BEST MEMBERSHIP SUPPORT DURING COVID-19 (5,001+ MEMBERS)
Chartered Institute of Payroll Professionals – The Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme
The Chartered Institute of Payroll Professionals (CIPP) is the Chartered Institute for payroll, pensions, and rewards professionals in the UK, dedicated to raising the profile of payroll in business across the UK and internationally.
The Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme (CJRS) is the Government’s primary mechanism for financially supporting the UK’s working population during the Covid-19 pandemic. This scheme would not have been realised without practical implementation by the payroll community.
The CIPP has been fundamental in supporting members, and the entire payroll community in understanding, communicating, and implementing the CJRS and its revisions at incredible speed.
The CIPP has supported members through the following means:
-Covid-19 Hub
-Improved Website and Social Media information
-Policy and Advisory knowledge support
-Free of charge membership for hardship situations
-Virtual Classroom training
-Online events
-National Payroll Week – moved online
-Annual Conference and Exhibition – moved online
In summary, the CIPP should win this award because:
• Supported members and the wider payroll community via a one stop hub of information.
• Increased the size of our Advisory service.
• Supported members who find themselves suffering hardship.
• Built relationships with HMRC to ensure speedy guidance for members.
Chartered Institute of Public Finance and Accountancy – CIPFA
CIPFA’s work in public finance in the UK and around the world is critical to fighting fraud and corruption and ensuring robust public services. From day one of COVID-19, CIPFA’s priority has been the health and wellbeing of its students, members and staff. While the pandemic has created difficulties for all organisations, we were able to mobilise quickly and efficiently to provide support to our 17,000 members and students.
Within a week of the first lockdown, we had moved all events and teaching to digital delivery, including our first digital annual conference.
We have also provided free guidance and support across channels, not just to our members, but to the public sector at large. This included newsletters, an online hub of COVID-related information, a programme of learning and development webinars and podcasts, and two series of mental health webinars lead by a trained mental health first aider.
CIPFA has fully transformed the way we deliver services to our membership. We will be taking these learnings into the future in order to make our services more timely, more accessible, and best placed to meet the needs of the public sector, both in the UK and around the world.
Country Land and Business Association – Crisis response to COVID-19
Our members, almost all of whom owned small businesses in isolated areas, were already reeling from the biggest change to agricultural policy in 70 years, uncertain trading conditions, floods and drought. Many were struggling to survive. With a new senior leadership team in place the CLA was busy developing a major new strategy when COVID-19 struck.
Our plan was simple – reassure, advise and lobby.
3,500 of the most vulnerable member’s received personal phone calls from CLA staff providing them with bespoke support. An additional 500 members per month contacted us for advice. We lobbied successfully for major Government changes, such as a 75% cut in VAT for tourism and hospitality businesses, whilst working with a cross industry coalition to feed the nation, promoting farm work to the unemployed and furloughed. At least 100,000 people applied, helping to keep supermarket shelves stocked.
We knew also that members wanted reassurance about the future, so our innovative Rural Powerhouse Week focused on informing members of how they could rebuild their businesses in 2021.
Federation of Small Businesses – Coronavirus webinar series
The FSB exists to offer its members vital business services including advice, financial expertise, support and a powerful voice heard in government. And so when the coronavirus struck, threatening not just members’ ambitions, but their very futures, it needed to respond with agility, empathy and understanding of the most effective way to meet their needs.
To achieve a greater reach across its membership base and the wider small business community, the FSB decided to utilise webinars as a vehicle to provide trustworthy information accumulated from reliable sources such as the government.
The Covid-19 webinar campaign was not devised for financial gain nor exposure. It was simply to provide as much help and information as possible when it was needed the most.
With calls to action to the FSB’s dedicated online coronavirus support hub, the webinars would also act as a vital channel to direct members to a constantly updated information resource they could trust to cut through the confusion of the daily rumours and speculation.
National Hair & Beauty Federation – COVID-19
It quickly became apparent that accurate and aligned messaging was required across all National Hair & Beauty Federation (NHBF) communications channels – Membership Helpline, social media/website, email and press enquiries, and so we created a COVID Crisis Team with our external PR agency.
Amongst all the noise we decided not to speculate, only to report and advise on fact. This cemented the NHBF as the trusted go-to information source for our industry, the media and government. We didn’t just report but created the resources our Members need to navigate the pandemic from furlough letters to fact sheets, and links to the latest financial support.
We engaged with our members daily and saw our social media following increase by over 100k on Facebook and 68K on Instagram; we generated over 3000 pieces of media coverage and had 1432 new members by December 2020.
Most importantly, the responses to and engagement with our Members has shaped our conversations with the Government. We have been able to report and reflect the major concerns of the industry and have no doubt that this contributed to the recent creation for the first time of a dedicated Personal Care sector team within BEIS.
National Residential Landlords Association – COVID-19 response
The National Residential Landlords Association (NRLA) is the UK’s largest membership organisation for private residential landlords, representing over 90,000 members and associates. Our vision is for a rental sector that works for all - and one that critically recognises the contribution landlords make to it, and the wider society, in the provision of safe, legal and secure homes.
The NRLA identified member needs and set clear objectives for what it needed to achieve operationally in support of its membership during the pandemic. This included updating organisational infrastructure to support home working whilst ensuring no disruption to service, issuing wide-ranging guidance to ensure new legal changes to landlords were provided as part of an effective communications strategy, alongside lobbying at the highest level in order to support members.
The last 11 months were both a challenging and rewarding period as not only did the organisation have to respond to the pandemic to support members, this was all achieved as the organisation was going through a merger. Since the merger, the NRLA has grown membership by almost 10%. The growing membership number is truly a testament to the level of provided and its commitment to creating a member-first organisation.
Nautilus International – Supporting seafarers through the COVID-19 crisis
Nautilus International is the trade union for maritime professionals at sea and ashore, representing 22,000 workers.
Crucially, in the past year, support from Nautilus has been hugely important for seafarers across the globe. With the COVID-19 pandemic causing significant issues for the maritime industry – with many seafarers left stranded on vessels for months on end – communication, support and advice has been critical.
In what has been a hugely challenging year for seafarers, Nautilus International has stepped up as the voice of maritime professionals and provided hugely important support to its members, building its membership base and generating tangible change for their benefit.
Public Relations and Communications Association
The PRCA represents a £15bn professional service industry. Our members support business, the public sector and NGOs in talking to stakeholders from employees and consumers to policymakers and investors.
As the world’s biggest PR association, there was an urgent need for us to provide practical assistance and guidance to communications professionals – not only to support the industry, but also, frankly, to save the association.
One of our core functions is continuous professional development, so we switched to online learning within two weeks. We offered free training to anyone who’d been furloughed, whether or not they were members.
We pivoted to virtual events, including conferences and awards, and made them freely available to members/non-members.
We created the PRCA Covid-19 Communications Taskforce: a free, global mechanism for members to access critical business support and practical guidance, as well as keeping them informed and connected.
Our director-general held weekly calls with the Cabinet Office and joined the Government’s Covid-19 panel. We campaigned for financial support for PR businesses and freelancers.
We not only supported our industry, but delivered more value than ever before. Members told us our support was a lifeline as they navigated the challenges of the pandemic.
Society for Education and Training – COVID-19 support initiative
When Coronavirus hit, teachers and trainers nationwide were thrust into the digital world, some with minimal digital skills or experience working and teaching from home.
With a small-core team, also adapting to working from home, the Society for Education and Training (SET) worked hard to ensure that teacher, trainers and other professionals working across further education, vocational teaching and training had access to the tools needed to adapt, succeed and thrive during lockdown and beyond. Through our Covid support initiative, we provided our members with a wide package of support, including; digital teaching support, releasing a ‘special edition’ of our quarterly membership magazine focusing on ‘Covid’ support, additional webinars and online content, introduction of a legal advice line and worked on a joint campaign with our colleagues at the Education and Training Foundation (ETF), to ensure those working in Further Education were supported through these unprecedented times.
Engagement metrics, renewal rates, webinar attendance, email open rates and website visits all increased dramatically, and we are proud to have provided some of the hardest hit members of society with the tools they need to flourish.
The Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development – CIPD Coronavirus Hub
When coronavirus forced businesses to close or adapt their workplaces, they turned to their HR teams for guidance and leadership on protecting their workforce while operating a business in ever-changing circumstances, how to handle furlough, limit redundancies and deal with many employee concerns. Trusted, practical guidance was needed urgently. The CIPD, whose purpose is to champion better work and working lives, quickly pulled together a Coronavirus rapid response working group, gathering inhouse expertise and, with constant communication with the membership, started to create resources needed to support the people profession through such difficult times.
A dedicated Coronavirus hub page was created on the CIPD website to gather and share practical support and guidance, to disseminate and interpret official advice for members and non-members alike. From factsheets and guides, reports, webinars and easy to use tools, it created over 21 detailed pieces of content, 40 webinars and over 130 FAQs within 10 months.
We’ve received incredible engagement levels from the people profession, and the increase of our NPS score by 32 points to +16 shows how much value the members have placed on these resources.
