What is the scope of PR in Latvia in 2015?

Just recently my colleague Inga Latkovska and me have finished a research “Latvian PR sphere practitioners opinions monitor 2015”, which was held in cooperation with the Latvian Association of PR professionals, CV-Online Latvia and the Faculty of Social Sciences of the University of Latvia. In the survey of 250 Latvian PR specialists we have been able to make a slice of the sphere and to understand what the main trends are in the industry of public relations in Latvia. We got quite a curious portrait of the Latvian public relations specialist. This is a 25-44 years old woman, having a master's degree in every second case (in this case, almost half of the respondents received their education in the field, not related to the communication). Every second respondent has worked as a project manager and had no single subordinate. The sphere is still quite young. Only one out of ten has been working there for more than 15 years. Two-thirds of the survey participants’ experience does not exceed ten years. No wonder that PR specialists are regularly ranked in the world’s most vulnerable to stress professions Top. 80% of respondents believe that their work requires resistance to stress. Interestingly, this question was the only one in which none of the respondents chose “strongly disagree”. Moreover, half of the respondents feel stressed several times a week. Two out of five experts do not believe that their professional and personal lives are in the balance. This question is particularly acute for women. Another painful aspect is the question of wages. Six out of ten professionals receive monthly up to 1000 euros after taxes. At the same time, it seems that there is some lack of wages standards in various positions. As a result, we found that the project manager can be paid the same salary as his assistant. Whatever it is, but in Latvia today from a financial point of view, it is most advantageous to work in commercial organizations with local capital, then at PR and advertising agencies and international organizations. The lowest salaries are paid to employees of local governments, government agencies and non-governmental organizations, as well as in the academic environment. For me personally, a pleasant surprise was the tendency of salary increase depending on the level of respondents’ education. Still, the higher education, the higher a sense of stability and prosperity is in the workplace. However, the more important question is how adequate level of wages is in the sector. The answer was given by the respondents themselves. Only one third thinks they get respective salaries. That is sad; as one third of respondents also indicated that they regularly overwork by more than 25% than it is expected by an employment contract. If you look at the list of the Latvian PR professionals duties, then there will dominate media relations, work on the image and reputation of the company, as well as the planning and implementation of strategic communication. In this regard, it is not surprising that the Latvian PR specialists think the most important things are knowledge about communication skills, the use of languages, as well as the media environment. Among the most valuable skills that were reported by respondents were the ability to listen and hear, literacy, the ability to analyse, detect patterns and draw conclusions. Perhaps this is what the Latvian universities should emphasize even more in the curriculum. As acknowledged by the respondents, the main development of PR specialists in Latvia is happening due to a variety of training courses, sharing experiences with colleagues, as well as professional recognition in Latvia or abroad. The main challenges for professionals are seen as a need to communicate effectively with diverse audiences having a small budget; creating and maintaining trust in the organization, as well as using social media in their everyday work. Despite many sensitive issues that emerged during the research, we are pleased that we all are patriots of our sphere. 88% of respondents consider their work interesting and exciting. Our research has shown that we are young and well educated. We only need to get the appropriate salary and learn to deal with stress.