Benefits and professional development

A run down of environment professionals' non-salary benefits and professional development opportunities as revealed by the IEMA practitioners' survey 2012

Respondents were asked to specify the non salary benefits they receive from their employers, and the results are shown in figure 12 (below). Living and working in the digital and communication-focused age dominates the top three benefits on offer. Being provided with a mobile phone or “personal digital assistant” (PDA) tops the chart of the most common type of benefit, followed by a contributory pension scheme and being provided with a laptop or home computer.

We also asked respondents if their employer provides financial support for professional development. Almost eight respondents in 10 (79.5%) report receiving support from their employer. About 90% of environment professionals undertook some form of professional training in 2011.

The most popular way to keep knowledge and skills up to date is by attending events or conferences (63% of respondents) followed by reading key materials (44.1%) and attending a continuing professional development workshop (38.7%). Less common professional development approaches are attending a vocational or academic course (18.5%) or mentoring (13%).

The main reason that prompts respondents to undertake professional development activities is to develop their knowledge and skills for career progression purposes (43.9% of respondents). A further three in 10 (30%) do so in order to develop their knowledge and skills for their current role. A lack of time (31.7%) and no budget (28.7%) were the two most common reasons why no training was undertaken in 2011.

Survey participants were also asked how they find out about new products and services within their remit. The main source, used by 76.1% of professionals, is the environmentalist, IEMA’s monthly magazine, followed by internet search engines (70.2%).

Read the full survey results:

Back to Index