WHY JOIN?

About the Research

If membership is not a statutory requirement, what makes professionals join a professional body?

How do professionals choose which professional body to join and which benefits and strategies encourage them to become members? As the debate about what it means to be a professional in the 21st century and how access to the professions might be made ‘fairer’ continues, this research explores the expectations of professionals and the strategies that help professional bodies to position themselves as essential to both professionals and their employers.

How did we carry out the project?

We conducted the research with successful professional bodies, using the following methods:

• Analysing the different strategies professional bodies use to attract members
• Evaluating the strategies' strengths and weaknesses
• Gathering examples of interesting and successful practice that demonstrate the mechanisms by which professional body membership becomes ‘required’ in the profession
• Case studies of employers analysing their motivation

 

What did we find?

Read our findings and in-depth analysis in Raising the Value of Professional Body Membership.