‘Shaping the Future’ member engagement events – insights and next steps

Members at all events shared the importance of making it as easy as possible to enter the profession

• In the event workshops, members had many strong ideas for new initiatives to attract young people into the profession. We are currently working these up into a campaign, which we will aim to release at the end of this year. This will be in addition to existing activities including direct engagement with schools/colleges through initiatives such as the Inspire programme.
• One of our strategic goals is attracting a diverse next generation. In the next 12 months we have activities planned focused on apprenticeships, highlighting career opportunities specific to our profession and continuing to support our Matrics community.

Increasing public knowledge of surveying was also a shared goal

• In 2024 and beyond we will deliver a campaign focused on positively positioning surveying to the public. This is to enhance our existing consumer awareness activities in the press and across social media. Please let us know if you’d like to input into this on uktourquestions@rics.org
• We’ve also started to publish our consumer guides on rics.org and these have attracted 7,500 views a month.

Clearly communicating the value of RICS membership

• We hear members when they say they need to see and feel value for money from their subscriptions. We know that we need to constantly demonstrate value to our members, whether it’s with industry-leading standards and thought leadership, free CPD and networking opportunities, or simply making it easier to showcase your chartered status.
• To help members access and enjoy the full benefits of RICS membership, we are reviewing our communications to ensure this is being conveyed in the most effective way across various regions, member grades and pathways.

More local events and free CPD

• We are keen to raise awareness of our CPD Support Pack, including podcasts, webinars and in-person events, it is free to all members with around 12,000 members taking advantage so far in 2024.
• We’ve been pleased to hold more local events this year than ever – 121 globally with 5,055 members attending – but we want to continue expanding these, working with Regional Boards and Professional Group Panels.
• This year the RICS Matrics Surveyor Awards will be held in Manchester for the first time, following feedback from members.

Members also share the belief that being ‘experience-led’ means being highly responsive and engaged, ensuring members’ views influence decision-making at RICS

• We know from member feedback that we need to improve the service from our contact centre.  To address this, we have completed an initial discovery phase and are now in the process of implementing changes to deliver a new and improved experience. Progress will be carefully tracked to ensure this is making a positive difference to members.
• The launch of our Professional Group panels ensures that members are at the heart of our decision making. These groups will receive dedicated support and resource to ensure they can deliver their critical work for the profession.
• Members can now easily find out how they can contribute to both RICS and the profession at large with a new dedicated webpage

Strengthening trust and transparency

• We were pleased to proactively engage members on the subject of strengthening trust and transparency at RICS and share a number of new and existing measures  to enhance our engagement with members on this front.
• We are always looking to improve and strengthen trust with our members and other stakeholders, reflected in this being a strategic goal for RICS. Opportunities like the ‘Shaping the Future’ events enable members to engage with the new RICS leadership, ensuring their voices are heard and actions taken.

Improving communications with members (in terms of volume, relevance, channel and style/tone)

• We are carrying out a full review of all our communications channels to ensure these meet the needs of our diverse member audiences in terms of format and content.
• Following member feedback, we are also introducing an ‘opt in’ for print versions of Modus and journals by the end of 2024