The future is hybrid: New PRCA MENA Census uncovers trends in region’s PR professions
Less than a fifth of Middle East and North Africa (MENA) PR and communication professionals (16%) expect to return to the traditional five-day office week post-Covid, according to the new MENA PR and Communications Census 2021.
Nearly three in five (59%) of the region’s PR practitioners plan to split their time between home-based and office-based working, the study finds, while 12% plan to work remotely permanently, leaving 13% undecided.
The Census is published by PRCA MENA, the regional arm of the world’s largest professional PR body. Other editions are published by the PRCA in the UK, Latin America, and Asia Pacific.
Other findings of the 150-person study include:
- A narrow majority (52%) of practitioners said they thought their company’s performance in promoting women to leadership positions was ‘good’ or ‘very good’
- When asked specifically about promoting women in their own organisation, the number rose to 64%
- Only around a third (36%) of MENA PR professionals said they got a pay rise in the last year, while just a quarter (24%) got a bonus
- There have been redundancies across the region during the pandemic – 49% of respondents said their firm had made people redundant since March 2020, with another 16% saying they were unsure whether this had happened
- However, the proportion of staff affected was less than 10% in the majority of companies in which redundancies were made (68%)
- The vast majority (91%) of respondents have been to university, and a large majority (72%) said that one of their parents had also been through higher education
