An organisation’s reputation is its product and communications professionals need a seat at every table, says new research.

The crisis communications tsunami that hit Facebook after its data breaches is indicative of backlashes or ‘techlashes’ against tech firms generally. In this tense environment, global PR firm AprilSix Proof has released a whitepaper on why communications staff in tech firms need more influence.

It will not come as a surprise to many comms professionals that communications and PR decisions are not the highest priorities for most companies. Despite a UK-based 2017 survey showing that roughly 30% of comms staff felt their internal influence was growing, 40% of companies have no communications staff in upper management and only 22% of communications decisions are taken by boards of governors. This lack of recognition is alarming, given that according to Thomson Reuters and Interbrand, 75% of a company’s value is in its brand and reputation, not its stated products and assets.

Even the central government appears aware of this value shift from tangible assets to reputational ones. Though the value of the UK’s tech sector will only become more crucial to the economy post-Brexit, the government is becoming increasingly involved in the perceived social costs of tech in Britain. The government’s 2018 creation of the Centre for Data Ethics and Innovation and the House of Lords Committee on Artificial Intelligence are both dictating new regulations on what kinds of data can be stored and how privacy needs to be secured online. Such moves are illustrative of how damning perceptions of unethical business practices in tech are.

It is not the job of communications people to simply put out fires, but to maintain the internal and external reputations of a brand, regulating from a position of strength within a company. Alternatively, governments can increasingly regulate the ethical behaviour of tech companies with legislation, a plausible though condescending possibility. Nevertheless, the government did not create this atmosphere of techlash. Techlash exists because of a crisis of trust between tech companies and consumers. Techalsh exists because of mismanagement. Of course tech companies have the capacity to function ethically but without comms staff leading from the top down, brand reputations will continue to falter, decreasing bottom lines across the sector and damaging the UK’s reputation as a stable tech hub.

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