7. Internal Communication

To build stronger relationships and shared sense of purpose among all our members and staff through more effective communications.

Monitoring and responding to our members’ needs

• An intranet for staff across the organization continued to provide the platform for internal communication within Engineers Australia . All staff are now subscribed to a dedicated Blog to encourage interaction and shared understanding.
• The Engineers Australia Member Benefits program offers best in market offers from a range of partners exclusively to Engineers Australia members. These partners included but were not limited to American Express, ING, AMP, Australian Unity and 2020 Direct Invest. The program was accessed by around 70% of the membership, with valuable income benefits to Engineers Australia.
• Engineers Australia released a comprehensive Member Services Directory providing a “road map” to the many activities, services, events and privileges of membership. The Directory has been well received with plans to release updated editions on an annual basis.
• Our ‘careers advice’ service acted on over 1,600 queries during the year – job searching, resume checking and general career discussions were the most popular topics.
• In the changed economic climate, there was a higher incidence of 1 on 1 career counselling sessions with engineers made redundant.
• We worked with the publishing arm Engineers Media to produce this year’s salary and benefits survey. Good numbers of both the printed and online versions have been sold.
• Hits to our engineer.career database were similar to recent years, although down on queries for salary information.

Keeping members informed of current activities

• Engineers Australia has been canvassing members’ views to develop public policy issues at a state and federal level, through meetings with divisions, societies, colleges and committees. We have attempted to keep members informed of our public policy activities through e-news items, news items on the web, regular columns in Engineers Australia magazine, and by offering an electronic newsletter to those who wish to subscribe.
• Members are kept informed through regular newsletters,  magazine articles and via the website at both national and Division levels. These media are used to promote events and awards, and to provide profiles of award recipients.
• Generally, Divisions report good coverage and feedback in relation to member communications, particularly following highlights such as Engineering Week and Excellence Awards.
• Divisions continued to upgrade newsletter formats with positive feedback results.
• In preparation for the launch of the upgraded Engineers Australia public website, work is continuing to integrate previous standalone websites for some Divisions and learned society groups into the new site, in some cases with much improved functionality for giving members access to information on group activities.

Implementing communication protocols

• Engineers Australia embarked on an extensive data cleansing exercise to ensure the membership details held by the organisation were accurate. The data cleansing took place in two stages with the first stage focusing on those in arrears resulting in the re-admission of in excess of 1,000 members and the recovery of some $580k in membership subscriptions.
• The second phase of the data cleansing exercise resulted in more than 49,000 members being contacted by phone to verify their details and privacy preferences. This project was completed in September 2009 and has resulted in an updated and current membership database, essential to the effective operation of the organisation.
• No material member privacy issues arose during the reporting period.

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