Middle Eastern members and students have a close focus on career progression, advice, support and profile, as last summer’s membership survey reveals, Peter Matza explains.
In Summer 2015, we carried out a research consultation with members and student members across the world to inform our strategic planning process and gain an understanding of members’ career aspirations, needs and relationship with the ACT. This report provides a summary of the Middle East (ME) responses. We received 61 responses from across the Gulf Cooperation Council, a good response from the region, representing about a quarter of all ME-based members and students. (Where indicated, non-ME means the rest of the global survey responses – around 1,250 altogether.)
For all respondents, being at the heart of their business and being able to add value was the most popular inspiration for working in treasury, and the proportion for ME (67%) was higher than non-ME (51%). Fewer ME respondents (27%) said they worked in treasury because it was a natural progression from another role (non-ME: 41%).
The most popular reason for joining the ACT was to support career progression. More ME members said they did so to gain new skills (77%) compared with non-ME members (58%), and more ME members (48%) said they wanted to access resources relating to the profession than non-ME (28%). The same goes for accessing professional support and advice (ME: 43%, non-ME: 26%). In an issue that all relatively small professional bodies face, more ME members (43%) said lack of awareness of ACT internationally was a barrier to membership than non-ME respondents (30%). Stronger promotion of the overall benefits of ACT membership and qualifications should help reduce barriers to membership.
More ME members stated a key role of the ACT now was to raise the profile of ACT qualifications internationally (ME: 58%, compared to non-ME: 40%). A higher proportion of ME respondents also said a key role now was to promote best practice (ME: 53%, non-ME: 37%).
In terms of how they saw their career development, leadership skills scored highest across all members, regardless of location, as the skill they most needed to develop or enhance in order to realise their career aspirations. Having said that, having a clear grasp of technical and analytical skills was highlighted by more ME members (41%) than non-ME (27%).
Lack of early involvement in business issues was the challenge most in the region were concerned about; interestingly, mirroring the findings in our 2015 Contemporary Treasurer research. For non-ME members it was increased regulatory or administrative pressures. This clearly reflects the lack of regulatory infrastructure in the region – perhaps a sign of things to come, however.
All members generally feel more valued than five years ago, with the most quoted reason being that the treasury contribution has been elevated in status since the global financial crisis. Perhaps, unsurprisingly, more ME members (46%) felt the ACT had helped raise the profile of the profession internationally than non-ME members (15%). Unfortunately, this raised profile hasn't fully translated into employer support.
More ME members are responsible for paying their own membership fee (59%) than non-ME members (40%), and regional employers are less likely to pay for qualifications and training (53%) than non-ME employers (62%). That extends to conferences and events where employers are less likely to pay for conferences and events for ME members (37%) than non-ME (54%). Given that the most popular membership benefit for ME members was networking opportunities, and that a higher proportion of ME respondents also said a key role now was to provide networking opportunities (ME: 43%, non-ME: 27%), maybe there’s a need for ME members to be more vocal.
Most members, regardless of location, thought the ACT was very effective or fairly effective at: communicating the importance of treasury; raising awareness and the profile of the ACT; raising awareness as to the value of being a member; conveying information about ACT qualifications, and on how training and learning can support career development; providing events and networking opportunities, technical updates and advice; and conveying the value of qualifications and training to employers.
When asked what improvements the ACT could make to establish more effective communications, a higher proportion of ME members than non-ME members said more electronic communications, different topic areas, more localised information and content, and greater frequency. That is certainly going to be on the agenda for the ACT Middle East committee.
