Your members operate in markets and these environments are dynamic. Your association should be actively monitoring what’s going on and be able to articulate what’s happening—and identify the implications for your organization. For example, according to HealthSprocket, as a result of the pandemic, physicians have experienced:
- A reduction in income: 49%
- Reduced staff: 32%
- Switched to a primary telemedicine practice: 18%
- Moved to new employment situation/practice: 9%
- Increased staff: 6%
- Moved from direct clinical to non-clinical: 3%
- Retired: 2%
- Closed my practice: 2%
- Moved from permanent practice to locum tenens: 1%
- Other: 5%
- None of the above: 22%
Notes: From “2021 Survey of America’s Physicians,” an online survey of over 2500 physicians from May 26 to June 9, 2021. Source: The Physicians Foundation, August 2021.
Moving from medicine to numbers, according to a report from the Illinois CPA Society (ICPAS), young accounting professionals who don’t want to pursue CPA licensure cite a lack of time and professional need to do so. The report, titled “A CPA Pipeline Report: Decoding the Decline,” detailed input from accounting students, graduates, and professionals under the age of 35, including both CPAs and non-CPAs.
Kari Natale, ICPAS senior director of planning and governance, summed up the report findings this way: “They believe any value the CPA credential holds is outweighed by its lack of relevance to their personal and professional endeavors and the time commitment necessary to obtain it. They do not see the return on investment; they do not see their employers or prospective employers supporting or requiring it; and they see other credentials or specialties as being more valuable to their careers.” (To read the full article in Accounting Today, click here.)
The bottom line? You should be continually scanning the market(s) your members operate in to identify what changes are occurring and how they are impacting your members. Fully understanding the environment is essential to your organization’s future health and sustainability. Changes don’t happen overnight and there should be no surprise when it comes to members’ changing needs and values.