Member Survey Results

Kia ora koutou members and supporters of NZISM. Feedback on our annual member survey. Thank you to all of you who responded to our annual NZISM member survey. As always, we use this information to help us clarify our priorities for the oncoming year, understand where we need to improve and help us make decisions focused on what our members value most. What has been encouraging to see is the engagement we have around our national webinar programme. While we haven’t had a lot of choice in the matter, due to lockdowns over the last year, we are mostly getting the content right and you have given us plenty to think about in terms of what you want to see in 2022.

The lack of local networking has been something both our members and our whole team of volunteers here at NZISM have missed. We recognise that networking is a critical component of engagement with your professional association and your local branch committees are already planning how we can deliver this next year when we hope travel and other restrictions are removed. Event planning in the last 12 months has been difficult in such an uncertain environment. However, with a focus on vaccinations across the country as a determinant for increased freedoms, we all hope to see an increase in networking opportunities in your local area.

There were many important and valuable suggestions from members, describing how we can better support you, ensure you are engaged in the health and safety community and how we can better recognise the expertise you bring to NZISM, as well as connect you to the expertise within the organisation. All of your comments and suggestions will be shared with the Senior Leadership Team, Governance Board, and the Local Branch Committees so that your suggestions can be considered and implemented where possible into our business plans and priorities for 2022.

In the meantime, there are a few things I can quickly address:

1. As an affiliate member of NZISM, you are entitled to access ALL the membership benefits across NZISM. The great range of benefits we have on offer to our members is not restricted by membership type.
2. Please regularly check your contact details in your membership information online, this will ensure you are receiving communications to the right email address and if you haven’t heard from us in a while, check your junk mail. We send out a fortnightly newsletter throughout the year, except for a short break at Christmas.
3. If you are after peer support, whether it be to review and bounce ideas around from an issue you have at work or whether you are struggling with something and just need a listening ear, the Peer Support Network is here to help. You can contact our peer support volunteers via the Peer Support Network page
4. If you would like to know more about getting accredited with NZISM, please go to the Accreditation page, which has a range of resources to help you through the process. If you would like to talk to someone regarding this process, contact Sara at cpd@nzism.org Your application fee for accreditation covers the review and management of your application. Once accredited, your annual membership fees are the same as every other member.
5. If you would like to contribute articles and content to the NZISM newsletter please send information through to Tanya on comms@nzism.org We would love to promote the work our members are doing and share more of your stories, please reach out, we want to hear from you.
6. We have a member database which is a voluntary self-managed tool for our members to showcase their areas of expertise and knowledge. This database is open to all members who wish to be available either to the national office or the wider membership, as contact with knowledge and experience/expertise in particular fields. You will find the link to the member database on the membership dashboard after logging in. Feel free to add your details or use this to reach out to others who have experience in a particular field or industry.
7. We are currently engaging our volunteer network to discuss an organisation-wide vaccination policy. We will be putting this out to members for feedback once it has been socialised with the internal leadership teams. We have been waiting on clear direction from the Government to undertake a change in our policy, and we want to ensure we are engaging at all levels of our organisation before we implement this. Stay tuned, more information will follow.

We will be working through all the responses over the next few weeks and months to ensure all your feedback is taken on board to help us deliver the very best member experience we can. Every year we implement a range of suggestions from members that we receive via this survey. Your participation helps us deliver a membership organisation that you can be proud to belong to. You can now check out the member survey summary for 2021.

Thank you for helping to lead the way for the health and safety profession in Aotearoa.

Ngā mihi,

Selena Armstrong
Chief Executive Officer