Insights
We were delighted to partner again with CharityComms to support the 2024 Salary and Organisational Culture Survey. This survey aims to benchmark marketing and communications professionals’ salaries in UK charities, and understand the workplace culture impacting how valued those staff feel.
250 people responded to the survey between 7th November and 31st January. Two-thirds of respondents were CharityComms members.
Here are 4 takeaways from this research to consider for your organisation. Go to the full report for much more analysis, insight and context.
Changing Roles
27% of respondents said their role covers all areas across communications, digital/social, marketing and more. This has increased by 10 percentage points since last year.
As budgets tighten across the sector, we’re seeing restructuring, streamlining and roles and responsibilities evolving. More and more is being asked of people, taking them further and further out of their core job description. For some, that means exciting career growth and the chance to diversify their skills. For others, it means taking on a higher workload, more distractions, and can dilute a role they enjoy.
When responsibilities change in your organisation, are you able to support your people to craft a job role that works for them?
Use of AI
More organisations are using AI, or planning to using it in the future. Among marcomms professionals, the most common uses for AI are currently comms or marketing copywriting, and event transcription (e.g. with Otter.ai). There’s also been a substantial increase in the number of people using AI to help with grantwriting or fundraising proposals.
In our world of engagement surveys, we are empowering clients to use AI to understand and communicate their survey results. New AI tools – like the WorkBuzz People Science AI – can rapidly analyse and share complex data. It’s important that organisations are able to support their staff using AI to do so safely by using these trusted tools.
Wellbeing Support
95% of charity communicators said that their job allows them to have a good work-life balance, which is higher than we see for UK third sector roles generally.
However, workload remains an issue for these respondents – especially for those whose rose covers all areas of marketing and comms. These individuals are more likely to say that their role negatively impacts their mental health.
Wellbeing is multi-faceted, and there is only so much that is within organisations’ control. But having the right support in place – strong services and a proactive wellbeing culture – can make a difference for your staff, reduce absenteeism and attrition, and increase engagement.
Career Progression
A third of survey respondents say they are planning a career move in the next 12 months – only 14% are confident that they will not change their role.
When looking at a new role, charity communicators are looking for a higher salary, more responsibility or seniority, or a more interesting role. Job security has become a much more important factor since 2023.
These ‘pull’ factors speak to patterns we see all the time in engagement surveys. Reward and security tend to be hygiene factors at work – they don’t drive engagement or motivation, but when they are insufficient employees will look to move elsewhere. But seeing a career path (in one or more organisations) that works for you – with room to grow into responsibilities that interest and motivate you – is a crucial element of engagement and wellbeing and work.
Get in touch to talk to a survey expert about gathering feedback from your people.
