When I present at industry meetings, I often refer to ‘the CCNZ value proposition’ – a short statement describing why a contractor or associate would choose to be a member of CCNZ.

Like all associations, CCNZ strives to provide value for members for the investment they make. This is our focus, and it's something we are constantly looking to improve. However, sometimes the feedback we informally receive suggests a gap between the value CCNZ believes it delivers and the value members see.

We wanted to explore this further, so we contracted an external consultant with expertise in this area to help us dig deeper. The consultant reviewed a range of CCNZ documentation, including previous industry surveys, our strategic plan, annual reports, and the like. They interviewed 22 members, including existing and resigned members, covering a broad representation of member business sizes.

Some of the positive benefits highlighted include:

• Having a collective, non-competitive voice to government and major clients
• Business development networking and peer networking
• Industry information such as forward works briefings, regulatory changes, market intelligence, peer benchmarking, awareness of new technologies, branch meetings, annual conference, advocacy updates, regular emails and social media, and direct conversations with CCNZ staff.
• Rapid and direct support in a crisis
• Industry credibility and recognition through events such as the industry awards
• Career development tools, including training programmes, EPIC, Young Contractors groups, the Icehouse SME leadership partnership, and exposure to senior industry figures at conference

However, some things stood out that clearly indicate a value gap, including:

• A lack of clear visibility of the impact our CCNZ work programme has on members. Our narrative is often focused on what we are doing rather than what it means for our members
• There is no “one size fits all”. What represents value to a small, medium, and large contractor member, and to an associate member, differs greatly
• We communicate a lot of information in several ways, but it doesn’t always seem to “hit the mark”
• Our membership fee structure isn’t aligned with the perception of value

These insights have been extremely helpful. With the help of the consultant, the Executive Council and I have identified some actions to help address this value gap:

• Change our annual renewals process and new member onboarding process to clearly communicate CCNZ's value
• Consider how we can extend practical support for smaller members in areas such as HR, health and safety, accounting, etc.
• Develop and communicate value consistently
• Review our membership structure to define a range of new membership categories, to clearly identify what each member category values most and expects from membership, to target CCNZs offerings and satisfy those expectations, and to define a fee structure that supports the categories, targeted benefits, and level of support provided.

The first three actions will be delivered in the short term; the fourth is a larger project that will take somewhat longer to complete. I am currently working on a delivery timetable and look forward to sharing that and our progress in due course.

Thank you to those who have contributed to this project to improve the value CCNZ provides to members.

Kind regards Alan Pollard Chief Executive, Civil Contractors New Zealand