What’s changed in the Canberra communications job market?
Over the 12 months, the jobs market in Canberra has changed for communications professionals. Once there were many people and not many roles. Now, the tide has turned, and there are not enough candidates to fill the positions available. As…
Reporting, our necessary evil.
In my experience, comms people are generally bad at two things – measuring what they do and telling people how great they are. It’s not on purpose. We always have the best of intentions. You might even do it every…
Value = We connect you to the outside world
A few weeks ago, I did a planning day with a communications branch. It was an opportunity for the whole team to stop and discuss ‘why are we here?’. As a group, I challenged them to find the words to…
Why internal communicators still need to understand “the business.”
Last week someone said to me, “I work in internal comms, I don’t need to know about what we do”. It’s not the first time I have heard it. There is a perception (not by everyone) that if you work…
Have you started your EA communications strategy?
Updated for 2021! AGGGGHHHH not enterprise bargaining in the public service. Those of us who were part of the last bargaining round cannot believe it’s almost been three years. I know some departments have yet to finalise their agreements but…
Let’s talk about fake engagement
In the public service, there is a phenomenon I call fake engagement. I’ve seen it done internally with staff and externally with stakeholders. I’ve seen it faked well and be such a sham that it fooled no one. What is…
Three years of Elm
This week marks Elm’s third birthday. Three years! Where does the time go? When I started in 2018, I just wanted a bit of a break out of the public service. I wanted to try something different. I gave myself…
When to say yes and when to say no
Saying no is something I have always been bad at. I just say yes. Yes to new projects. Yes to social activities. To coffees, lunches or wines with clients. My name is Melanie, and I don’t know how to say…
Why you need to make friends at work (even when you’re the boss)
Early in my career, I made some great friends at work. People who I still speak to regularly after 20 years. People with who I have shared big moments with marriage, babies, breakups, deaths. Then when I became a manager,…
Building respect in the communications profession
There is often a lack of respect or trust for communications professionals. Often our advice is dismissed or discounted as not as important as an economist, policy officer or project manager. I have been asked more times than I can…