I am a supporter of the CIPD and have been for a few years. I’ve done volunteer work through and for them and carried out a small piece of paid work too. In 2013, I decided to join the CIPD to see what being a member felt like. Then, in December 2013 the CIPD invited me to take part in a consultation survey about the future for members. Note: the grammatical errors in the text below are exactly as they appeared in the original invitation.
As a valued CIPD Affiliate member, Id like to get your help and views about some changes we want to make to how we structure CIPD membership and the services we offer to members. We want to ensure were evolving membership to meet the changing needs of the profession. So, through this important consultation survey, wed like to understand the specific professional and personal needs which led you to become an Affiliate Member of CIPD.
I completed the survey, one of the clunkiest and leading (as in leading you towards a conclusion we’ve already reached) pieces of consultation I’ve ever participated in, and subsequently blogged about a few ways the CIPD could cocreate better value for its members. Usually when I take part in a survey I expect to see some results published publicly, or at least shared with the participants. In this case, none were forthcoming and after waiting and feeding back my disappointment with the absence of feedback, I forgot about my participation – until news of a reshaped membership and fee structure became public.
Student membership fees are being reduced, and I may be wrong but I think every other level of membership is being increased. The membership fee at my level (Affiliate), is going up this year from £138 to £225, an increase of 63% (wouldn’t it be fascinating to see the results of the earlier consultation to see how they correlate with this action?). £225 is not a huge amount of money to me, and I was already sure the fee was going to rise, loads of questions in the survey I mentioned earlier were about putting fees up (hey – just call me Sherlock). Nevertheless, 63% is a big hike, and this prompted me to stop and think, ‘How, if at all, have things changed for me, since becoming a member of the CIPD?’
I’ve been wrestling with the question for a while, and honestly, I’m struggling to come up with an answer. Yes, I now get a monthly magazine in the post, which I confess I always read, and often enjoy, but a lot of other benefits the institute offers, just don’t attract me. On reflection, I’m not surprised, for although my work is all about people, I’m not in HR.
When I look at the CIPD Profession Map, what interests me is most of the behavioural stuff around the edge of the circle, plus two or three of the professional areas. These things are not the preserve of HR, far from it – and to be fair to the CIPD I don’t think they seem themselves as being the sole custodians and guardians of this stuff either. But the point is, I don’t need to be a member to sharpen my own practice in these things.
If you’d like to play with the map and see how it could work for you – click on the picture and you’ll be taken to the CIPD website interactive version.
I can see value for people in the profession and for people interested in pursuing and retaining professional qualifications, but for me in particular, and for Affiliates in general, I think it’s far less clear what the value proposition is. So – I’m calling a halt to my experiment. I will continue to provide support and constructive criticism as I have done since I became aware of the CIPD, but I will no longer be doing this as a member.
Instead of renewing my own membership, I’d like to offer to pay for two student membership renewals at the new rate of £90. That feels like a much more useful, and potentially valuable course of action to me. Are you a student member of the CIPD, and would you like one of these renewal offers? If you would, then please contact me so we can work out a way to get the money to you. First come – first served.
Update : I received lots of interest to my offer to map for two student member subscriptions, and I’m pleased that I was able to assist a couple of people along the road with their career development.
Fantastic gesture Doug. Respect to you.
Thanks Robert, I’m interested to see if anyone takes me up on the offer. More important for me though, would be a commitment to better feedback loops and processes from the institute. In my experience, this lack of feedback is not an isolated instance, and I think the CIPD could and should do better here.
Cheers – Doug
Firstly, nice move to support others. Secondly what you are seeing with CIPD is something I think many professional bodies are facing. The reach and connectivity of the “interweb” means that many can find the support their work and develop their skills. This is now a lot less geographically bound. Of course in terms of CPD there is often a desire to track and formalise this, but does in need a the current set of “institutes”?
Another friend has resigned from CISI registering his dissatisfaction with their attempt to measure a member’s integrity through structured questioning tool.
The trouble I suspect is the vested interests that seek to change things as little as possible and protect their old world positions. My case in point is the work of the APM to make project management a chartered profession. It will probably bring a few honours to the top table, but I doubt it will really help the rank and file.
Thanks Ian. I think you are right about the broader challenge to professional bodies. Informal networks have the potential to deliver huge value and smart businesses know this and embrace the opportunity and challenge that more open networking presents.
Your challenge about institutes changing things as little as possible is a fascinating one. Following that route will probably ensure survival for a while, but I think there is a real risk of being caught out by a seismic collapse in relevance, which the vested interest blinkers will prevent awareness of. It’s a tough one. I know a lot of lovely, helpful, purposeful people in the CIPD, and I put trust in the broad intent and direction that Peter Cheese, the current CEO has. However – from what I can see, the current organisational model seems to be proving somewhat harder to shift.
Great idea Doug – I hope those that take you up on it deserve it!
Thanks Gareth – if someone takes me up on the offer, then they deserve it. 🙂
Hi Doug
Loving your blog challenge of the CIPD membership & it’s value to you – go Doug!
For me, after having had the experience of being a CIPD student & now being a fully fledged member, I found that I utilised their support & much needed resources/library far more as a student than I have since becoming qualified. So I must say that it does slightly grate on me that student fees are lower, probably for reasons that my company paid for mine ha, whereas now my membership fee is substantially higher AND I get to pay a fee for upgrading my membership privileges too.
Then again, I suppose that’s the price you pay for being a ‘CIPD Professional’ – kudos!
Rhi
Thanks Rhi. You make an interesting point about the possibility of students accessing services more than people who have qualified. I guess the rationale for lowering student membership is to encourage more younger people and people at the beginning of an HR career to join up, and that as a group, their access to funds may be more limited than others?
Cheers – Doug
Doug – you are much more tolerant than I am. I qualified in about 1992 through a centre of excellence – which was the beginning of the disillusionment. Since then any contact with the CIPD has been pretty poor.
For an organisation that has rewarded its CEO with a £400,000 plus package (UK based business, 350 employees, not commercial, no external threats) the level of service and output is pitiable. Even Peter Cheese said I made some good points in my blog about the purpose of HR http://interimity.wordpress.com/2013/11/11/what-the-hell-is-hr-for/ when I criticised the CIPD’s new strap line as being meaningless.
And an organisation that arrogantly puts up its fees, moderates all its blogs and doesn’t publish anything critical, doesn’t even ‘own’ its LI group, and is crawling with external consultants to help it do a fairly straightforward job is really not an organisation that is worth staying with.
In HR we need a body that sets high standards, will eject anyone who fails to meet them, gives clear guidance on what our professional role is and well structured, simple resources (e.g.: case studies) that help us justify our proposals to the business we work for. (Can anyone find their way around the web site?) Make it tough to get in and attract the best practitioners. Make it aspirational.
And finally – very nice offer to sub the students. Hope that works out well….
Hi Julia – thanks for being in touch.
I may be wrong, I often am – and I think you might have slightly exaggerated the CEOs remuneration. Last set of accounts say a base salary of £250k, car allowance of £8.5k, a pension contribution of £30k (capped from £60k with agreement of remuneration committee). There is also up to 30% of base pay available for delivering performance against objectives, so a further possible £75k. That makes a total of £363.5k. In any event – I take your point and here lies a part of the challenge. Ian Sutherland commented earlier about vested interests, and the CIPD has a £14m pay bill to service each year. People work, they do stuff, they get money – that’s cool and I think that more transparency around this stuff would really help, not just in relation to the CIPD but for the world of work in general.
Regarding the LinkedIn group, independent ownership of that is seemingly very much welcomed by the group members. This questions came up recently and overwhelmingly people were in favour of keeping that distance. That in itself poses questions for me and I think the CIPD would happily own it if the members wanted that – but they don’t, at least not right now. So fair play to the CIPD on that one.
I do think the CIPD could and should be more open and more responsive. Love your use of aspirational – nice.
Cheers – Doug
How do I ‘LIKE’ Julia’s post – BRILLIANT!!!!
Great idea- I am currently a student and would love to take you up on this offer- very generous of you! I’m really grateful for the lower membership prices for students as I am paying for the course myself and it is pretty expensive. I will share this post to the rest of my course mates too (you may get a few more followers in return). Maybe also tweet it mentioning @CIPDStudents?
My pleasure Clare. Let’s talk and I’ll make sure I pick up the renewal tab for you this year.
Hi Doug
I don’t often comment on blogs but wanted to add my thoughts as I very much agree with your sentiments. My membership fee as an Associate was £145 and I must be honest and say that the only reason I rejoin every year is to have the letters after my name which a number of my clients like and find comforting. I work with mainly small businesses and they like to know that their HR consultant is accredited or affiliated to the official body in some way.
After that, I’m afraid that I get zero benefit from CIPD membership. I get the magazine which I confess I don’t read because most of it seems so far removed from what I do “at the sharp end”. I’m not in a corporate HR role and my clients aren’t too bothered about the latest survey or the latest view from the CIPD. They just want me to keep them legal first and foremost and maybe if we’re lucky, find time to help them to grow their businesses.
I admire your offer to pay for student memberships and am delighted to see that at least one forward thinking person has already taken you up on the offer.
Katherine
Hi Katherine – thanks for being in touch.
I can see how being Associated – that is to say – having qualified and therefore using the letters after your name, is of value – to your clients and therefore also to you. Your feeling about no real value beyond that is unfortunately one I’ve heard many times. I think the CIPD could do a few simple things to make a big difference in and around member engagement. I’ve blogged about this before, talked with people in the CIPD too – and I don’t have the power to make stuff happen in there, it’s up to the CIPD to choose to act.
Right now – based on what I see and experience, I just don’t think member engagement is a big enough priority for them. Do you? And I wonder, if you asked your clients – ‘What could my professional body do that would help me offer even better service to you?’ what kind of responses you might get?
Cheers – Doug
Thank you for your candid post. For someone who’s considering obtaining a CIPD qualification to progress my career in HR, after reading this article I just wonder how much value I will gain from the qualification.
Hi Stella and thanks for your question. I’m not in a position to answer it from experience as I have not taken any CIPD qualifications myself, nor do I currently intend to. That said, I am sure there are a lot of people in HR who find the experience useful and valuable. My post was not intended to put students off, some might argue quite the opposite! I’m coming from the perspective of an Affiliate member, something quite different to the route you are considering. I expect if you ask your question on an open forum – Twitter, or Quora perhaps – you’d get some interesting responses.
Cheers – Doug
I have been a member of the CIPD since 2000, first as a student, then as a graduate and now, after ignoring their constant requests for me to upgrade my membership, they have transferred me to “Associate” member.
After thinking about what I gain from my membership for a few years, I have now decided not to renew my membership. I still work in HR and it does feel like quite a big step, but as my employer does not pay my membership I am really struggling to see what I would get for my £145. Essentially a monthly magazine, which is much smaller than it used to be, only issued half as often as it used to me and which I don’t read anyway. I rarely access the website because there are better (and free) resources elsewhere.
I have also been completely disillusioned with the changes to membership levels they made a few years back and their relentless marketing campaign to get members to “upgrade”. I have received monthly letters, postcards and emails for several years now about how my membership level doesn’t reflect my experience and if I pay £60 and fill out a complex and time consuming form I can get a membership level that fairly reflects my HR credentials. I have always seens this as simply a money making exercise by the CIPD – they impose changes to membership and then charge members for the privilege of being graded at the correct level. I have refused to do it.
What has annoyed me even more this year is the different levels of fees for the different levels of membership, so even if I did want to become a corporate member, in addition to paying £60 for updagrading, I would also have to pay a higher membership fee. Why? What extra benefits would I get?
The more I work in HR, the more I come to the conclusion that CIPD membership is no indicator of expertise. I have just recruited for a HR Manager for a client and the standard of applicants was appalling – all of whom had corporate CIPD membership. Experience shines through in your professional achievements, not in what letters you have after your name.
Now my boss has a dilemma – she wants to be able to say her staff are CIPD members, but she hasn’t paid for membership before – I await her decision!
I’m sorry you feel this way Sam, I can relate to it and I don’t think you are alone. Whilst I would never expect the CIPD to try and please everyone, I think their current approach to consulting with members is causing a lot of frustration – and rightly so. Please let us know if your boss decides that having CIPD members as staff is worth paying for.
Cheers – Doug
Doug! Loved the phrase in one of your comments: “a seismic collapse in relevance”. The CIPD is not the only group, organization, or even field facing that today. When facing the unknown we humans seem to cling to the last thing that made us successful even when we can see the end it is accelerating us toward. Using your phrase, it’s like continuing to build houses in active earthquake zones because to do otherwise would be to admit: 1) it’s unsafe; and 2) it was a bad idea in the past. Keep calm and keep the blinders on, eh? That said, I can appreciate the challenges they face balancing rapidly changing business models and even what/how HR adds value against not disrupting the comfort of the member base (esp. those in power positions). The good/bad news is that none of it matters. The world is changing whether we want it to or not.
Thanks Broc – nicely observed. For me – in part it’s about asking, listening, feedback and keeping that stuff going. That’s no guarantee of ensuring survival – but I think it helps 😉
Doug,
Well written, and wholly supported.
The CIPD is too commercial and the letters do not mean much in the real world. It is however one of the very few options hr professionals have in making themselves feel better about themselves!
Hi Raj – it’s a difficult thing to balance. The CIPD needs money to survive, it has 130,000 members to support in one way or another and 350 staff and a £14m pay bill to service. So – the organisation needs to be commercially savvy to survive and thrive, yet if the value of the qualification is declining then for me at least, more effort needs to be invested into listening and finding out from members how they feel and might help reshape a sustainable future for all who have an interest in the CIPD.
Doug
You will be aware of the similar debate happening in New Zealand and people who have come out publicly and said why they are not renewing their HRINZ. Membership. I was one of those. I thought long and hard about it, over a year, but when all is said and done it was offering me nothing of value. Ironically, I looked at what the CIPD offer and thought that very good value.
Our institute has 3-4,000 members only (population 4 million) so doesn’t have the full time staff or resources that CIPD enjoys. They rely heavily on volunteers. Looking around the world, similar frustrations about professional HR bodies are being expressed in the US and in Australia.
I met Peter Cheese earlier this year and found myself wishing that we had someone with that drive, enthusiasm and vision heading our own national body. I guess where I am going with this is to be careful what you wish for. In the UK you are lucky to have such a well resourced, forward thinking, commercial institute. Of course they won’t be perfect, membership organizations never are, but you probably have it better than anyone.
As an aside, I was recently staggered to be denied entry to the non-CIPD driven LinkedIn group. That is obviously a very exclusive club that only current members can take part in. The fact I have a CIPD qualification and am a former member cut no ice. So much for online transparency and collaboration.
Nice touch with the student offer. Top man.
Hi Richard – thanks for being in touch.
Value is defined by the recipient, hopefully in consultation with the provider. No provider can hope to serve everyone, and decisions will be made, in this scenario by members, staying and going, depending on the answer to the ‘what value am I getting?’ question. Alongside that, the member organisation must consider ‘How wide do we try to throw our net?’, and try to derive confidence in their offer and who the offer is for.
In your case, you say the professional body is light on resources – that is both a problem and an opportunity, creativity is often borne out of constraints and scarcity. I have a lot of contacts in the USA and I am impressed by how SHRM and its members infuse things with such enthusiasm on a voluntary basis. Access to resources helps shape the strategy – how much is enough?
I’m pleased you experienced Peter in the way that you did. In an earlier comment on this blog I wrote: ‘I know a lot of lovely, helpful, purposeful people in the CIPD, and I put trust in the broad intent and direction that Peter Cheese, the current CEO has.’ And whilst it may seem that here in the UK we have it better than anyone – I think there are more interesting and aspirational comparisons to be made than one professional body against another.
The LinkedIn CIPD group has its rules – of membership, and like any rule, enforcement of that sometimes means good stuff gets missed. In a previous negotiation with the CIPD for a piece of work I did not win, I was asked the question ‘What steps would you take to ensure this action doesn’t attract any negative publicity?’ I answered that I, nor anyone else could or should offer a guarantee of no negative publicity. Such a guarantee is worthless, particularly in an age of open networking. Nor should it be desired – as far as I’m concerned – I want to hear from critics, their feedback is essential. I guess my point is – sometimes a few rules are helpful – so long as you accept that in enforcing them – you sometimes miss good stuff as well as keep out, that which you don’t want.
Two students have come forward and I have paid their 2014 renewal fees. Someone got in touch with me to suggest that a way of making the Affiliate membership more valuable could be to adopt what I have done, and include some mentoring for the students. In return – the Affiliate gets to retain membership. Something about that I quite like – though I guess it might be fiddly to administer. Anyway – in this case I feel like I’ve done something useful, for two members and I hope for the CIPD also.
Cheers – Doug
Doug a perfect illustration of why I and so many others have such great respect for you. You explore your issues, offer some challenging thinking and then take positive action. Nothing is left hanging other than genuine enquiry.
I agree that their engagement doesn’t seem to be working, and my personal action is going to be to offer (as I have in the past) to provide some input.
I do think I achieve value for my annual subscription; and have listed the tangibles elsewhere; however, there is a strong message about qualification/membership level which I hear from many sources which appears to be provoking strong reaction.
Thanks Meg – I’m genuinely surprised by the reaction to this post and my offer. In the three days the post has been live, it’s been read over 550 times, and as you can see – it has generated a lot of subsequent, and interesting conversation. I appreciate your reflection on my actions – thanks ever so much.
As you know I have tried to be of use to the CIPD ever since I took an interest in them several years ago. And we’ve done and hopefully will still do – interesting and useful things together. Right now – for want of a few simple tweaks I believe they CIPD are missing out on a lot of useful, rich dialogue and ways to coactively improve. You and I and others have had conversations with the CIPD about this and I hope the dialogue continues, and more learning and action is visible as a result.
Please see my earlier comment to Richard for what I hope is a helpful way of positioning value. I think the CIPD does have a lot to offer to some.
Cheers – Doug
Really interesting debate!!
For the first time in 14 years I haven’t renewed my membership. Why? well its a lot of money, my circumstances have changed and the CIPD do not offer any short term support. I work part time, so am not eligible for ‘hardship’ funds, and can not pay in instalments because I contacted them a few weeks after the July cut off.
The institute must remain relevant, they need to increase the response to economic times, my situation is purely financial, I believe in the professionalism offered through membership however sadly its currently seen as a costly ‘luxury’ Nobody I talk to at the CIPD seems flexible enough to help, its too black and white. I feel I have given them loyalty for a long time but there isnt much in return.
Thanks Dee. What I am seeing both from my own choice and the feedback from everyone, including you – is that we all have a different perspective on this. I wonder if the CIPD needs to narrow its focus a little and be more relevant to a smaller market perhaps? I don’t know – but it must be very difficult to try and satisfy over 130,000 members.
Cheers – Doug