- Senior Corporate Affairs roles faced a turbulent 2024, with turnover more than double European counterparts like Germany and Ireland.
- New research from the Corporate Affairs Search Alliance and Ithaca Partners found that the average tenure in senior corporate affairs roles in FTSE 100 companies is only 3.3 years.
- Likely drivers of this turnover are the changing political environment caused by July’s General Election, and the desire of CEOs to upgrade talent given the importance of this role
The UK is an international outlier when it comes to retaining senior corporate affairs staff, new research from the Corporate Affairs Search Alliance (CASA) and Ithaca Partners finds.
An analysis of senior Corporate Affairs roles in the UK’s FTSE 100 companies found that turnover was 23% last year. This is more than double the turnover of European counterparts like Germany or Ireland, and still substantively higher than the US, which had a turnover of 15.2%.
The research found that in businesses in the FTSE 100, senior Corporate Affairs leaders have an average tenure of just 3.3 years. This is compared with 5.6 years in Germany and 4.6 years in the US.
The report identified several factors that could be driving this change. First, the seismic shift that occurred in July after the Labour Government was elected is likely to have driven turnover, especially in cases where public affairs skill sets and relationships are embedded into the Corporate Affairs role. Change at the highest level of the Corporate Affairs leadership may be indicative of a CEO’s desire to upgrade their internal talent, given the importance of these positions in navigating challenging political times.
Second, changes in overall company leadership are often a catalyst for change in communications leadership. The UK’s recent high rate of CEO turnover, noted by several independent reports, is likely to have played a role in high turnover in the Corporate Affairs role in the last year.
Although the UK faces a more turbulent picture in terms of retention than its global counterparts, it has made more progress in other areas – in particular regarding gender balance at a senior level.
In the UK, 53% of FTSE 100 Corporate Affairs positions are filled by women and 47% by men – compared to the US, where women occupy 68% of communications leadership positions in the Fortune 500. There remain, however, divides based on sector and revenue. In the top 20 UK companies by revenue, 12 of top-level communicator positions are filled by men – and men tend to dominate positions in the consumer, tech and property industries, whilst women dominate in financial services firms.
Alex Gordon Shute, founder of Ithaca Partners UK said: “The UK stakeholder universe is one of the toughest and most aggressive, making the UK home to some of the most capable corporate affairs talent in the world. Media and political attitudes to business can be cynical, and relationships with unions and NGOs are often fractious - so strong corporate affairs leadership has never been more critical.
There’s a clear desire from CEOs to upgrade their top talent; it’s a challenging environment, and they need expert judgment within easy reach. While corporate affairs teams face the same budget pressures as other functions, the number one role is usually too crucial for CEOs to think of doing without it."
About Ithaca Partners:
At Ithaca Partners, we’re on a mission to make corporate affairs better. Since our founding in 2008, we’ve played a key role in shaping the field, bringing our passion, expertise and insight into everything we do. Armed with our unique blend of industry expertise and decades of executive search experience, we work with brilliant corporate affairs leaders and teams to unlock their full potential. At the heart of our approach is The Ithaca Leadership Frame - the first competency model designed exclusively for corporate affairs professionals. Blending our own experience with insights from over 200 corporate affairs directors and leading business psychologists, it has been designed to inspire consistent standards across the profession. We use our Leadership Frame to help you – and your team – assess and explore your capability spikes and hot spots.
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