We’re a small country with small teams. But that’s no excuse for muddling what we want from our PR, comms, marketing and creative resources – or expecting one person to do everything under the sun.
Too many organisations are advertising roles that make it look they are hiring on hope. They want a strategist who can also design brochures, write media releases, manage Facebook ads, film videos, and maybe fix the printer while they’re at it.
Let’s be blunt: those unicorns are rare. They do exist, but most will admit to strengths on a sliding scale. And when you do find one, they’re either naïve or knackered.
Here’s what’s happening:
The rise of the generalist job ad
Scroll LinkedIn and the job listings any day of the week and you’ll see it: a single role combining PR, social media, marketing, content creation, design, internal comms, crisis management, and sometimes event planning. All for one salary.
Yes, budgets are tight. But clarity is tighter. You can’t expect one person to deliver high-quality outputs across every discipline.
The confusion of tools vs talent
Owning InDesign doesn’t make you a designer. Having ChatGPT doesn’t make you a great writer. Tools help – but strategy, judgment, and experience set the professionals apart.
If you wouldn’t ask your builder to wire your house, why expect your comms advisor to also design your annual report?
The lost art of specialisation
The can-do Kiwi spirit is great – until it dilutes your communications. Specialist skills matter: reputation management, media relations, stakeholder engagement, storytelling, brand positioning. These aren’t things you pick up in a weekend workshop.
Joining the team at HMC has really highlighted these nuances to me even more clearly. An in-house role, or often even an in-house team, can struggle to have all relevant areas of expertise wrapped up in a trustworthy enough bow.
Here’s the bottom line:
Trying to do it all often risks doing parts of it poorly. Mastery vs meh. PR and communications are disciplines in their own right. They deserve the same respect you’d give a qualified accountant or a skilled engineer.
Three tips to get it right:
✓ Prioritise.
Before you write that job ad, ask: What do we most need? Is it media coverage? Better internal communication? A clearer brand story? You can’t hire for everything, so be honest about the top priorities.
✓ Separate strategy from execution
Strategy guides what you say, when you say it, and who you say it to. Execution delivers the outputs. If you expect your senior strategist to also schedule your Instagram posts, you’re probably wasting their expertise.
✓ Value relationships
In PR, trust is currency. Invest in people who know how to build relationships with the people that matter in that rule - journalists, stakeholders and your communities. That’s what gets your story told.
News flash:
The perfect all-in-one communicator is a lovely idea, but usually a fantasy. If you want your organisation to be credible, visible and respected, invest in the right expertise – not just a multi-tool.
