The PRCA has launched a global campaign urging organisations to hire PRCA members when looking for public relations support. As part of our #HireaPRCAmember campaign, we’re celebrating consultancies that have continuously held CMS for more than 15, 10 and 5 years. We sat down with Katrine Pearson, Managing Director, 3x1 Group, to chat about the importance of ethical practice and holding CMS accreditation since 2009.
Why are ethics important in the PR industry?
Ethics should ultimately underpin everything we do. Our role as consultants is to help our clients build and protect their reputations and maintaining the trust of their audiences is essential to that. Signing up to industry codes of conduct and standards like those of the PRCA demonstrates a public commitment to maintaining confidentiality, transparency and accuracy.
You have held CMS accreditation for more than a decade - why is it you keep coming back?
Externally, having an accreditation like CMS provides existing and potential clients with reassurance that they are dealing with a professional and ethical business. Internally, it acts as a valuable checkpoint, ensuring we regularly review our processes and ask ourselves if there are things we could and should be doing better.
Why is having those structures and professional standards key to success?
For us as a business, our structures and standards have been vital to attracting great clients and people to work with us. We also have a collective responsibility to improve the perceptions of professionalism in the industry. The more we sign up to and hold ourselves to formal standards and accreditations, the bigger an impact we can have.
What advice would you have to other PRCA members considering putting themselves up for the CMS?
Take the time in advance to gather the information and evidence you need and view it as a valuable opportunity to continually benchmark and develop your processes and procedures, rather than as a one-off assessment.