Friday 27 March 2009

THEY HAVE HIDDEN THEM

The Herald looks at the cap that SSC Minister Tony Ryall has imposed on the public service and has zeroed in on the communications sector. The numbers don't stack up. The government needs to insure that it takes a look at " Information departments " which are a home for all PR people who specialise in on line communications and often internal communications specialists. The trend started midway last year to shuffle communications staff around and tuck them in what is essentially an adjunct to IT departments while still churning out on line communications and in some cases publications. It was cynical ploy by comms managers to ensure that they still had a small army under their command.

So someone needs to go through all departments and ask some very specific question's to get the real answer to how many communications specialists are hiding in " non communications " groups.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

BB, they should give you a contract to do the scoping and snooping!

No one could pull the wool over your eyes I feel.

bustedblonde said...

I wish - done something similar before - There is a place for comms but it needs refocused. some departments are doing some really good stuff. Others are just churning crap. One way or the other we have worked in or with 7 govt departments in the last 7 years so we have a pretty good understanding of the issues.

Anonymous said...

BB, the other side of that coin is that people who shouldn't really be classed as Communications people - certainly not specialists - who have been dumped in comms departments so they don't appear in other departments and budgets. So it goes both ways. One hopes that a review will look at what skills and competency is required and not just lop off heads. Otherwise our tax dollars will still be wasted even if fewer of them are spent