Last month, we shared a Q&A with a leader who uses fractional communications support. This month, we’re flipping the lens to hear from someone in the fractional seat. Jennifer Ferguson has worked as a fractional communications executive since 2023, and CommsCollectiv partner Lisa Ryan sat down with her to get the firsthand view.
Lisa Ryan: How does the fractional model differ from your experience in traditional in-house roles?
Jennifer Ferguson: What I really appreciate about the model is both the flexibility and the opportunity for true impact and improvement. With fractional work, I’m tasked with a clear scope that I have helped craft, so I know that it’s executable and that it aligns with both my passions and strengths. With a clear remit and fewer hours to accomplish it within, there is less time to indulge the day-to-day minutiae and politics of running a function. I think the model drives a better experience, and also better outcomes in many cases.
LR: How do you build trust and influence quickly when you’re only part-time or project-based?
JF: I think curiosity, empathy and listening are key. Much like the first 90 days of onboarding in a senior leadership position, having time with the key stakeholders to understand their challenges, concerns and opportunities is incredibly important. You cannot build trust or influence if no one feels like you’re on their team. Your timeline may be accelerated, but the playbook is the same.
LR: What’s one example of a communications challenge you’ve helped solve in a fractional capacity that you couldn’t have done as effectively in a full-time role?
JF: Innovation and openness to change, whether around processes, talent and structure or strategy, can become very challenging for a full-time executive leader. Leading a team, running a function and trying to effectively collaborate with the C-suite and other executives, it’s incredibly hard to allocate time to blue-sky thinking, even when you know that’s what needs to happen. By the time a fractional is brought in, it’s typically because they know something needs to change, so they are more open to that. I’m able to come in and swiftly diagnose and solve their function’s biggest challenges without the burden of Stockholm syndrome.
LR: How has the rise of AI and automation changed the day-to-day expectations of communications leaders, fractional or otherwise?
JF: Used well, AI can be an unbelievable tool for comms teams, allowing them to create automations for the very time consuming and repetitive work of reporting and measurement, drafting and editing communications, audits and assessments of content and more. It will allow teams to use their talent for more creative and innovative endeavors and help them build solutions for implementation. It is a HUGE opportunity for Comms to really own content and have strong influence in that space. As a fractional, we have the benefit of seeing how other clients have approached and used AI across different industries. We also we have more bandwidth to help our clients to create a clear AI strategy for their teams.
LR: What advice would you give to companies considering a fractional communications leader for the first time?
JF: Strategic communications is more than just PR and media relations. It’s building reputation, growing brand affinity and awareness and mitigating risk. It’s showing up consistently, with clear messaging, where your audience and stakeholders live. It should be intentional and not transactional. Bringing in a fractional executive presents a cost-effective opportunity to leverage communications in a more holistic and effective way, especially if you have a small and/or junior team. Fractional talent is like air traffic control; we see the big picture from 35,000 feet.
On the more practical side, there are some key enablers for success. A very clear scope with agreed upon expectations, robust and honest two-way communication between the fractional executive and whomever brought them in, and access. Ensuring the fractional talent has access to the people who matter, in terms of getting as much information and buy-in as possible, will ultimately determine their success. No matter how good you are at what you do, without these three things, you will not succeed.
LR: What advice would you offer to a senior professional entering into a fractional assignment?
JF: There is a huge mindset shift from being a full-time employee who is leading a function/team to being a fractional who may or may not execute and must be surgical with their time against impact, and I think that is the hardest learning curve. After you have assessed your ability to be successful in the assignment and feel confident that what they need is something you can deliver, set clear deliverables and boundaries and focus only on those. Do not get distracted by everything you see and want to fix. It’s easy to get frustrated when you see opportunities that aren’t being leveraged, or teams that are ineffective, but you have to let that go and focus only on what you are there to do, and do that really, really well. And then go home and relax. The beauty of fractional is that you are not taking on full-time problems, just part-time opportunities.
LR: What’s the biggest misconception organizations have about bringing in a fractional communications leader and how do you dispel it?
JF: I think there are two – expense and need. If an organization hasn’t properly invested in strategic comms, they likely don’t even know what great looks like, so they aren’t sure what or if they need (it). Without a broader understanding, they may view it as too expensive, especially if they are under-invested in the function.
The reality is that they are getting that exec talent for significantly less than what a fully loaded salary would be. Not only will the fractional talent bring strategy and structure to the function, but those pieces will better enable the rest of the talent in the function to succeed, extracting more value out of that investment to exponentially increase the total ROI. I think there is a strong business case for a model of fractional comms leadership that is on-going as well as short-term.
For organizations who are looking to cut costs, instead of putting comms under marketing or HR leadership in lieu of hiring a full-time dedicated comms senior leader, they should instead consider fractional leadership. It’s amazing what 2-3 days a week of excellent fractional talent can do to improve the functions strategy and outcomes. It isn’t about time; it is about experience and impact.
LR: How do you measure success in a fractional engagement when you may not be embedded day-to-day in the organization?
JF: Success should be measured by the deliverables and their collective impact. If you have a clear scope going into the assignment with agreed upon expectations, then you have an easy way to set your own KPI’s and measure your effectiveness. Without agreed upon deliverables, it’s very hard to stay focused and measure outcomes. When you draft an engagement that is focused on the deliverables against a timeline, there is no murkiness around what you are there to do and if you are doing it well.