By Ted McEnroe, Head of Research, The Community Roundtable.
Today, The Community Roundtable is kicking off the survey period for the Community Careers and Compensation 2015 survey. It’s the second year of our annual effort to rationalize the profession of community management – giving both community professionals and those who manage and hire them a better understanding of the skills, roles and compensation of community professionals.
What does that mean? It means we are pulling together powerful sets of data that you as a community professional can use to help build and assess your team, develop your skills, and use to more effectively negotiate your own career development.
None of it can happen without your help.
The CCC 2015 survey will take you about 15 minutes – and asks you to share background about your community and role, the skills you find most valuable and a bit about your salary and compensation. I’ll tell you about how we protect your information in a moment.
First a bit of context. Last year, this survey was the Community Manager Salary Survey. We received salary and skills information from more than 300 community professionals, and produced:
- a first-of-its-kind role analysis for Community Managers, Community Strategists and Directors of Community;
- a Community Management Skills Framework that highlighted the most important skills and responsibilities of community professionals;
- an eBook on the roles of community professionals that HR and hiring managers can use to create more effective job descriptions.
This year, we are continuing to build on that. We have refined the survey to better understand the size, roles and organizational status of community teams. We have broadened the survey to include more community roles. We have reshaped the Community Management Skills Framework to better highlight the strategic and business skills needed to manage communities effectively. And we have changed the way we ask for compensation – asking for ranges of compensation, rather than exact figures.
Its powerful data for both individual and organizations – that hopefully makes community management roles a bit more sane and rational. We know from feedback how many of you have used last year’s data to start important conversations.
Please:
- Take the survey: No matter what your role in community, we want to hear from you. Go to https://the.cr/ccc2015survey – give us 15 minutes of your time to tell us about your journey.
- Share the survey: The better the data we collect, the more valuable the results will be. By sharing the survey link via social media and encouraging colleagues and friends in the community space to take it, you’re helping to make this a more powerful tool for you.
- Continue the conversation: A survey alone won’t do it. The conversation about the survey and the issues are important. Members of TheCR Network helped create and revise the 2014 and 2015 surveys and the conversations that it triggered provided great insight. If you are not a member of TheCR Network, join our Facebook group.
Now, about salary data and confidentiality.
Even in the era where people are comfortable sharing almost everything, talking about salary is rare. It’s uncomfortable. It’s personal. It’s also incredibly powerful information for the profession. If we want communities to reach their potential, we need to do a better job of structuring the roles, responsibilities and compensation of those who run them. And we can’t do that without knowing what you are tasked with, how you got to where you are, and yes, how much you make for doing it – and ensuring the validity of that data by knowing who you are.
Here’s our pledge:
- We will never share individual survey data with anyone outside TheCR research team – ever. And that includes with other members of The Community Roundtable staff.
- We will never publish raw data or individual surveys. Ever.
- We immediately remove personal information from the raw data we are analyzing, so that the data we work with doesn’t include your personal information.
- We also only ask for your salary range, rather than your exact compensation, as we balance the need for accurate data with the desire to respect your privacy.
If you have questions about the survey after you take it – ask us. Our business – like communities themselves – is based on trust, and we want to make you feel as comfortable sharing your data with us as possible.
The results will be worth it.
