When Hiring Staff Set Your Expectations

What do you look for when hiring a new staff member to join our team?

There is no question that the wrong hire can be devastating to your chamber.

I’d like to share a general philosophy I’ve used over the years when hiring new staff members.

While this is only one aspect of what I look for in a new employee, it’s worth a review.

• Professional – very simply, this means to me, looking professional (dress), acting professional (treat others with respect).  We are a social society and what is one of the first questions you get when you meet someone new?  Where do you work?  That staff person is an extension of your organization 24/7.  We’re all always on!

• Positive Attitude – our staff’s are doing more with less over the past couple of years.  There is nothing worse than a negative attitude, the rumor mill that will make any chamber become dysfunctional, especially with the small staffs that many of us work under.

• Strong Work Ethic – while this is tough to detect in an interview, you want a person that is self-motivated and a smart hard worker.  These are the people who will always do the right thing whether anybody is watching or not.

• Results Oriented – are your staff members focused on the chambers bottom line?  Are they cognizant to the fact that the organization met its overall recruiting goal, retention goal, or met the number of attendees at your annual meeting?

If you hire people who have the above attributes and are results oriented I suggest you’re going to hire a winner.

And, your chamber will be better off because of it!

Managing Volunteers: Setting Expectations

As staff leaders, it’s important for us to set expectations for our volunteers.

Have you considered giving them a job description?

If not, I suggest you do.

Being selected to join a committee is an honor and a responsibility to support the organization goes with that commitment.

I suggest two things:

1. Create a job description and hand it out at your next volunteer orientation session.  Your volunteers will take your lead.
2. And after that, if they don’t commit, thank them for their service and recruit a new member to join your leadership team.

Remember, being on a committee is a resume builder for each of your volunteers.  They need to earn that honor.

I’ve said it before, set the expectations up front.  No surprises!  Let them know you want their intellectual capital, full participation and financial support.

Don’t accept anything less!

For additional resources on volunteer management go HERE and HERE.

Young Professional Groups

Why do we divide up our membership and is it the right thing to do?

If your chamber is like most chambers you’ve started, thought about starting or you’ve already disbanded your young professional group.

The concept sounds good, start a young professional group to bring in fresh faces and grow your membership.

The challenge is why commit to a program that is separate and many times has a different focus than your mission.

At least early indications show that many young professional groups were just another networking event at the local watering hole amongst them-selves and did nothing to help the bottom line of the chamber or its mission.

Shouldn’t they be networking with your seasoned members? Creating new contacts across generations? That’s how I was taught to get ahead, network with people who have more experience than you and more contacts than you.

To me we’re just creating a new silo within our organizations. Speaking of silos, haven’t we spent the last ten years trying to dismantle them?

Our chambers should be promoting programs that benefit all our members not just certain segments, right?

In the financial world we’re very aware of the transfer of wealth for the aging baby boomers to their kids.

Shouldn’t the same concept hold true for the next generation of business leaders? Where else will they go?

They should network with your current members. We need to be in the business of raising the tide for all our boats (members).

Just a thought!

Engaging New Members

We all know that first year members don’t renew at the same level as our base members.

 

Why is that? Engagement.

 

In some chambers, that can be a difference of up to 40% (i.e., base member’s retention rate of 85% and first year member’s retention rate of 45%).

 

What are you doing to engage that first year member?

 

If you don’t have a formal plan, now is the time to create one. At a minimum, the following should be considered in any first year member engagement plan:

 

• Welcome letter and membership kit;
• Follow-up phone call 90 days into the membership;
• Sign-up for something on your website; and
• Get them to a chamber event.

 

It’s a fact - an engaged member is a retained member.

 

Create that first year member engagement plan today!

Membership Equations

I thought I’d share a list of equations that membership professionals have been using over the years to track their membership and marketing results.

It’s important to know your numbers so you can chart your success.

Membership is a numbers game -- make sure you’re tracking your results with these simple equations.

Renewal Rate

(Current members minus Number of new members) divided by Number of members in the past year

Attrition

1 minus Renewal Rate

Market Penetration

Number of current members divided by Number of potential members

Average Dues Revenue

Total Dues Revenue divided by Number of Members

Average Non-Dues Revenue

Total Non-Dues Revenue divided by Number of Members

Average Cost to Service a Member

Total Membership Expenses divided by Number of Members

Lifetime Value of a Member

(Average Dues + Average Non-Dues) x Average Number of Years of Membership

Keep these formulas handy. Know your numbers!

Just Say No!

Easier said than done!

Agreed, but you need to find a way to say no or your chamber will try and be all things to all people.

We can’t be all things to all people. Let me repeat that, we can’t be all things to all people.

Successful chambers figured that out a long time ago. Decide what kind of chamber you want to be and live it every day.

Read previous post HERE on the Hedgehog Theory from Jim Collin’s book, Good to Great. Through your strategic planning process you should have the road map to success.

Are you an advocacy chamber, economic development chamber or a networking chamber?

I’d suggest you should be known for one and live that brand. I’m not suggesting which you should be, just the fact that you should focus on one of them as your brand.

Your brand on the street should be:

• The chamber that advocates;
• The chamber that brings jobs to the community; or
• The chamber where you can network for business opportunities.

I’ll grant you that you may be doing all three, but pick one to plant your stake in the ground.

That’s your marker. That’s your brand!

What is Your Core Competency?

As a competent chamber executive, we are constantly responding to member requests, trends in the industry, etc.

But do we spend enough time figuring out what are our core competencies?

A starting point is to survey your members (for a blog post on survey tools click HERE).

Identify what they want and prioritize. Put the appropriate resources in place to deliver on these core competencies once they’ve been identified.

As you are aware they may be different depending on your local situation and make-up of the community (i.e., political, networking, education, etc.).

The Western Association of Chamber Executives (W.A.C.E.), in 2010, released its latest study on the subject. Based on respondents from 15 western states, the top five core competencies members want from their chamber are as follows:

1. Creating a strong local economy
2. Promoting the community
3. Providing networking opportunities
4. Representing the interest of business with government
5. Political action

If you have not led your board through a recent strategic planning session to identify your core competencies, their toolkit is a good starting point. Or, this previous blog post on a board retreat might be helpful.

And, once you’ve identified these core competencies, don’t forget to measure your results on how you’re delivering on their importance to your membership.

Good luck!