Building relationships
When people join the CIPD, they're beginning a relationship with us that we're committed to sustaining throughout their careers. We strive to ensure members can get from us what they want, whenever they want it. Some join us at the start of their careers when they're studying for our qualifications. Others join us at different points in their HR careers, coming to us for learning and development, support, advice and information resources when they need us. And even more come to us as they move from another business discipline into an HR role. Many line managers also join us, recognising that, by becoming CIPD members, they're better equipped to fulfil their responsibility for the people they manage.
Our members, our customers and the wider public engage with us in so many different ways. We run formal qualification programmes, training courses, conferences, exhibitions and specialist forum events. We have an active branch structure that provides a valued local point of contact and engagement with the CIPD for our members. In the past year, our branches have run nearly 700 events in their local areas, covering issues such as employment law, organisational change, pensions and corporate social responsibility.
Online engagement
The most frequent means by which our members engage with us today is online. In recent years, we've invested heavily in improving the quality, depth and relevance of the information we provide online. That investment has paid off and justifies our continued investment. Over 300,000 visits are made to our website every month. Analysis of the way visitors use our site tells us that they're actively engaging with the wealth of materials we have to offer. We measure usage of different resources so that we can meet the needs of visitors to the site better in the future. We're experiencing record levels of downloads of our detailed research, guidance and practical tools. Nearly 90% of all CIPD members have registered on the CIPD website to benefit from the full range of the services available there. Over 110,000 people have registered to receive our weekly CIPD update email, which contains a round-up of the latest news and information resources available to help with their work. This email is available free to anyone with an interest in the management and development of people, with many subscribers from outside CIPD membership.
Our online communities have established themselves as a vibrant and highly successful forum for professional networking and knowledge exchange. They allow members to ask questions and exchange information with one another, which provides them with a valuable sounding board on the issues and challenges they face in their working lives. Every month, the communities are visited over 21,000 times, with over 500 people, on average, making an active contribution. These are impressive figures for a professional online forum and reflect the extent to which our members trust and rely on the relationships they have with the CIPD and, through us, with their fellow professionals.
We're continuing to invest to ensure the website remains the first port of call for a growing number of people who share our desire to improve the management and development of people. We're working hard to ensure that users of our website and people searching the whole world wide web are quickly and easily able to find the precise information they want from the vast array of resources we have available. To help do this, we’re developing our specialist subject pages covering different aspects of the profession. And we’re also bringing in RSS feeds – enabling users of the web site to be updated whenever new information is added to particular sections of the website.
Customer service
Our website is an important means of engaging with our members – and, for many, it's their first choice. But we also continue to invest in our contact centre so that any of our members or customers who need to contact us by phone or by email can be assured of a prompt and personal reply from a member of our team trained to deal with their enquiry. We set ourselves high standards for replying swiftly to all communications, and we meet those standards.
During the year we made some changes to the way in which we operate the CIPD Employment Law Helpline. With investment in new call management systems this popular service for members is now taking an average of 1,500 calls per month, with all calls being answered promptly.
Working with employers
Our relationships with employers represent an increasingly important part of what we do. Our primary focus is on providing superior services and support to our individual members. But most of our members apply their skills on behalf of their employers, so we need to understand and serve their needs too. We're working hard to embed our Professional Standards in employers' own HR learning and development programmes. By doing this, we can make sure that, when people meet internal learning and development targets, they're also demonstrating how they meet the CIPD Professional Standards – and receiving the recognition from us they deserve. In the past year, we've met with over 80 large private and public sector employers, between them employing more than 20,000 people management and development professionals. Employers we're currently working with include IBM, Marks & Spencer, the Department for Work and Pensions and KPMG.
Working with learning providers
Our relationships with the business schools, colleges, universities and training providers that deliver CIPD approved qualifications are also important to us. They're the first point of contact between many new studying professionals and the CIPD. We want to be able to support them through their chosen route to qualification, to be on hand to advise them as they progress their careers, and to ensure their relationship with us is of maximum benefit to them from the very beginning. So it's essential to our success that we have strong relationships and high levels of mutual understanding with these providers. We're now implementing plans to build even stronger and more effective relationships with our partners in the delivery of high-quality courses and qualifications.
We’ve also increased the number of centres that are licensed to recommend students with the necessary experience to become a Chartered Member for upgrading as soon as they have secured their qualification. The 31 centres that are now licensed in this way have tutors trained to assess the relevance of prior experience, ensuring suitably qualified students are able to become Chartered Members without delay.
Member satisfaction
We regularly conduct customer satisfaction research among our members. We've now added an online survey to allow us to track our performance more consistently and to respond better to our members' needs. The latest feedback shows our members believe that we're performing well in the areas they see as most important – setting standards for the profession and ensuring their consistent application; carrying out research; and producing guidance, advice and practical tools. We're rated highly when it comes to providing services and membership benefits relevant to our members' careers. And overall satisfaction with us, as our members' professional body, is high. While we're pleased with our performance, we're not complacent. We track this data so that we can constantly improve the service we offer.