It might be time to give your online career center more attention. A recent Community Brands study shows that help with career advancement is among the top most important benefits to members of professional associations. Interestingly, the same study suggests that those who work at associations do not always think career advancement benefits are as important to members as members themselves do.
There are multiple ways you can take your online career center beyond job postings to offer your members a wealth of career advancement opportunities. These include resume reviews, job seeker articles, networking, and virtual career fairs.
Delivering career insights is one way your association can become the ultimate career destination for your members.
Your members will need to be able to dig deeper to understand more about their chosen paths within your specific industry. By giving them access to data about their potential careers, your career center can help them gain the insights they need to move forward or change direction.
Career insights
Here is some key career information to provide in your career center:
- Career descriptions
- Statistics of typical education levels of people in each role
- Occupational outlooks
- Activities performed by people in each role
- Salary benchmarks
- Comparison of employment statistics using local, state, and nationwide averages
- “Day in the life” videos
- Unemployment data
- Related occupations
Providing this type of information helps your members understand:
- Where they are in their careers compared with projected growth
- What opportunities exist around a particular career path
- What related occupations could be next steps in their career paths
- Considerations related to a potential career or location move
The Community Brands 2022 Association Trends Study shows that some member priorities differ based on career stage. In 2021, training was the number one priority for those in early and mid-careerists. However, in 2022, this group’s focus shifted from professional benefits (such as advocacy and raising awareness of the industry) to more interest in personal benefits (such as help with career advancement and job opportunities). Those late in their careers placed new emphasis on industry-specific information and more highly valued targeted, valuable content.
Furthermore, lapsed members’ priorities are slightly different from those of current members. They place significantly higher value on job opportunities and help with career advancement, yet association professionals continue to undervalue these areas as member benefits. The data tells us that career insights are of high importance, now more than ever. Give your members more of the value they seek by making sure you’re investing in your online career center.
Take your career center even further
What if you could also offer your members online tools to truly plan out their careers? What if these tools allowed your members to:
- Learn details about various careers specific to your association’s industry, including:
- Career descriptions
- Activities performed by someone in this role
- Education and experience requirements
- Employment statistics such as wages and forecasts
- Map out their career path based on their career goals – with a well-defined path to get there
- View available jobs based on where they are in their career path
- Access resources to help them land their target job
