Member Survey: Developing a More Diverse Range of Services

The results of our survey sent to the 3,200 members of CFA Montréal are clear: your needs are changing, and the services we provide need to change with them.

As we announced in the fall, CFA Montréal wanted to hear from you about how the pandemic has impacted the way you approach and engage with work. We have compiled your feedback and would like to share a few observations and trends with you.

Some interesting avenues to explore

The findings showed that our current lineup of services is quite well aligned with your needs. Members indicated that, overall, they were satisfied with what CFA Montréal has to offer.

Although the data does not point to any significant gaps, it confirms that a number of social and work-related changes have emerged in this post-pandemic landscape of ours.

To nobody’s great surprise, the past two years have seen a trend toward remote work. Most of you currently have a hybrid (80%) or fully remote work arrangement. Only 10% go into the office full-time. This sweeping social change is something that we had already taken into account in our programming and how we interact with our members.

With these changing times have also come new ways of consuming information. We will adjust accordingly, with learning and other materials that suit our members’ preferences in this regard. We expected the popularity of webinars to wane once in-person events had resumed, but that hasn’t been the case. A combination of live and pre-recorded webinars is clearly something respondents continue to enjoy.

The interest in pre-recorded webinars expressed by many of you is an area we can and will delve further into. From what we gather, the flexibility of this approach makes it easier to fit into your busy schedules. Surprisingly, however, this does not translate to interest in a podcast.

We have also concluded from your input that we need to put even more effort into selecting and diversifying the topics covered in our programming in order to help you hone your hard and soft skills. Given our mission and commitment to supporting you in your career development efforts by addressing a wide range of industry-specific needs, this is definitely something we will be looking into with our Programming Committee.

The subjects that generated the most interest for survey respondents were equity markets, portfolio management, the economy and alternative investments, as well as the topics of ESG, fintech and DEI. You will also see in the coming months an increased focus on sharing the opportunities available through the CFA Institute with regard to specialized certificates.

Last but certainly not least, in an effort to be more attuned to your expectations in terms of professional development, we will be leaning more heavily into the CFA Institute Competency Framework, an indispensable career guidance tool 

A consistently strong reputation

Respondents indicated that the factors that contribute most significantly to CFA Montréal’s reputation within the local financial ecosystem are, in order, the expertise of its members, the globally recognized credential and the quality of the events hosted by the Society. We will continue to ensure all three are considered when planning our future activities.

And how do employers see us? Recruiting CFA charterholders continues to be a priority for them: half of respondents said that their organization specifically looks for candidates with this designation. It is also worth noting that over three-quarters of employers (77%) pay CFA membership dues for their employees, a proportion that has held firm in recent years and speaks volumes about the value and prestige of the CFA charter.

Top-rated services

Respondents told us that the services they appreciated the most were event programming (talks and webinars), efforts to promote and enhance the CFA designation, and job listings. These will be maintained as we strive to broaden our existing array of services.

Your responses indicate that you would like us to pay more attention to professional development and to a greater variety of information and training materials. We hear you and we will act on this.

We will also take a page from the CFA Institute’s recent efforts to expand its professional development services for members and the financial community as a whole by enhancing and diversifying our own offering. The information that you shared with us in the survey will serve to inspire us as we draft our action plan for 2023–2024. We are tremendously grateful to all those who took the time to complete and send in their surveys. Your opinion is vital in guiding our efforts, now and in the future, and we are determined to use this information to continue to make sure your priorities and our priorities are one and the same.