Spending three years(ish) as a Communications Officer for the NHS was great fun, but I started to see the way Communications can be perceived by others, an issue which I’ve been passionate about challenging ever since. After those three years, I wanted to try something different whilst still working in the industry that I love. So, I started my first role working on the agency side of Communications at Rock Kitchen Harris, swapping internal Communications for the varied world of client-focused comms.

It's been quite a shift in my career, but it's a decision I'm very happy with, and there are plenty of positives that come with joining a creative agency.

Moving from in-house to agency

Moving from in-house comms to agency side can be a big change, but it's one that I wanted to make. I wanted a wider scope in my job, and I wanted to work on varied projects. In-house is great for specialising in one client and their offerings, but I wanted to develop and be able to handle different workstreams, and be able to offer my crisis comms skills to more than just one place. Plus, working in an agency means working with lots of like-minded people; in-house can feel a bit like an island as you may only have a small creative team. In an agency there's always someone to bounce ideas off, and it's good to be part of pitching our fabulous PR offering to clients.

Professional progression

Both agency and in-house comms have benefits, but I think working at an agency has taken my skills from in-house and developed them tenfold. I now handle a lot of responsibilities and have a lot of variety in my job, like media responses, customer responses, MP responses, and helping clients with internal crisis comms, so it's helped me to be more strategic in what I do. In comparison, in-house communications made it easy to look at things through the same lens all the time, which doesn't necessarily foster a lot of innovation or change.

Top tips for comms professionals

Whether you work in-house or at an agency, whether you've been at your role for years or if you've just started a new one, I've got some tips that can help everyone who works in communications to demonstrate the value of their work to the wider organisation. So, the tips are as follows:

• Sell yourselves as a function - build good working relationships with the leadership team and get yourself involved. Keep them updated on the brilliant work your team is delivering.
• Make your strategy a priority - it’ll really sell how Communications integrates itself with the values and goals of any organisation.
• Teach colleagues about your value - if your organisation has an e-learning platform, can you include a short course on the Communications function and include some examples of successes? Alternatively, could you visit staff/run an online presentation to go through the Communications team?
• Take yourself seriously - be an active member of the Communications community. Join the Chartered Institute of Public Relations (CIPR), attend the networking events, complete your continuous professional development, connect with peers on LinkedIn, build your network!

Read my previous blog for some common misconceptions about Communications, and why they're far from the truth.

Being settled as part of the team at RKH has allowed me to grow and improve my skills in a way that in-house comms can't. Now that the agency is employee-owned, things just got even more exciting, and I'm really looking forward to being part of this brand new chapter.