Member survey 2020
The results of our biennial member survey are in. Find out what we learned, and what steps we’re taking to improve your membership experience.
Every two years, the Royal Society of Chemistry surveys you, our members, to gather information on perceptions, opinions and overall satisfaction. This is your opportunity to share your experiences with us by feeding back on all aspects of being a member of the professional body for the chemical sciences.
We use this to improve your experience by listening to your honest feedback. Whilst opportunities for discussions at events and activities are numerous, we value the wide and varied responses you provide to us in this research – which covers all facets of RSC membership and the wider organisation.
The results of this biennial investigation form the basis for decisions taken around future development and professional support for our members at every stage of their career.
We would like to extend a big thank you to everyone who took the time to complete this year’s set of questions and provide us with some really useful detail and insight.
The headlines
Over 6000 of you shared your views during the four week window, with respondents ranging from those working in industry to teachers and lecturers, and from academics to consultants and researchers. Of those surveyed 93% rated the RSC positively, with 46% selecting excellent and 47% saying good, representing an overall positive increase of 4% from 2018.
There were also increases in the number of members feeling proud to be a member of the RSC, feeling a sense of belonging and rating member benefits and services as excellent or good.
Volunteering
We were overwhelmed by how important volunteering is to you. There are a large number of ways you can volunteer as a member of the RSC, whether that’s engaging with your local section and interest groups, being a member of a working group, delivering outreach activities, speaking at events, or peer reviewing our publications.
The survey highlighted that you want more local options for volunteering and participation. As a result we will continue to address the scheduling and location of different kinds of RSC events and build on online access to services and products for members.
The survey showed more than half of participants not currently involved indicated an interest in one or more volunteer opportunities, in particular those earlier in their career. We will build added guidance and communication to help you access wider opportunities to support us at every career stage in the coming months.
Career planning
When it comes to making plans for future career steps, we want to support all of our members at every stage.
As early career chemists you told us that enhancing your skill set and taking on new responsibilities are your main priorities. A key tool for supporting early development is our approved training courses database, which encompasses topics and techniques across the whole spectrum of the chemical sciences. Booking is available at a discounted rate for members.
Mid-career chemists frequently responded to this section of the survey saying they were looking to improve their skill set, but also to take on a more senior role. Our mentoring scheme is the perfect platform for individuals to get a flavour of what is involved and to gain some valuable CV-building experience.
Our in-house career management team are on hand to provide support for our whole membership, at any stage of your career – whether you are a recent graduate or you are planning your retirement.
Of our career and professional development support, you valued the access to specialist advisors most highly alongside a number of allied services.
We will be using the responses you have provided to begin a broader review of all of these activities to ensure that you continue to get first class guidance throughout your career.
Find out more about careers support.
Professional awards
Our registered and chartered professional awards are the cornerstone of our professional development platform for our members and over a third of respondents either hold, are working towards or are familiar with our flagship chartered chemist award.
Of those who hold or are working towards an RSC professional award, 81% told us that they feel it has contributed to promoting their career success. Many commented on how the award has increased their professional credibility and given them a sense of achievement and pride.
If you are thinking about achieving a professional award, or manage individuals who would benefit from this framework for professional development, our accreditation and qualifications team can provide expert help on selecting the right award.
Some respondents said they would like assistance with the different steps required to achieve a professional award. Our team can help with this, right through from application to building a report or portfolio and assessment.
Over the coming year we will be working to increase support across the board for our registers and chartership applicants.
Find our more about professional recognition.
Chemists' Community Fund
As a member of the RSC you have access to our Chemists' Community Fund. The fund exists to provide support to you and your family when life gets challenging.
Over two thirds of participants were aware of the Fund and the numerous ways it can provide support in times of hardship, from legal advice to coping with bereavement, and from financial support to health and wellbeing services. However not all of you felt confident in how to access it.
We will continue to increase promotion of this key offering for our membership in order to combat the numbers who are unsure of how to access it, or who are unsure of their eligibility. This year is the fund’s 100 year anniversary so we have many planned activities that will help to answer these concerns.
Find out more about the Chemists Community Fund.
Inclusion and Diversity
This year's survey asked your opinions on inclusion and diversity within the chemical sciences.
Some of our most recent research has focused on these areas, such as support for women within the profession as laid out in our "Breaking the barriers" insights, which highlighted challenges to women’s retention and progression in the chemical sciences, and our collaborative efforts with the Institute of Physics and the Royal Astronomical Society on the report "Exploring the workplace for LGBT+ physical scientists", which emphasised the need to create working environments where all employees feel comfortable and can therefore flourish.
With our new more in depth diversity data monitoring questions, we align our data collection with current best practices such as those used by Stonewall, The Royal Academy of Engineering, the Science Council, the Higher Education Statistics Agency (HESA), and the Office for National Statistics (ONS).
From 2020, we have committed to report publicly on our diversity data, and data from our membership survey will form a large part of this. We will collectively be empowered to provide more accurate analysis and reports to improve our services and provide the best possible offering to our community.
Looking to the future
Over the coming weeks and months we will continue to explore the responses that you provided, identify trends in membership groups and begin to plan future projects, products and services that will help you in the your day to day roles as well as more broadly across your work and home life.
Every answer is valuable to us and your time, enthusiasm and experience gives us confidence in using this research to build a stronger membership for every part of our community.
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