Survey Assesses Member Satisfaction and Identifies NDT Industry Challenges
by Senior Manager of Marketing and Membership Betsy J. Blazar
Early this year, ASNT conducted a member survey to determine, in a broad sense, the satisfaction of the membership with existing programs, products and services, and to identify those programs, products and services that members think the Society should be providing. Obtaining such information assists the volunteer leadership and staff in understanding member expectations and concerns, allowing them to better serve the needs of the membership. It may also assist in identifying business opportunities and factors affecting growth and retention.
See Also
Membership Survey Insights and Implications for the Society (Second Article in Series)The survey was essentially designed to determine how well ASNT is serving its mission. Is the Society providing a forum for the exchange of nondestructive testing technical information, educational materials, programs, events, and standards and services for the qualification and certification of NDT personnel? This article covers the results of the survey's primary questions. A second article, to be published in the October issue of Materials Evaluation, will delve into what suppositions, indications and outcomes the data suggest.
This was the first time in more than a decade that a survey of this sort had been sent to the membership at large. At the time of the survey, ASNT's 9661 individual members resided in 86 countries; 69% of the membership lived in the United States and 31% outside it. A secondary but significant use of the data is recognizing those factors that reflect not only the membership but the industry at large. The Society's membership is a microcosm of the NDT industry. ASNT is the largest technical society for NDT professionals and, as such, it can be said that while taking the pulse of the membership, ASNT was also getting an important read on the challenges perceived to be faced by the industry today and in the foreseeable future.
To better understand the survey's results, the survey process and overall response should be discussed. The Web based survey was open for participation from 11 January through 14 February 2008. An e-mail inviting members to take the survey was sent on 11 January. It went to the 7940 members for whom the Society had e-mail addresses. This was 82% of the 9661 individual members at that time. In addition, the invitation, with a link to the survey, was posted on the ASNT Web site. The final result was 2043 total responses to the survey, which was 21% of the total membership. This is a strong response rate.
This survey was essentially designed to determine how well ASNT is serving its mission.
Who were the respondents? There were questions that defined the responding population by job function, by length of ASNT membership and by ASNT NDT Level III certification. Regarding job function, respondents identified themselves as:
- supervisors/managers: 33%
- engineers: 20%
- technicians: 16 %
- consultants: 7%
- business owners: 5%
- trainers: 5%
- researchers: 3%
- sales or marketing professionals: 3%
- educators: 2%
- other: 6%
When asked about how long they had been ASNT members, 35% had been members less than four years, with the 65% majority having held membership for longer than that. While there were additional questions about NDT certification, the one about ASNT NDT Level III certification provides much perspective of the respondent population's composition (Table 1).
The 21 question survey assessed member satisfaction with ASNT events, publications and member benefits, with the first question asking about overall member satisfaction (Table 2). By asking if members would recommend ASNT membership to others, the survey can measure the general satisfaction of the recipients themselves. The results were quite definitive.
A question regarding events covered section meetings, committee meetings, refresher courses and conferences. Members rated their satisfaction with technical content, location, site accessibility, cost, facilities and presentation quality. Results show an overall satisfaction with events (Table 3).
Respondents were then asked to identify technical areas that they would like to see included in ASNT events. Input was provided by 320 individuals. Redundant responses were categorized accordingly. Those with notable frequency include:
- technician oriented presentations
- NDT workforce related programs
- NDT business oriented programs
- code and standard related programs
- programs on method applications and techniques
- infrared and thermography
- visual testing
- digital radiography
- phased array
- joint events with other organizations
- user industry specific programs
- training programs
- certification and qualification programs.
A similar satisfaction scale was used to discern member satisfaction with ASNT publications. Included were ASNT periodicals, handbooks, personnel qualification and certification documents, and study and training materials. Results here show the overall satisfaction with publications (Table 4).
Participants were asked to advise us of technical areas that they would like to see included in ASNT publications. There were 309 responses. Those with notable frequency fell into the following general categories, which were very similar to those encountered for the events question:
- method applications and techniques
- digital radiography testing
- ultrasonic testing
- thermal and infrared testing
- time of flight diffraction
- visual testing
- phased array
- NDT workforce related articles
- technician oriented content
- user industry related articles
- code, standard and compliance content
- news oriented articles
- NDT career articles
- additional training publications.
Two questions of particular interest were open-ended ones that asked "What are the biggest challenges facing you today as an NDT professional?" and "What new challenges are you expecting as an NDT professional?" To the first question there were 1302 responses, and to the second 1090. Here too were found concerns regarding sustaining the NDT workforce, keeping up with advances in technology, management's support for and recognition of NDT program significance, navigating complex certification and qualification requirements, adequate training resources, and economic uncertainty.
To the question, "What are the biggest challenges facing you today as an NDT professional?," we received responses that fell into the following general categories, ranked by volume (with the most common categories listed first):
- workforce issues
- inexperienced workforce
- recruiting
- lack of technically proficient workers
- pay
- retaining qualified individuals
- technology related
- application of new technologies in service
- adequate information regarding emerging and new technology
- time required to understand new technology
- management and internal business environment
- budget to support programs and equipment
- undervalued
- perceived as expense burden by organization
- certification and qualification
- acquiring points for recertification
- dealing with program complexities
- passing ASNT exams
- relevant exams
- user industry specific issues
- training related
- accessible training facilities
- cost and time for training
- quality of programs
- economic concerns
- offshore outsourcing
- supply chain changes
- customer expectations
- funding for research and development
- public and industry awareness of nondestructive testing's significance to public safety.
To the question, "What new challenges are you expecting as an NDT professional?," the categories and subsets were the same. The difference was in the ranking of each category. One could conjecture from this that, while people don't anticipate current challenges being resolved, they do suggest a change in what will be of most concern. With the subsets the same, the main categories in order of volume were:
- technology related
- workforce issues
- certification and qualification
- management and internal business environment
- training related
- user industry specific issues
- economic concerns
- public and industry awareness of nondestructive testing's significance to public safety.
As does the overall ASNT membership, the survey respondents represent a cross-section of NDT professionals in job types and the industries in which they work. Qualitatively, the survey's results appear to be a fair representation of the NDT industry. So what do the responses from these particular questions indicate? Significantly, the responses to each of the open-ended questions were similar in subject and concern to those with responses limited to multiple-choice options. The survey indicates that ASNT members are focused on: workforce development issues; management's support for NDT programs; the speed at which technology changes and ability to determine effects on and relevance to specific industries; adequate and qualified resources to satisfy training needs; understanding certification and qualification program compliance; and economic unknowns. These six issues were reiterated in other question responses as well.
While taking the "pulse" of the membership to see how ASNT can better serve its members, the Society gained insights about these challenges facing the nondestructive testing industry. The next part of this article will cover the potential effects of these findings and how the insights gained enter discussions about ASNT's programs, products and services in the future.
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