Results of the 2006 IABC France Employment Survey

Personal and professional networks were cited as the main avenues to find jobs, according to the first employment survey of the IABC/France membership.

Fifty-eight percent of those who responded to the survey said they had found their current position either through personal contacts or professional networks, including IABC.

“This provides another confirmation of what we hear from other sources,” commented Laura Peterson Eurin, president of IABC/France. “That networking is far more effective in finding communications-related employment than other channels, such as advertising or headhunters.”

The initial survey request, along with several reminders, was sent to 64 IABC France members. Twenty-four completed the survey, a response rate of 37.5%.

Not surprisingly, many members were most interested in the response to the question concerning compensation levels. According to the survey, 37.5% of the respondents reported annual gross compensations between €60 000 and €79 000 per year. Another 20.8% said they earned between €40 000 and €59 000 annually.

Are We Satisfied With Our Jobs?

A dead-even split was evident in responses to questions regarding job satisfaction. Exactly half of the respondents said they were satisfied with their current positions, while half said they were currently seeking other employment. Among those who said they were looking for other employment, a large majority (80%) said they were seeking more challenge in their careers.

Other reasons given for seeking other employment were “more money” and “no room for advancement at current position” (60% each).

Other Results in Brief:

• 75% of the respondents are employed full time.
• IABC France members work in a variety of business/government sectors, ranging from IT, food, and telecoms, to aviation, manufacturing and international agencies and associations. Not surprisingly, what members do have in common are their job responsibilities: more than half of the survey’s respondents, or 54.2%, described their job titles as either communications director or manager.
• As far as areas of job responsibilities, slightly more respondents said they were responsible for external/public relations than internal communications, 58.3% versus 45.8%, respectively.
• A majority (58.3%) work for commercial, for-profit enterprises; the largest percentage of respondents (47.8%) work for large companies employing 5000 or more people.
• Slight more than two-thirds of the respondents (66.7%) said their compensation levels reflect current industry standards.
• English was cited the primary office language by 58.3% of the respondents, with French for 29.2%.
• One quarter of respondents reported having between 11 and 15 years of experience as communications professionals, while one-third (33%) of the respondents said they had been in their current positions between one and three years.

The survey was put together by IABC/F Employment Chair, Steve Shaw, with the assistance of IABC/F member Arlene Wainstein. “We had requests from members and others who were looking without success for salary and related employment data on the communications market in France,” Shaw said. “We decided to survey the membership not only to meet these requests, but also to get a better sense of the IABC/F membership today, and to provide a baseline for similar surveys in the future.”