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January 2010

 

 

Human Resources in Publishing

A research study for The Publishing Training Centre conducted by BML on behalf of the publishing industry

 

The overall objective of the study is to provide the UK publishing industry with information that will assist in developing approaches and methods for more effective recruitment, development and retention of staff. The project aims to set benchmarks in these broad areas to allow analysis of trends over time.

 

The research was conducted in 2 main stages, obtaining information from the following groups:

• HR departments of UK publishers
• Directors of publishing courses at UK universities
• Students on book publishing courses at UK universities
• Students on non-publishing courses at UK universities
• Recruitment agencies in the UK.

 

A few headline results from the survey:

Most publishers (all large companies, 92% of medium-sized, and 70% of small) experience problems with staff recruitment. By far the most widespread recruitment problem (highlighted by 82% of HR departments) is a lack of candidates with the right skills, particularly at middle level. This is an increasing problem for many, particularly large and medium-sized companies. Many publishers (48%) are also concerned about their ability to offer competitive salaries, and this is believed by HR departments (and recruitment agencies) to be the single greatest barrier to potential staff.

 

Barriers to entry: students

Low pay, and the perceived difficulty in finding a job are the main things that make book publishing students think twice about a career in the industry. Non-publishing students are also put off book publishing because they think the pay is low, and that it might be a difficult sector for them to get into. However, factors such as a lack of interest in the industry compared to other professions, and the related view that the work may be boring/monotonous, are at least as important.

 

Recruitment for specific functions

Current problems

As might be expected, the function/role which currently causes the greatest recruitment problem for publishers is digital publishing (particularly for larger companies), followed by sales, editorial and production/design. HR directors say that their particular problems recruiting for digital, editorial and production/design are due to the lack of candidates with the right skills in these areas, while their inability to offer competitive salaries is particularly challenging when recruiting to sales.

 

Future needs

Not surprisingly, publishers expect to need more staff in digital and online functions/roles over the next five years, at all levels. Again, this is especially true of larger companies. At the same time, publishers don’t tend to expect to see a decrease in their need for staff in other functions, with perhaps the exception of production roles within larger companies.

 

Interest in publishing functions: students

Some publishers have problems recruiting at junior level for sales and legal/rights roles, which appears to relate to a lack of interest among potential candidates in these areas, with around three quarters of publishing students and 80% of non-publishing students uninterested in these functions. Publishing course directors also feel that these are relatively unappealing to their students.

 

Interest in publishing vs other industries: book publishing students

Most book publishing students remain keen to work in the industry (54% very keen; 35% fairly keen), despite some concerns relating to finding work with a reasonable salary. Few book publishing students (8%) have been put off the industry by their course, with far more (42%) keener on working in book publishing now than when they started studying the subject.

 

Interest in publishing vs other industries: non-publishing students

Nearly one in five (18%) of non-publishing students are considering working in the newspaper/magazine/book publishing sector after leaving university. Only education/teaching (31%) and health sector/medicine (24%) are more widely considered among the industries explored, with publishing on a par with e.g. the civil service, marketing/advertising/PR, IT/telecoms/web development and art/design/fashion.

 

Interest in book publishing industry sectors

Book publishing students seem keenest on working in the adult fiction sector (63%) and children’s books (56%), followed by adult non-fiction (44%) and academic (38%). School/ELT (25%) and professional publishing (21%) have much less appeal.

 

Recruitment: image of the industry

Book publishing does not have a particularly positive image among non-publishing students, although it suffers more from a weak rather than a poor image. So, for example, relatively few non-publishing students think of the industry as being cool (19%), exciting (17%) or cutting-edge (11%), whereas the majority think at least one of these descriptions apply to e.g. broadcasting, art/design/fashion and IT/telecoms/web design.

 

Recruitment: attractions of book publishing

The key thing that attracts people to the idea of working in book publishing is a love of books/reading. This is the most widespread attraction among non-publishing students (mentioned by 48%), and a factor for most (77%) of those studying book publishing. Nine out of ten publishing course directors identify it as one of the things driving their students to work in the sector, and recruitment agencies also feel it is the prime motivator. The opportunity to work creatively is also one of the main attractions of the industry for both book publishing (83%) and non-publishing (36%) students, and something also widely recognised as a factor by course directors and recruitment agencies. The variety of the work is another important attraction for book publishing students.

 

 

For more from this study, you can download the full reports here:

 

• Executive Summary (PDF File - 281Kb, opens in a new window)
• HR Departments (PDF File - 297Kb, opens in a new window)
• Recruitment Agencies (PDF File - 172Kb, opens in a new window)
• Course Directors (PDF File - 189Kb, opens in a new window)
• Publishing Students (PDF File - 247Kb, opens in a new window)
• General Students (PDF File - 228Kb, opens in a new window)

 

 

The Publishing Training Centre and BML are grateful for the backing given to this research project by The Publishers Association, Independent Publishers Guild and Association of Learned and Professional Society Publishers.

 

 

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