08/22/2019

Results of ACEC Ohio member survey are in!

In June, ACEC Ohio conducted a member survey which was to identify member thoughts and concerns about the industry, gauge perceptions of the organization’s strengths, and identify opportunities for the Council to increase value to members.

Members participating in the survey represented a cross-section of the association in terms of size, discipline, and region. We were pleased to find out that our members view ACEC/ACEC Ohio as their primary resource for engineering business practices information, which is part of our mission. The events our members regularly participate in ranked as follows: Chapter Meetings (84%); the ODOT Partnering Conference (83%); the Annual Meeting (69%); PAC events (65%) and the Engineering Excellence Awards (60%). Seventy-eight percent of members responding contribute to the ACEC/ACEC Ohio PAC’s. In addition, over 87% would participate if ACEC Ohio offered virtual meetings, which we will be moving forward with this year for our committees.

The member survey asked key questions about ACEC Ohio and the following represents a summary of the responses: (1=Poor, 2=Fair, 3=Good, 4=Excellent)

• ACEC Ohio’s overall quality of member services: 3.4 out of 4
• ACEC Ohio’s overall understanding of member’s needs: 3.3 out of 4
• ACEC Ohio’s overall relevance to your business: 3.4 out of 4
• ACEC Ohio’s overall communication: 3.5 out of 4
• ACEC Ohio’s overall customer service (interaction with staff): 3.5 out of 4
• ACEC Ohio’s overall website: 3.1 out of 4
• ACEC Ohio’s overall social media: 3.1 out of 4

When we asked members to prioritize the benefits of being an ACEC Ohio member with 1 begin most important and 6 being least important, advocacy/lobbying was first followed by networking/exposure to clients and committee participation/industry information rounding out the top 3.

The survey respondents were asked what significant issues are facing the industry, there were 3 issues that rose to the top--1) Funding; 2) Lack of qualified staff; 3) QBS. ACEC Ohio has recognized these top issues also and is working on each of these for our membership.  We are a founding member of the FOR Ohio infrastructure funding coalition, working to educate the next Governor and Ohio Legislature on the need for funding NOW. At the August meeting of the ACEC Ohio Board of Directors, workforce development was a topic of discussion. The outcome of this discussion included the creation of a workforce development committee to explore how ACEC Ohio can partner to address this need. The Council has already partnered with ODOT, Columbus State Community College and NICET to develop as academic program for construction inspectors (see separate article). Finally, a Qualification Based Selection (QBS) Task Force has been created by the Board of Directors and will be kicking off this fall.

The survey asked what can ACEC Ohio do to serve you better? Of those that responded to the survey, 30% gave specific comments to this question. Some comments are already being worked on, for example “increase committees to support non-operational staff such as finance and human resources” was a recommendation to this question. We are pleased to announce our first Human Resources Forum has been scheduled for September 25, 2018 in the offices of ACEC Ohio. If you are an HR Professional and would like to learn and share with your peers from engineering consulting firms, please join us at this inaugural forum. Additional forums will be scheduled throughout the year. 

Member surveys keep us focused and relevant to our members, thank you for taking the time to let us know how we are doing, what we can do better and what key issues your company is facing. If you’d like to see the full membership survey results, click here.

If you have any questions or concerns, feel free to contact me.

~Beth