12 November 2012
Thank you to everyone who completed the 2012 BIFM membership survey.
We received just under 1,200 fully completed responses to the survey, which has provided us with valuable feedback to plan our future activities and develop our offering to you. Here are some of the highlights:
Your main motivation to become and stay a member was to access industry knowledge. This was closely followed by the added professional recognition that membership offers and access to professional development.
We are pleased to report that 91 per cent of you consider BIFM as offering good or excellent value for money and 86 per cent of you would be happy to recommend BIFM membership to a colleague. You see the organisation as professional, nationally recognised, as offering good networking opportunities and as providing relevant information.
Your priorities for BIFM continue to be to represent your professional interests and provide services, information and networking opportunities. You also wanted us to provide the latest academic thinking and knowledge in the field of facilities management.
When it came to individual services, you showed most interest in us developing new 'guidance on best practice' and 'best practice case studies'. Access to journals, reports and books were also important to you and the hot topic at the moment was considered to be sustainability, with areas such as energy and cost reduction coming up frequently.
This search for knowledge underpins the statistic that 75 per cent of respondents currently undertake some level of continuing professional development (CPD), with 27 per cent doing more than 30 hours per year. Why? They want to maintain their level of FM knowledge and advance their careers. Members also want to give back - 47 per cent expressed an interest in volunteering in some form or other, but cited time and job requirements as barriers to taking part.
Forty-three per cent of respondents hold senior roles in their organisations, with 82 per cent managing employees. The majority of respondents come from private sector organisations with in-house FM expertise (31 per cent), or the public sector with in-house FM expertise (29 per cent). Interestingly, 47 per cent of organisations represented operate internationally.
Why take part? Your feedback is a vital part of our planning and reviewing cycle. It informs our plans, developments and adjustments to ensure we are offering the very best services we can to you as members and to the facilities management community.
This research has provided us with insight that is being used to inform the 2013-2015 planning process helping us to improve and develop membership services. We have taken on board your excellent ideas from topics for new good practice guides to suggestions on new products. Thank you again for your feedback.
Please don't wait for the next survey - if you have an idea, or comments onour service, please let us know at [email protected]