Recent articles on the moves to harness big data in agriculture have highlighted concerns about who owns that data, how it might be used and who should benefit from that usage. Industry expert Andrew Cooke believes these tensions can be managed, allowing the industry to look at the potential benefits.

OPINION: The headline was confronting - big companies were being told to "Back off: farmers own their farm data" (March 23). Like other similar articles this one drew attention to the importance of the information economy to farming: the capture of real world activity and the application of advanced analytics to provide insight about farming systems.

We see the tensions of big companies gathering data in our everyday lives: banks, credit card companies, and loyalty schemes capture information about our spending habits and organisations use it to target offers. Search engines and web browsers track our online interests and provide relevant advertisements. Our smartphones track our every move.

We're somewhat insulated from the impact of this data collection in our personal lives. Competition and regulations – particularly consumer privacy laws – control what companies can do with data about us, and most of what we see results from anonymised use of information.

In business, the rules are somewhat less clear cut. Privacy protections apply to personally identifiable data, but the bulk of business and farm information use is controlled by the terms of business to business contracts. If a farmer wishes to control the data they have collected on farm, they need to ensure that their service providers have appropriate terms and shared expectations about what can and cannot be done with that data.

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Back off big companies: farmers own their farm data

The situation may be more subtle when data is collected by companies during their normal course of business. Unless a farmer has agreed otherwise, it's likely that the GPS co-ordinates collected by their fertiliser spreader and the milk solids or carcass records collected by processors are under the control of those organisations. Of course, they'll share that data with the farmer, but a common understanding about the use of that data is even more important.

Two Primary Growth Partnerships (PGP) programmes between industry and the Ministry for Primary Industries have recognised both the challenges of the rapidly evolving information space and the opportunities for making effective use of farm information. I've been privileged to work with The Transforming the Dairy Value Chain and Red Meat Profit Partnership PGP programmes, farmers, and some 60 companies and organisations to help create the Farm Data Code of Practice, farm data standards, and DataLinker.

The Farm Data Code of Practice provides an accreditation process that helps farmers and organisations to achieve a more transparent understanding of how data will be collected and used. The code is administered by Federated Farmers, Beef+Lamb NZ, DairyNZ, the Dairy Companies Association, Meat Industry Association, Veterinary Association, and the Maori Trustee. Accreditation by an independent review panel provides assurance for farmers that organisations have clear terms that help farmers understand how their data may be used, and appropriate policies and controls around data access. Greenlea Premier Meats and the Gallagher Apps On Farm joint venture are the two most recently accredited organisations. Full details are at www.farmdatacode.org.nz.

The industry projects don't stop with accreditation. DataLinker is a technology framework that helps companies to share data effectively, directed by their farmers or subscribers. Farmers are frustrated with having to repeat data across multiple forms or extract data manually from one system and re-enter it into another, and DataLinker addresses this problem. It ensures that the recipients of data have agreed to standard data access rules, and lets farmers explicitly grant or deny permission for data to flow.

B+LNZ Genetics has recently implemented the DataLinker framework in its business. General manager Graham Alder says "Currently we need to support multiple integration end points when exchanging data with different parties. B+LNZ Genetics are looking forward to being able to exchange data with different parties via a single industry standard endpoint. DataLinker provides us a good framework in which to make data exchange agreements, without being dependent on DataLinker (or any other intermediary) for the data exchange."

Importantly for both farmers and industry players, the DataLinker framework is not another database system that must be populated and maintained. It is a set of specifications that use the latest internet standards, so companies adopting the framework are responsible for their own decisions about the way it is implemented internally. A small annual membership fee contributes to keeping the specifications up-to-date as technology evolves.

Farmers are right to be talking about data, who owns it and how it will impact on the future, not only in their industry but in their everyday lives.

It's called Big Data for a reason – there are big challenges and opportunities ahead. Whether farmers own data as part of their business operation and sell it to others or share it through a project like DataLinker, they stand to benefit from that collection, sharing and analysis.

That future is not yet written but people can rest assured there are organisations working hard to make sure that the farmers, the industry and wider economy own the benefits.

This article was originally sourced from Stuff NZ here. 

There's concern a shortage of bus drivers across the country is set to reach an all-time high.

The Bus and Coach Association says it's struggling to find drivers, and it's meaning managers and workshop staff are getting behind the wheel.

Ritchies transport director Andrew Ritchie is normally behind the desk, but even he's been getting behind the wheel.

"At the moment it's sort of starting to hit a peak, it's just getting very very difficult," Mr Ritchie says.

"Managers out driving, workshop staff driving, I've been driving myself this morning."

Mr Ritchie says the driver shortage is making it increasingly difficult to put on enough buses for big events - like the recent Adele concerts.

"Lots of different companies and AT (Auckland Transport) got involved with assisting that. But certainly going forward it's going to be harder and harder to staff them."

It's a national issue, but in Auckland it's expected to have the biggest impact.

"Our urban operators would be at least 120 bus drivers short, as they roll out new services in Auckland this year we expect this to roll out to 200," Bus and Coach Association CEO Barry Kidd says.

The Bus and Coach Association says immigration rules are making it even tougher.

Around a third of driver are from overseas - many are on temporary work visas.

"What we're seeing is Immigration New Zealand not renewing these visas, drivers resigning from positions, creating another vacancy, which we're struggling to fill," Mr Kidd says.

Immigration Minister Michael Woodhouse says bus drivers aren't part of the skilled migrants category and that's not going to change.

"If it can be demonstrated that there are New Zealanders available to do that job or be trained to do that job, it is possible that those temporary visas won't be renewed and those workers would be required to return to their home countries."

But for Mr Ritchie, finding local drivers is easier said than done.

Companies have been working with the Ministry of Social development to train unemployed people, but they say that won't fix the shortage - they want Immigration New Zealand to help.

This article was originally sourced from Newshub here and was written by Mitch McCann. 

Australia’s fastest growing housing markets have been revealed in the HIA’s latest Population & Residential Building Hotspots 2017 report published today.

This year’s HIA Population & Residential Hotspots 2017 report identifies Pimpama in Queensland as Australia’s Number One housing Hotspot based on its performance during 2015/16. In second place was Sydney’s Cobbitty-Leppington area followed by Palmerston-South in the NT in third place. The national Top 20 is summarised in the table below.

“With 2016 representing a record year for new home building activity across Australia, the housing industry has been supporting economic activity in localities up and down the country. The good news on housing is not confined to the major capital cities – today’s report shows that regional Australia is also peppered with housing Hotspots,” commented HIA Senior Economist Shane Garrett.

“In terms of its economic contribution, the housing industry is truly unique. Today’s report identifies 86 separate areas in every state and territory across Australia where residential building activity is acting as the engine of economic activity, employment and development. Small businesses are particular beneficiaries of housing activity,” concluded Shane Garrett.

The HIA Population & Residential Hotspots 2017 report provides a ranking of Australia’s top 20 Hotspots:

• Nine of the Top 20 Hotspots are located in New South Wales;
  
• Victoria contains four of the national Top 20;
  
• Three of the country’s top Hotspots are in Queensland;
  
• Western Australia and the Northern Territory each contain two major Hotspots;
  
• South Australia and Tasmania each contain five housing Hotspots;
  
• A further nine Hotspots are located in the ACT.
  

Nationally, an area qualifies as a Hotspot if its population grew by more than the 1.4 per cent national average during 2015/16 and at least $150 million worth of residential building was approved during the year.

For further information please contact:

Shane Garrett, Senior Economist 0450 783 603

Warwick Temby, Acting Chief Economist 0407 692 241

For copies of the publication (media only) please contact: Kirsten Lewis on k.lewis@hia.com.au

This media release was directly sourced from the Housing Industry Association's website here. 

A group of contenders is beginning to emerge to head the Australian Association of National Advertisers (AANA) after the announcement current CEO Sunita Gloster will head to Ten for a senior commercial and strategy role in August. Simon Canning looks at who's in the running. 

The global hunt is underway for the new head of the AANA at a time when the industry faces major structural reform after Sunita Gloster announced her move to the broadcaster just a week ago.

Recruiters Hourigan International – which placed Gloster in the role originally – are understood to be seeking a mix of experience at CMO, MD or CEO level with a strong background in compliance and dealing with regulatory issues.

Gloster took the reins of the AANA in 2013 at a point when the association was seen as a closed boys’ club that was failing to tackle major issues facing the advertising industry.

During her tenure she increased the scope of the industry’s self regulation and began to use it as a platform to question major industry issues such as ad fraud and viewability, while increasing membership by more then 50 members.

Gloster also launched the AANA’s annual Reset conference bringing celebrities such as Monika Lewinsky to Australia and launched a regular marketing-focused show on Sky News.

The rise of the AANA also came with competitive tensions as the Australian Data Marketing Association (ADMA) broadened its scope and competed for members under the stewardship of Jodie Sangster, who has also increased the industry body’s membership exponentially.

While the brief for Gloster was to rebuild the AAANA, the new CEO will face a range of significant challenges including the continued questions about transparency and the rise of programmatic buying.

Another major issue the new AANA leader will face will be the impact of media reforms on the advertising market, with mergers and acquisitions expected to concentrate media ownership.

Maintaining the viability of self-regulation in an increasingly deregulated market will be another challenge along with the role of advertising in protecting the future of journalism.

Challenging the duopoly of Facebook and Google in digital media is expected to be another major issue the association will have to tackle on behalf of its members which, ironically, includes Google.

With a fairly thinly layered executive team, the replacement for Gloster is expected to be an external appointment, although there are a couple of possible contenders for the role who would allow the organisation a level of continuity in leadership.

Internally the most likely candidate is Simone Brandon, the AANA’s director of policy and legal affairs.

Brandon joined the AANA in 2014 and has been in charge of developing the the association’s road map for future regulation.

While her background is firmly rooted in legal, her previous roles as deputy general counsel and head of the marketing and communications teams with Vodafone Australia deliver the background the could be a strong foundation for the next stage of the AANA’s evolution.

Her skills could prove particularly advantageous if the impact of media reforms on the industry become a major focus. At the same time her affinity with emerging technologies could also come into play.

However, sources close to the AANA have signalled that the appointment is more likely to be an external one with a number of serious contenders currently between assignments.

One major contender could have been Inese Kingsmill, former head of marketing at Telstra, a former chairperson of the AANA and a close confidant of Gloster. However Kingsmill’s recent appointment as CMO of Virgin Australia has taken her out of the mix before the job vacancy was even announced.

John Broome, former marketing lead with FMCG giants Unilever, Kellogg’s, Nestle and Goodman Fielder, is emerging as the contender with the biggest potential.

Broome has remained close to the AANA as a board member of the Advertising Standards Bureau.

Currently working as a consultant after leaving Unilever in the wake of a restructure in March, Broome would bring a broad level of experience to the role, with a particular understanding of the pressures facing FMCG businesses and those marketing food products – one of the flash-points of self-regulation when it comes to food advertising and children.

Broome has also been outspoken, warning marketers not to fear the challenges of connecting with millennials who value“authenticity” and “transparency” which were becoming keys to building a brand.

Sophie Madden, currently CEO of the Media Federation of Australia, is another strong candidate for the role.

Madden has been at the helm of the MFA for more than four years, but boasts a strong pedigree having previously held roles including marketing services head for Kraft Foods, global head of media for Vodafone Enterprise and media director for Unilever.

Madden was the first CEO of the MFA and during her stint she has worked to raise the profile of the organisation.

Over that time the MFA has set policies to deal with transparency in an era where the industry was rocked by major reporting scandals and the revelations some agencies were running value banks.

She has also put in place programs to address massive staff churn in the industry – a project which is ongoing – and her experience running an industry body would allow her to slip seamlessly into the role.

Sue Zerk, marketing director at 20th Century Fox, is another possible starter in the race.

Zerk has been with the entertainment company for more than a decade and has been a regular contributor to the AANA.

Her passion for the association matched with her understanding of its operations could see her as one of the front-running replacements for Gloster if she puts her hand up.

From the department of unlikely-long-shots ADMA’s CEO Sangster has reinvented what was formerly known as the Australian Direct Marketing Association into a dynamic and multi-faceted organisation.

A move to the AANA could be seen as a natural progression by some, with her experience working with major advertisers and handling tough regulatory issues. She has also raised the possibility of industry association mergers in the past.

However, Sangster has also invested heavily in ADMA and may not see her job as ‘mission accomplished’ yet.

Another big name who could be a consideration is former Pacific Brands boss Sue Morphet. Now juggling a number of directorships, Morphet would come to the role with a clear understanding of the needs of the membership and has been an effective agent of change in her past roles.

However, mitigating Morphet’s potential candidacy would be her love for Melbourne and the fact she has a number of board positions which she would be unlikely to want to give up.

Gloster leaves her role for new pastures at Ten in August, but the search could go beyond that date.

Whoever steps up to lead the advertiser advocate in its next stage could face one of the most challenging periods in the organisation’s history.

Not since the Federal Court scrapped the advertising industry accreditation system in the mid 1990s has the AANA faced new challenges on such a scale.

Just who gets what will be a very public-facing job will be a clear pointer as to how Australia’s advertisers aim to tackle the new era of media reform and digital development.

This article was directly sourced from Mumbrella here and was written by Simon Canning. 

Simon Canning

Simon is Mumbrella's marketing and advertising editor. In a career spanning journalism and communications over more than 30 years Simon has become one of Australia’s most respected analysts and commentators on the advertising, marketing and media industries. A regular commentator on radio and TV, Simon has also worked in media in the US and UK .

A new external dispute regulation (EDR) scheme has been backed by the Finance Brokers Association of Australia (FBAA), despite opposition from other industry associations.

The executive director of the FBAA, Peter White, has said that the new Australian Financial Complaints Authority (AFCA) would benefit consumers.

The formation of AFCA was informed by the Ramsay Review into the finance industry’s dispute resolution and complaints framework. The new EDR authority is an amalgamation of the Financial Ombudsman Service (FOS), the Credits and Investments Ombudsman (CIO) and the Superannuation Complaints Tribunal (SCT).

Mr White said: “The amalgamation of the Financial Ombudsman Service, the CIO and the Superannuation Complaints Tribunal will improve systems that will lead to better consumer outcomes.

“We believe it will speed up turnaround times and streamline case management processes without the non-alignment of processes by two separate ombudsmen.”

His stance opposes that of the Mortgage and Finance Association of Australia (MFAA), which released a joint statement last week with five other associations (including the Customer Owned Banking Association (COBA) and the Australian Collectors & Debt Buyers Association (ACDBA)), saying that AFCA was a “monopoly scheme” which would “undermine the fabric of EDR.” Please click here for this article. 

The group also argued that AFCA would be less accountable to stakeholders and less responsive to industry concerns, while also favouring big banks over smaller.

Speaking to these complaints, Mr White said the new authority would focus on better outcomes for consumer borrowers and small businesses rather than associations, as had always been the case.

He also dismissed fears that smaller banks would end up subsidising a scheme which accommodates bigger banks.

However, CIO head, Raj Venga, has also slammed the AFCA and echoed fears that it would monopolistic, while calling the Ramsay Review a “complete whitewash.” Earlier in the month, Mr Venga argued that both the review and the AFCA were a diversion to avoid a royal commission into the big banks.

Responding to the remarks, Mr White said there was no basis for a royal commission: “The CIO needs to remember the ombudsman service is about borrower disputes being resolved and not industry bodies,” he said.

This article was originally sourced from The Adviser here and was written by Lucy Dean. 

Advanced Solutions International (ASI), a leading global provider of software and services for associations and not-for-profits, recently announced it will renew its sponsorship of the Australasian Society of Association Executives (AuSAE) in New Zealand for 2017 and will expand support to include Australia as well. AuSAE is the peak not-for-profit professional society in Australia and New Zealand for association executives.

ASI’s sponsorship will help support AuSAE’s innovative and insightful conferences, training and workshops, leadership symposiums, networking events, research, member forums, and advocacy efforts in Australia and New Zealand.

“ASI has been a partner of AuSAE in New Zealand for the past two years and we’ve valued this relationship,” said Paul Ramsbottom, Managing Director of ASI Asia-Pacific. “We look forward to expanding our participation in Australia in the coming year.”

"We know a thriving, well supported peak body is critical for the success of the association sector and we're pleased to add our support to AuSAE as they grow in strength".

“AuSAE is committed to providing results-driven partnership opportunities,” said Toni Brearley, AuSAE’s Chief Executive Officer. “We are delighted ASI has recognised the value our organisation brings to the industry and has decided to extend their partnership to Australia in 2017. Their support means we will be able to continue delivering quality education, advocacy and career development opportunities for members across our entire region.”

About ASI

Advanced Solutions International (ASI) is a recognised global, industry thought leader that focuses on helping associations and not-for-profits increase operational and financial performance through the use of best practices, proven solutions, and ongoing client advisement. Since 1991, ASI has served nearly 4,000 clients and millions of users worldwide, both directly and indirectly through a network of over 100 partners, and currently maintains corporate offices in the USA, UK, Canada, and Australia. Learn more at www.advsol.com.

ICYMI, Toni Brearley was recently appointed as AuSAE's new CEO. Toni has been with the organisation since 2013 and is looking forward to the new role and working with and supporting members to create a strong and robust association sector. Having been with the organisation for a few years now it's highly likely you have met Toni along your travels. However here are a few fun facts about AuSAE's new CEO that you might not have otherwise known.

• What are you most excited about for your role as CEO of AuSAE?
  

Continuing the journey that has been started for me. I have seen AuSAE grow and mature in the past 4 years, and I am genuinely honoured to have the opportunity to represent such a broad, vibrant and important sector. But mostly, I am looking forward to continuing to support and work with our incredible members and promoting this wonderful profession we all belong to of Association Management.

• Who inspires you / who do you admire and why?
  

Inspiration and admiration are an interesting thing. The older I get, more and more I find that ordinary people have extraordinary stories, sometimes you need to take the time and ask the right questions. Rarely do you find a person who has had a completely blessed path.

• What do you do for fun?
  

Good friends, good food and good wine…. throw in a view of the ocean and I am complete.

• iPhone or Samsung?
  

What is a Samsung ?

• Favourite food?
  

Wine is a food isn’t it? Although lately I’m rather partial to GYG Nachos Fries.

• Favourite TV shows?
  

This may be telling of what I do in my spare time (often the wee hours of night/morning when the house is quiet). So in no particular era or order:

• The West Wing
  
• House of Cards
  
• Game of Thrones
  
• The Good Wife
  
• GirlBoss
  
• And if I’m completely truthful – Real Housewives of Melbourne !
  

• Drink of choice?
  

Coffee in the morning, wine in the evening (also refer to favourite food)

• Favourite app right now?
  

Snapchat – because I enjoy embarrassing my 11 year old son and quite frankly the filters are amazing!

• The best business advice you’ve ever received?
  

As a young child, my Dad always made me live by the mantra that in life you have the freedom to make whatever decisions you choose, however you must be prepared to stand by the consequences of those decisions and their impact. Something that has always stayed with me.

• Favourite go to websites/blogs for news on your industry?
  

Whilst I always like to keep up with US Industry information from ASAE, I find LinkedIn the place where I uncover the stories of the great work associations and their members are doing here in Australia and NZ.

If you would like to chat to Toni at any time please email: toni@ausae.org.au, call her on 1300 764 576 or connect with her on LinkedIn here. 

CPA Australia’s recent, legally mandated, release of its member register has gained significant news coverage. As a result, your not-for-profit organisation may be wondering what its obligations are regarding the release of its member register.

If your not-for-profit organisation is a public company limited by guarantee, then it has specific obligations under the Corporations Act 2001 (Cth) (Corporations Act) regarding the disclosure of its member register. However, there are only some scenarios in which the register can and should be released, and it is important that the correct process is followed.

Releasing the member register, when not required to by law, may be a breach of the Privacy Act 1988 (Cth) (Privacy Act).

Requirement to Maintain a Register

Public companies limited by guarantee must keep a register of members pursuant to the Corporations Act. Under section 169, the register must include the name and address of all members, as well as the date on which each member was entered onto the register.

Corporations Act – Disclosure of Register

Section 173 governs the right of anyone to inspect, and in some circumstances, to obtain copies of the register.

Anyone (including non-members) is allowed to inspect the register without providing reasons, but the requirements surrounding obtaining copies of the register are more subtle.

Members and other individuals may be permitted under section 173 to obtain copies of the register. The person wishing to obtain a copy must first submit an application to the company to do so.

A company must allow a person to obtain copies of the register if:

• the application states the purposes for which the person wishes to obtain the copies;
  
• none of the reasons are “prescribed purposes”;
  
• the applicant pays any fees required by the company (if permitted by law); and
  
• the application includes the person’s name and address.
  

After obtaining a request, the organisation has seven days to decide how to respond.

Prescribed Purposes

In summary, the following purposes are deemed at law to be “prescribed purposes”:

• soliciting a donation from a member of a company;
  
• as a stockbroker, soliciting business from a member;
  
• gathering information about the personal wealth of a member; and
  
• making an offer for the sale of a financial product.
  

These scenarios may be rare in the context of a not-for-profit organisation. However, it is important that, if a request for the member register is made, the organisation obtains sufficient information regarding the purpose in order to be certain it is not a prescribed purpose.

If the person provides an evasive or overly general response regarding the purpose (for example, for the person’s records, or out of curiosity), then the organisation will not be able to satisfy itself that the purpose is not a prescribed purpose, and should not disclose the register.

If, however, the person does provide a specific reason, which is not one of the prescribed purposes, then the organisation will generally be obliged to disclose the register, even if it is against the organisation’s wishes.

Payment of Fees

The organisation can request fees for the inspection and/or obtaining copies of the register.

Members of the organisation are allowed to inspect the register for free, but other persons may be required by the organisation to pay a prescribed fee, depending on whether the register is kept on a computer.

If copies of the register are to be provided, then fees can be charged to both members and other persons. The amount of the fee is dependent upon the number of members of the company.

If a fee is requested, and the member or other individual refuses to pay, then this can be a ground for refusing to disclose the register.

Interaction with Privacy Act

The Privacy Act governs the collection and disclosure of personal information and sensitive information, for some organisations.

The information contained in the member register of a public company limited by guarantee does not come under the definition of sensitive information, but does come under the definition of personal information. Personal information is broadly defined as any information which identifies an individual.

The Privacy Act imposes requirements on an organisation surrounding when it is permitted to disclose personal information that it holds on individuals. Generally, information can only be disclosed for the purpose for which it was collected, unless an exception applies.

One of the exceptions is when an organisation is required or authorised, under Australian law, to disclose the information to a third party.

Permitted Disclosure

This means that disclosing the member register to a member will generally come under this exception, as long as the organisation actually was required under section 173 to disclose the information.

If the organisation discloses copies of the member register without first satisfying itself that the member did not have an improper, “prescribed purpose”, then the organisation may not be meeting its obligations under the Privacy Act.

Incorporated Associations

If your organisation is an incorporated association, then the law regarding the member register is significantly less settled. In some (but not all) jurisdictions, the associations legislation deals with the release of the member register.

In absence of any statutory provisions, your organisation will need to follow the terms of its constitution, and also consider any obligations under the Privacy Act and its privacy policy.

Summary

If your organisation has never considered its member register obligations before, you should consider developing a policy regarding how member register requests will be handled.

Requests to view the member register are not as rare as they may appear, and in light of the recent CPA Australia events, they may occur more frequently.

Contact Mills Oakley: 

Vera Visevic, Partner 

T: +61 2 8289 5812 

E: vvisevic@millsoakley.com.au 

This article was originally sourced from the Mills Oakley website here and was written by John Vaughan-Williams, Lawyer. 

For associations concerned with retaining talent—and which association isn’t?—a successful exit interview can give you the knowledge you need to make talent-saving tweaks to your business operations or management styles. Plus, some tips for making the most out of them.

Is an exit interview worthwhile? After all, an outgoing employee already creates a lengthy to-do list for various people in an organization—including distributing work to other members of the team, advertising for his or her replacement, and closing out payroll and benefits, among others. But a 2016 Harvard Business Review article and a conversation with Zell Murphy, SVP of finance and administration at the Cable & Telecommunications Association for Marketing (CTAM), convinced me that exit interviews are very worthwhile, even if they add another task to the list.

Why? HBR says it better than I can: “In today’s knowledge economy, skilled employees are the asset that drives organizational success. Thus companies must learn from them—why they stay, why they leave, and how the organization needs to change.”

And exit interviews are a great way to gather some of this information. “If you start hearing consistent concerns about something that the organization might not be doing or may be doing that is somehow causing folks to want to look elsewhere, and that’s something that’s within the organization’s control to correct, you want to know that,” Murphy said.

After all, knowing the concern is the first step to addressing it—and hopefully keeping more of your employees from jumping ship. To that end, here are a few rules for conducting profitable exit interviews.

Let HR professionals handle the exit interviews. According to a recent HBR survey of 188 executives, about 70 percent of respondents said their HR departments handle exit interviews, while 19 percent said that an outgoing employee’s direct supervisor conduct them. But Murphy advises against the latter. “The employee may not open up or may feel intimidated in speaking with the direct supervisor,” Murphy said. “Some of the questions are asking about the supervisor. It’s important that the employee be as open and honest as possible during the exit interview, because it’s not doing anyone any good if the employee holds back.”

Conduct exit interviews face-to-face. If you want candid responses to your questions, you’ll want to perform the exit interview in person, as opposed to over the phone or via email. “It’s not as spontaneous or honest as you might get when someone is sitting across the desk from you and having a casual conversation,” Murphy said.

Inspire real responses with transparency. This comes down to trust, Murphy said, and this has to be established long before the exit interview occurs. Still, even in the exit interview, it’s important to stress the value of an employee’s thoughts and experiences and how they will contribute to the future wellbeing of the organization. It’s also important to be transparent with them. “When I begin the exit interview, I actually say to them, ‘I plan to share these comments with your supervisor,’” he said.

Make sure the timing is right. At CTAM, Murphy gives an outgoing employee the exit interview questions in advance of the actual interview, so that he or she can start formulating responses. Next, he’ll sit down with an employee a couple of days before his or her last day, and they’ll chat through the questions. He will then type up the responses and send them back to the employee for review. Then, after the employee has left the organization, Murphy will forward the exit interview responses to both the direct supervisor and the CEO.

Analyze and act if necessary. If the end goal is retaining and engaging talented employees, then organizations better be willing to analyze their exit interviews—and make organizational or personnel tweaks if necessary. At CTAM, the majority of employees who have resigned have done so for reasons outside of CTAM’s control and not due to any negative experience they have had. But if there is a recurring issue in multiple exit interviews, it’s important that the senior staff talk about that and address it. “Because if the problem is serious enough and no changes are made, the other staff—they’re going to see that, and they’re going to know that the company didn’t address it,” Murphy said. And that lack of action will likely create more employee turnover and less employee engagement.

This article was originally sourced from Associations Now here and was written by Emily Bratcher. 

You’ve been hearing about rising generations for a while. First it was Millennials, now - Generation Z.

But generational shifts have always been talked about as something kind of elusive and well into the future. The thing is, though, those generational shifts are happening now. And the real question is, is your association ready?

As an association professional, you have to think about those generational shifts from two perspectives: first, from a workforce perspective, and second, from a membership perspective. What do younger generations want from your association? What are they expecting out of a workplace?

As younger generations - Millennials and Gen Z-ers - secure a majority of the workforce, there are a few changes you’ll probably need to make at your association. Here are just a few:

Workforce changes

• Culture - Younger generations are known for “job-hopping.” Is that the new norm? Not necessarily. But in order to keep younger employees at your association, you’ll probably need to make a few culture changes. What do younger generations care about? Well two things in particular: flexibility and company values. Are you allowing your employees to come in early/leave early? Are you allowing them to work from home? If not, you may want to! And as far as company values go, define what those are (if you haven’t already) and let them be known. The more Millennials and Gen Z-ers can relate to those (and believe in those), the more likely they are to actually build a career at your organization.
  
• Management style - Younger generations are just that - young. That said, when managing them, keep in mind that they’re looking for mentors - people who can guide them in their job/career. This is obviously very different from your Baby Boomer/Gen X-er employees, who are already established and just looking for dependable leaders. In order to successfully manage both, your management style must be agile.
  

Membership changes

• Communication style and outlet - When it comes to Millennials and Gen Z-ers as members, it’s important to understand that those generations have different communication preferences. They often prefer short, snackable content through digital means (email, social media, mobile apps, etc.). That said, if you’ve ever thought about using a particular social media platform - Instagram, for example - but brushed the idea off because your members “just weren’t there,” you may want to reconsider. You have a new generation of members (and potential members) now, and they’re hanging out on different sites/platforms.
  
• Processes - If you’ve ever done something because “that’s the way it’s always been done,” now may be the time to re-evaluate those processes. We say this because younger generations often want things quickly - they’re the “one-click” generation. They’re used to just clicking on something, and bam, it’s theirs - whether it’s a shirt, a song, a membership, or something else entirely. Does your association make processes that seamless? Member applications and event registrations? If not, it might be time to turn to technology - not just to streamline processes for you, but for your members as well. (It’s all about that member experience!)
  

This article was originally sourced from Associations Now here and was written by Callie Walker.