We are delighted to launch our 2022 Benchmarking Survey covering salary & benefits and the economic outlook across the UK association sector.
We are once again partnering with leading recruitment consultancy, Ellwood Atfield, to conduct the fieldwork and will be launching the research at an in-person event in London in November.
To give us the most complete picture of our sector we are encouraging all UK associations to complete the survey where possible.
In addition and in response to current member concerns and priorities, this year we have also included:
- Financial benchmarking questions to help to better understand the financial resilience of the sector, and the impact of the current economic challenges on the financial health of Associations
- A section on your experiences of recruitment over the past year, reflecting member concerns about the challenging labour market
- Questions relating to flexible working to help benchmark how our working practices have changed post pandemic
- Additional questions in relation to staff benefits reflecting concerns around the need to better support and retain staff
The survey is for Trade Associations only and the final report will be given free to all those that complete the survey. For anyone else, the report will be available for a fee. This is to maximise and encourage participation and recognise the commitment and time taken to complete the survey.
Alongside our partner the Chartered Institute for Public Relations (CIPR), TAF is launching a Public Affairs & Communications Best Practice Forum (PUBCOMM) for staff in trade associations who are responsible for member engagement, PR and public affairs activity.
If you would like to be kept informed about PUBCOMM’s work please register below:
Successful Trade Associations are built on excellent communications
There is no doubt that successful trade associations are built on excellent communications, but keeping pace with modern professional communications is an enduring and significant challenge.
Trade associations are small organisations, almost all employ less than 100 staff, most less than 20 and many under 10. They certainly don’t have the luxury of being able to employ a fully skilled team of communications professionals.
Instead, individuals take on multiple roles, upskilling themselves and learning on the job. Getting the balance of skills right to be able to take on, PR, public affairs, member engagement, corporate and digital communications is a constant challenge.
Their work really matters, and their communications does too. It needs to help them punch well above the size of their organisations.
It is only through excellent communicators that associations can properly represent their sector both in the UK and abroad, and with it shape the opportunities for their members and support the growth of the UK economy too.
Their communication with regulators and policymakers is critical. It makes policy workable. Without trade associations, the Government would have a really hard job implementing policy. Not only do associations spend huge amounts of time working on the details of regulation and guidance, but they then communicate it to their members and drive compliance too.
As the voice of their industry there is a huge responsibility to be visible and be accurate, and as member led organisations, trade associations must ensure they represent their views and interests. This means they need excellent channels of communication with members and a strong feedback loop too.
Trade associations also deliver essential communications to ensure industry standards are understood and adhered to. They put in place accreditation programmes, run regular training sessions, develop routes to entry through apprenticeships and vocational learning, support continued professional development, share best practice and reward excellence.
These communications make us all safer by protecting consumers and businesses and supporting public sector inspection regimes.
There is no doubt that investing in the skills and resources needed to have a professional communications capability is critical for associations.
This is why TAF has teamed up with the Chartered Institute of Public Relations to work together to ensure that Associations have access to the best professional development opportunities, and why together we are looking at how to build networks and develop best practice specifically for Associations.
If you are interested in finding out more or getting involved, we would love to hear from you.
CIPR announce new Partnership with the Trade Association Forum
The Chartered Institute of Public Relations (CIPR) is delighted to announce a strategic partnership with The Trade Association Forum to support the development of networks, discussion forums and best practice guidance for all those working in communications roles in UK Trade Associations.
Trade Associations are built on good communications, often the voice of their sector, they have small teams that rely on excellent communications, with members, with their sector, with the media, regulators and policy makers.
Working together the CIPR and TAF will look to improve the training and development offer for those working in communications in trade associations.
The partnership will also promote the importance of investing in professional communications to support Trade Associations across all of their communications activities, from PR to member communications, to marketing and public affairs
TAF Interim CEO Emily Wallace said:
“Trade Associations are small organisations that need to punch above their weight with their communications. I am delighted to be working with the CIPR to support TAF members to learn about the value of investing in their communications capabilities. ”
Alastair McCapra, Chief Executive of CIPR stated:
“Trade Associations are built on good communications. Often the voice of their sector, they have small teams that rely on excellent communications, with members, with their sector, with the media, regulators and policy makers. This partnership will support members of both bodies in sharing best practice and by providing networking opportunities.“
Notes:
The Trade Association Forum is the association for association in the UK, representing more than 140 trade associations who in turn represent more than 135,000 businesses from all sectors of the economy.
CIPR is the world’s only Royal Chartered body for public relations professionals. We are committed to professional standards and lifelong learning, supporting careers of members and building public understanding of public relations.
For more information please contact:
TAF: Emily Wallace, CEO – ceo@taforum.org
Darren Caplan is the CEO of RIA. He joined us to discuss who RIA are, what their priorities are, how TAF helps them achieve their goals, and the awards won by both RIA and Darren at the 2022 TAF Awards.
Trade Association Forum and Institute of Association Leadership join forces to develop new leadership programme and resources for trade associations.
The Institute of Association Leadership and the Trade Association Forum have announced that the two organisations will be merging.
The Institute of Association Leadership is the professional community for current and future chief executives and c-suite professionals who lead within the unique environment of the membership sector.
The Trade Association Forum is the leading representative body for associations in the UK, helping associations to engage, improve and lead their sectors.
The merger will see both organisations combine their resources to form a strengthened leadership and development offer for the association sector.
The integration of resources and collaboration around the development of a new leadership programme will start with immediate effect.
From January 2023, the Trade Association Forum will take full responsibility for the leadership and development programmes currently delivered by both organisations.
Simon Forrester, Director of the Institute of Association Leadership said:
“After careful consideration by the IAL Collective, we approached the Trade Association Forum to discuss how we can work together to further support those operating in or seeking an association leadership position. We quickly realised the natural home for association leaders is within a single, stronger body dedicated to best practice in this sphere. This merger of the two organisations will deliver significant benefit to both TAF and IAL members, and further promote the development of the Compass competency framework.”
Gaynor Pates, Chair of the Trade Association Forum said:
“The Trade Association Forum exists to support the development of best practice amongst associations to enable them to champion and support businesses across all sectors of the economy.
“We are delighted that this merger with IAL will allow for the development of a new and strengthened programme for leaders and future leaders of trade associations.
For more information contact:
Emily Wallace
Chief Executive, Trade Association Forum
The Trade Association Forum is delighted to announce a strategic partnership with insurance advisory specialists Partners&
As part of the partnership, the two organisations will work together to develop a programme of work exploring risks and opportunities faced by trade associations and their members.
This will include conducting primary research on attitudes and awareness of risk amongst trade associations, which will be launched later this year.
Partners& will also be designing bespoke insurance solutions for TAF members, enabling them to extend what they can offer to their own members.
Announcing the partnership, TAF Interim CEO Emily Wallace said:
“I am incredibly pleased to welcome Partners& to TAF! We really look forward to working together to help our members improve the services they provide their members and help businesses to more effectively manage risk. I look forward to working with Partners& to assist TAF members.
CEO of Partners&, Phil Barton commented:
“As our name suggests, we have built our reputation on partnering with organisations to deliver mutually beneficial solutions. We have an enviable track record of working with member services organisations, and are excited at the prospect of developing bespoke schemes for TAF members.“
Notes:
- The Trade Association Forum is the association for association in the UK, representing more than 140 trade associations who in turn represent more than 130,000 businesses from all sectors of the economy.
- Partners& is a Chartered insurance advisory business providing seamless insurance, employee benefits, risk management and claims advice to businesses and private clients.
- For more information please contact:
- TAF: Emily Wallace, CEO – ceo@taforum.org
- Partners&: Malia Brown, Marketing and Communications Director – malia.brown@partnersand.com
Our second Member Spotlight welcomes Sally Edgington, Director at AXREM who joined us to discuss the work that she does for AXREM and the award that she won at the 2022 TAF Awards.
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Introducing our new Member Spotlight series is Ellen Daniels, the Chief Executive of the British Compressed Gases Association. Ellen spoke to us about good governance and what the BCGA is prioritising for this year.