Case Study: Addressing the Needs of Member
Sub-Groups
By Michael Grant
Membership-based organizations face a common
challenge: how do you engage a broad group of members even though
the needs of specific members differ? In this case study, I
review our work with the Institute of Chartered
Accountants of British Columbia (ICABC), who responded to this
challenge through member sub-group engagement strategies.
Background
The Institute of Chartered Accountants of British
Columbia is the largest and oldest accounting organization in
British Columbia. It has more than 9,000 members and
more than 1,000 students across the province. ICABC
is responsible for the initial education and qualification of
Chartered Accountants (CAs) in British Columbia, as well as the
ongoing professional development of qualified CAs. They also
provide member services and enforce regulations.
The
Challenge
The ICABC’s CA members are primarily based in
five work settings:
These different work settings determine the sort
of information and professional development that members will look
to ICABC to satisfy. As with all membership-based
organizations, ICABC’s initial approach was to develop a
content-rich website based on information of relevance to
all members. But membership surveys showed that
members were increasingly looking for depth in areas of
specific interest to them. So the fundamental
challenge is to enhance relevance by developing depth for specific
sub-groups of users.
The
Solution
ICABC asked eLearn Campus to help it design and
develop member-only sub-sites to their main website that allow
members with specific needs to experience a higher level of
engagement with content and to go through a learning process that
enables them deal with specific issues in their work setting or to
manage change. These sites were developed based on logical
sub-segments of the ICABC membership and on intelligence from
membership surveys that spoke to the transitional needs of
members.
Given this data, it was decided to develop two
sub-sites to the main ICABC website: one that focused on small and
medium-sized practitioners and another which addressed the needs of
industry members.
1. Practitioners’ Toolkit
Many accountants will start out in large public
practices but then decide to start their own practice, for personal
and professional reasons. This change in work setting
precipitates a number of competency development needs. In the
online Practitioners’ Toolkit, we take ICABC members through
a systematic and organized process for deciding whether the
movement to a small practice is right for them. The sub-site
then helps them develop the competencies to manage a small
practice.
Members are provided the options to either go
through the whole process, or selectively sample those parts of the
site that are most relevant to their immediate challenge. This
allows the Practitioners’ Toolkit to be of relevance both to those
who are considering a transition to small practice, as well as those
who are already in small practice and who require specific
refreshers.
2. Industry
Toolkit
Industry members face different challenges than
those in public practice. They are the accounting members of
an industry team. This means that they have to work well with
people who are not accountants while providing authoritative
accounting advice. They are often looked to for business
advice outside of accounting, usually in areas where some financial
or numerical literacy is required (e.g. forecasting).
The online Industry Toolkit is designed to help
CAs in industry deal with these different demands. The Toolkit
provides a wide range of business tools that allow
CA s in industry to expand their accounting competencies into the
areas of business planning, the economic environment, strategy and
financing. It also provides advice on industry-specific
accounting demands, like controller functions.
Given the need to work in interdisciplinary
teams, the Toolkit provides resources to help CAs develop their
people skills. In this vein, there are resources on leadership
skills development and the management of people and teams. The
Toolkit also provides a wealth of advice and resources on legal and
regulatory issues such as workplace human rights, ethics,
environmental regulations and employment standards.
Conclusion
Membership-based organizations face the challenge of enhancing their relevance to
members. In the first generation of web development,
it was good enough to provide general information of interest to all
members. Members were just happy to be able to access this
information on the web.
However, as Internet usage has expanded, members are demanding more specific information and
resources that are more closely tied to their specific
needs. Many also want to go through a process of learning that
is transformative as opposed to the traditional web approach of
“information dump.” The development of specific sub-sites
allows membership-based organizations to maintain their relevance to
members by segmenting needs through customized in-depth content and
a high level of online engagement.
|
