt Lake City to address the PRSA's Intermountain Chapter.
"We're going to ask employees to work more productively and at a higher quality," he said.
And the incentive to produce more and better work will be provided through improved employee communications, he said. "We all know money is not the only motivating factor."
To help workers improve their job performance, employers ought to provide benefits such as child care, educational benefits and job-sharing. Workers need to feel confident there is room for advancement in their companies.
Competition for well-trained, competent employees will be keen, and employers who want to keep their key employees must accommodate their needs. "I see we'll play a key role in that," he said.
Dalton, who is manager of corporate communications for the LTV Corp., said his company has filed Chapter 11 bankruptcy and has already implemented some of the employee communication measures he described to help retain key employees.
LTV Corp. is a $7.3 billion aerospace/defense, energy products and steel manufacturer located in Dallas.
The public relations profession, Dalton said, suffers from a number of misconceptions. "Most people think of public relations as a publicity role."
But Dalton, who was director of worldwide public affairs for the U.S. Air Force, said "public relations helps an organization and its publics mutually adapt to each other."
Nearly every company serves a handful of publics - employees, retirees, investors, suppliers and subcontractors, customers and the communities in which the business is located.
In its purest form, public relations is coalition building - whether with news agencies, the community or among the employees of a business.
Unfortunately, the term public relations is often misused, Dalton said.
For example, the city of Dallas passed an ordinance that required that taxi drivers wear shoes and socks, learn English, learn their way about town and take a course in public relations.
"I think they were talking about a course in courtesy. The term gets misused," he said.