PRJS is proud to announce the release of its first comprehensive analysis of the PR industry in the Middle East. PRJS has more than two years experience of placing middle-ranking to senior practitioners across the UAE, Saudi Arabia, Qatar and the Kingdom of Bahrain. This new report aims to provide an honest and balanced assessment of the challenges and opportunities within these rapidly evolving economies, which we hope will prove useful to all those with PR related business interests in the Middle East. Read more here.

PRJS Directors & PRJS are celebrating their first birthday in the Middle East this August.  Working throughout the region during the last twelve months has proved to be a highly successful venture, placing senior talent throughout the Emirates and in Bahrain, Qatar and Saudi Arabia.  Our success mirrors the incredible period of economic investment and growth that the Middle East is experiencing.  Many international companies are installing their global HQs in the region and the establishment of the Dubai International Stock Exchange and the Qatar Financial Centre adds weight to the region’s status as a serious player in the financial markets.  Read more here.

PRJS Directors has produced a study analysing a range of challenges currently facing the recruitment and retention of PR directors.  The study was put together after twelve months of fact-finding, information gathering and first-hand experience of helping PR agencies grow by sourcing directors.  As well as providing an insight in to who is earning what across the industry and in every sector, this report examines the threats to growth and the multitude of challenges arising from procurement, over-servicing and clients’ demands for an increasingly diverse stakeholder approach to communication.  It also addresses some of the increasingly diverse and complicated factors affecting the life choices made by senior PR practitioners.  Read the report here.

Never before have the UK’s most senior PR practitioners had an online environment that is solely intended for use by directors.  PRJS Directors is proud to be the first specialist recruitment service in the UK to address a fundamental gap in candidate and client services – the need for an exclusive, in-depth website that does not dilute its focus with junior recruitment.  Most importantly it goes several steps further than providing a job board.  It examines the issues pertinent to the people who are responsible for driving growth in the PR industry.  Its aim is to share information that we feel is crucial to a better understanding of the wider picture: delivering a breadth of insight across every sector in the UK and abroad.  This truly is a UK first and we invite you to experience our insight by reading our study, ‘Attracting talented directors in PR’.

There is an increasing ambivalence towards pensions amongst PR directors who own property.  Long-term savings and pension schemes appear to be far less attractive to those directors who view their long-term financial security as being tied up in property.  This corresponds with a trend in many PR consultancies to reduce contributions or to stop them altogether.  It is particularly striking that during our conversations with directors during 2006 and 2007, very few practitioners mention a pension as an existing benefit or one that is important in a new job.  Of far more significance is the need for a good base salary in order to secure higher mortgages and generous bonuses based on performance.