The topic of how the Institute communicates with its members, was raised often at member meetings in the course of 2007. I felt it was important to get an independent audit on what was working well and where there was scope for improvement. We worked with an external agency, Reputation Inc to undertake the research and presented the findings at our Council conference earlier this month.
More than 7% of the Institute’s membership (approximately 9,200 individuals) contributed to the research - well above average for this type of exercise. The response rate included 200 phone interviews with members without email addresses, 50 in-depth interviews with online respondents and focus groups conducted with a number of member and student groups.The results show that overall the Institute is generally seen as communicating well with the quality of content perceived to be of high to very high quality; a solid foundation on which to build.
Key findings included:
• The Institute is trusted by its members
• We are seen as communicating well: 6 in 10 members feel that the Institute communicates either well or very well
• The quality of information is generally perceived to be high: nearly 8 out of every 10 members feel that the quality of information is high to very high.
• Members feel that the right amount of information is getting through to them, there is generally not a sense of overload
• Accountancy Magazine, newsletters and faculty communications are working particularly well (F&M, Tax and IT faculties leading the way).
The results highlight a few potential areas of improvement:
• A majority have infrequent contact with the Institute
• Communications can appear uncoordinated
• Only a minority use the website more than once a month
• Better accessibility, navigation and search functions are the key recommendations for improvement of the site.
All of these issues will be addressed in the action plan, currently being developed, including more coordination of member communications, making better use of technology and introducing a set of consistent corporate messages.
If in the mean time you would like more information on the research findings please contact Matthew Ball, Head of Corporate Communications on
Post your commentCommentsHow do you manage to read a mere 60% score on communications as good news? That's not much more than half, so you should certainly not feel justified in doing nothing to improve it.
Stephanie Campion
We feel that over 60% is a good rating and around 75% of members also agreed or strongly agreed with the statement that 'Information ICAEW provides is generally of high quality'.
However, we are not being complacent. We want our communications with members to be the best possible and the Board recently approved a number of recommendations arising from the research, which will be taken forward by the Communications Department with colleagues and under the supervision of the Member Communications Steering Group. Further updates will be provided on their progress throughout the year. However, for more information you can contact Matt Ball, Head of Corporate Communications.Michael Izza