Thank you for your continued support in 2022! We could not have accomplished all of these amazing initiatives without you. Here is to another year full of insightful research, engaging programs, impactful leadership, and more! Download PDF: 2022 IPR Year in review Previous slide Next slide ...

Pew Research Center examined Americans’ perceptions of financial institutions and large corporations.A survey of 5,098 adults was conducted from Oct. 10–16, 2022.Key findings include:1.) 26% of Republicans and 25% of Democrats said large corporations have a positive effect on the country.— This statistic was 54% for republicans and 23% for Democrats in 2019.2.) 38% of Republicans and 41% of Democrats said banks and other financial institutions have a positive effect on the way things are going in the country these days.— This statistic was 63% for Republicans and 37% for Democrats in 2019.3.) 80% of Americans said they believe small businesses have a positive effect on the country while 18% said they have a negative effect.4.) 72% of Democrats and 33% of Republicans said they believe colleges and universities have a positive effect on the country.Find the original report here.  ...

This summary is provided by the IPR Digital Media Research Center.McKinsey & Company examined the evolving role of artificial intelligence (AI) in business.A survey of 1,492 employees was conducted from May 3–Aug. 17, 2022.Key findings include:1.) AI adoption is 2.5 times higher today than in 2017.2.) 27% of employees developing AI solutions within organizations identify as women and 25% identify as racial or ethnic minorities.— Organizations where at least 25% of AI development employees identify as women are 3.2 times more likely than others to be AI high performers (companies with 20% or more of earnings before interest and tax from AI use).— Organizations with at least 25% of AI development employees that are racial or ethnic minorities are more than 2 times as likely to be AI high performers.— 29% of respondents say their organizations have no minority employees working on their AI solutions.3.) 52% of organizations reported that more than 5% of their digital budgets went to AI compared to 40% in 2018.4.) 63% of respondents say they expect their organizations’ investments in AI to increase over the next three years.Find the original report here.  ...

This summary is provided by the IPR Organizational Communication Research Center.Dr. Cen April Yue examined how employees’ perceptions of organizations’ use of bridging and buffering public relations strategies affected their positive responses to organizational change. Bridging strategies are relationship-focused and speak to an organization’s sincerity in narrowing the gaps between the positions of the organization and its stakeholders. Buffering strategies concern using strategic messaging to control public perception, with the goal of protecting an organization from criticism.A survey of 439 full-time employees working across various industries in the United States was conducted in August 2018. A literature review was also conducted.Key findings include:1.) The more employees perceived the use of bridging strategies by their organizations, the more they believed that change had positive implications for themselves and their organizations, thus engaging in change-supportive behaviors.— This finding was consistent with prior literature showing the value of bridging strategies in reducing misunderstandings, resolving discrepancies, and creating mutually beneficial solutions between an organization and its various stakeholder groups.2.) A positive relationship was found between employees’ openness to change and three forms of behavioral support: employee compliance, cooperation, & championing.3.) A positive relationship was found between perceived organizational use of bridging strategies and employees’ openness to change.Find the original report here. ...

Korn Ferry examined the role investor relations officers (IROs) play in helping organizations navigate unpredictable and dynamic markets.A survey of 397 members of the National Investor Relations Institute (NIRI) was conducted from April – May 2022.Key findings include:1.) IROs said the most important skills needed to be successful today are:— Communication/storytelling— Financial acumen— Strategic mindset— Managing ambiguity2.) More than 80% of IROs changed how they managed the IR function during the pandemic.— 64% of IROs said the IR function has been elevated within their company.3.) With a virtual lockdown, more IROs have leveraged technology and digital communication to conduct roadshows, one-on-one meetings, and conferences, as well as fine-tune their materials to better suit the virtual meeting landscape.4.) More than 90% of IROs said they are “very optimistic” or “somewhat optimistic” about the profession.Find the original report here.  ...

This blog is provided by the IPR ESG & Purpose Research Library.Honeywell examined the sentiment and progress of Environmental Sustainability (ES) initiatives on a global basis.A survey of 653 professionals directly involved in the planning, strategic development, implementation, or oversight of environmental sustainability goals and initiatives was conducted April 1–Sept. 30, 2022.Key findings include:1.) 65% of professionals surveyed said sustainability goals are one of their company’s top five priorities.— Most organizations said they are prioritizing energy efficiency over other ES initiatives.2.) 50% of organizations plan to increase budgets related to emissions reduction by more than 20% over the coming year.3.) Despite energy evolution and efficiency being the top ES priority, circularity and recycling was the initiative with the most extreme success over the past 12 months (59%).4.) Fewer than half of all organizations said they are “extremely optimistic” about achieving their ES goals over the coming year.— Organizations in Latin America lead all other regions in “extreme optimism” for achieving ES goals.Find the original report here. ...

This summary is provided by the IPR Measurement Commission.Muck Rack explored how PR professionals measured success in 2022.A survey of 805 PR professionals was conducted Oct. 11–22, 2022.Key findings include:1.) Respondents said connecting PR metrics to business outcomes (67%) and proving the value of metrics (59%) were the most challenging aspects of measuring PR results in 2022.2.) The most popular measures of success for PR professionals’ earned media efforts in 2022 were:— Coverage/stories placed (96%)— Audience reach (56%)— Social media shares/mentions (52%)3.) Compared to last year, more PR pros are sharing updates with their executive team (6% increase), their marketing team (5% increase), and their entire company (5% increase).Find the original report here. ...

As public relations measurement month came to an end, so too did hurricane season in the United States. While the timing may be a coincidence, hurricanes, and the way they’re measured, offer many lessons for public relations industry measures.Hurricanes are measured using the Saffir-Simpson Wind Scale and broken up into categories – a category one being the mildest and a category five being calamitous. Yet, the categories face annual criticism. They’re used as a measure that tells society how severe a storm is, but the categories are defined by wind speed.As a resident of a hurricane state, many of our most harmful hurricanes have often been category ones. So, why so many harms? The answer is: all the other measures of hurricanes. Other measures include rain totals, speed of the storm (i.e., slow moving storms can often cause more flooding or sustained wind damage), terrain impacted, storm surge, time of day the storm hits (i.e., high tide or low tide), and many other factors. Critics of the current measurement system argue that using only one measure misses the broader picture.Sound familiar?Here are five lessons from hurricanes for PR measures:The Problem of Top-Line MeasuresLike a focus on wind speed, do your top-line measures really tell you much? It’s still quite common to see professionals and clients focus on what may sometimes be telling metrics (like social media followers or likes,) but these measures are also often vanity metrics that don’t tell you many meaningful insights or can be outright misleading.Takeaway: Never stop at top-line or vanity measures.Adding Context Below-the-LineThe next question then becomes: what are your equivalents of metrics like speed of storm and storm surge? Common areas to start are richer ways to measure engagement, reputation, and actual audience behaviors. And remember, every context is different, be it different clients, products, or audiences. For example, are you using the same measures for existing consumers as you are potential customers? The appropriate measures may be very different.Takeaway: Build a robust recipe of measures that tell you a more meaningful story, and this formula should likely vary with different audiences and circumstances.Are you Capturing your Audiences Properly?Is the hurricane hitting major metro areas or less populated areas? The coast or inland? The storm surge in my state of North Carolina will impact the coast in different ways than torrential rain in flood prone inland areas, all with potentially awful harms, but harms that will affect people in different ways. In the PR world, each social media platform has greatly different audiences. Even within a platform, certain personality types are more likely to share opinions than other personality types. Do your measures account for these differences? People will commonly show me their Twitter data only to realize most of their metrics are capturing audiences that are often not relevant for them; conversely, this usually means they may not be capturing their actual audiences much at all.Takeaway: Make sure you are capturing where your audiences are, be they different social media platforms, internal communications channels or alike. Second, make sure the data you have are reflective of the audiences you’re attempting to understand.Are you Capturing all Relevant Times?In hurricane coverage, there is often an issue of attention and time. While storm chasers and weather journalists are often there for the initial impact so they can show the intense rain and wind, much of the damage not only happens in other areas but at different times. In North Carolina, many of the flood prone areas have rivers that reach their peak flooding days and sometimes even weeks later as water funnels and drains. By then, the attention is often long gone but the damage has just begun. Ask yourself: are you overemphasizing or only capturing data from the time of most attention? Think of a crisis. We often focus on the immediacy of data and the initial news, social, or internal chatter cycles. But what is your reputation long-term? What are the effects on your consumers or employees not just today but in the coming months?Takeaway: An often forgotten about consideration, just as you want to capture the diversity of your audiences, you need to make sure your approach to measures considers the context of time.General Trends Still Matter but Change Over TimeDespite the above, this does not mean the broadest of measures are worthless. Just as retailers need to use same-store sales to gauge annual progress, baselines are important to build to track changes and trends. If measuring hurricanes in a flood prone area, comparing even broad measures over time can give implications of impact. But dynamics also change, be they population shifts or advances in water engineering. The same will occur with your PR measures and contexts.Takeaway: Keeping broad measures may still be helpful for trends and comparisons, but be willing to adapt or add to these measures over time to make them more informative as reality changes. Dr. Joseph Czabovsky is an Associate Professor at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. His research and professional work focus on PR measurement and strategy, especially as it relates to niche, minority, or micro audiences. He is a member of the Institute of Public Relations’ Measurement Commission and IPR ELEVATE. ...

Future Forum explored how executives are dealing with the strain of leading in the “new normal.”A survey of 10,766 workers in the U.S., Australia, France, Germany, Japan, and the U.K. was conducted Aug. 3-21, 2022.Key findings include:1.) Burnout rose to 40% this quarter globally—an 8% rise from May—with the most significant increase in the U.S.— Women experienced 32% more burnout than men in the same roles.2.) Workers who have full schedule flexibility reported 29% higher productivity and 53% greater ability to focus than workers with no ability to shift their schedule.3.) Remote and hybrid workers were 52% more likely to say their company culture had improved over the past two years compared to fully in-person workers.— Many workers cited flexible remote work policies as the primary reason their culture is changing for the better.4.) People who are burned out feel far less connected to their companies and report being three times more “likely” or “very likely” to look for a new job in the coming year.Find the original report here. ...

Deloitte examined how executives go beyond workplace wellness to workplace well-being—for themselves and their people.A survey of 1,050 c-suite executives and 1,050 employees was conducted Feb. 8-21, 2022.Key findings include:— 56% of employees said their company’s executives care about their well-being, while 91% of the C-suite said their employees believe they care about it.— 68% of the C-suite admitted that they aren’t taking enough action to safeguard employee and stakeholder health.— 55% of employees and 77% of executives said they believe companies should be required to publicly report their workforce well-being metrics.— 57% of employees said they are seriously considering quitting for a more supportive job, and nearly 7-in-10 executives said they are thinking about going the same.— Less than 6-in-10 employees said their company integrates well-being into the workplace culture and people’s jobs. Find the original report here.  ...