MBI's Perspective - Tracking Engagement as Part of MBI's Journey with EOS®

Tracking Engagement as Part of MBI's Journey with

BY CHAD KLEPPE PRESIDENT/CEO

Many of you may recall a speaker MBI brought to the membership back in the fall of 2019. His name was Gino Wickman and he is the founder of EOS® Worldwide. EOS® stands for Entreprenurial Operating System and is defined as a complete set of simple concepts and practical tools that help entrepreneurs get what they want from the business. Over 300 individuals participated in that program and all wanted to learn more about how EOS® could help improve their respective business. Many of the MBI Board members and staff were also in the audience and in the aftermath, it became apparent that MBI’s leadership team would benefit from adopting the EOS® process. MBI – from an operations standpoint – saw that an approach like EOS® would be a great fit in how the organization can better meet its mission and provide greater overall value to members. After taking the EOS® plunge, we soon learned that many MBI members were also using EOS® to allow their respective leaders to spend more time working “on the business” and less working “in the business”. When MBI decided to follow the strategies and processes laid out through our initial EOS® journey, we took a hard look at all the metrics and measurements we track to determine whether or not we are getting better at serving members. We would look at membership growth; revenue and profit; registrations for educational programs and trainings; and many others. All of these are important, but the one measurement that we learned was our guiding principle was engagements.

From MBI’s perspective, engagements can be defined as touches or instances in which an individual (can be a member or non-member) participates or “engages” with MBI in some way. Our engagement number is an accumulation of various levels of participation. For instance, someone attending a Regional Meeting is one engagement. Another example is someone attending a class at the Annual Winter Conference or a follower of MBI’s LinkedIn page are all regarded as “engagements”. It is also important to know that a single individual can have multiple engagements over the year. For 2021, we tracked every instance in which a member firm and/or individual participated or “touched” an MBI service or program. When all was said and done for last year, we logged over 20,000 engagements. What is significant about this number is that it was an increase of over 2,000 from the previous year. As the organization works to enhance value and services to the membership, we also have quarterly and yearly “engagement” targets. If we hit those targets, all other aspects of MBI’s service to members seemingly fall right into place. For instance, our membership number continues to grow (437 for this year so far). Our training and education participation rates continue to hit the marks. Our social media efforts are growing as we gain more followers and enhance the presence of MBI programs and services via platforms like LinkedIn, Twitter, and Facebook. In fact, if we are hitting our engagement targets, every other metric is also meeting its respective goals. Hence, the “engagement measurement” is MBI’s leading indicator on whether the Association is meeting its mission to serve the Iowa construction industry. With this subsequent focus on engagements, we are confident that MBI members will see a greater return for their membership investment.

MBI WORKS

BY ADAM DOBRASKA MEMBER SERVICES ASSOCIATE

On Monday, June 13th, the 2023 MBI-WORKS Endowment was launched on the MBI website at www.MBI.Build/mbiworks. We call this the 2023 Endowment, because projects are funded in January 2023. The MBI-WORKS Endowment was created in 2019 to offer financial resources to complement career education and workforce recruitment efforts by partnering with non-profit and school programs that are working to get students, both traditional and non-traditional, into the commercial building industry. The Board of 11 members includes both MBI members and non-MBI members who have diverse perspectives when evaluating and critiquing RFP responses. We have seen some incredible partnerships that have resulted from this endowment. In Forest City for example, the endowment has created programs at the YMCA for beginner-level carpentry and mechanics for after-school youth. In Strawberry Point, the project has equipped educators with the resources needed to bring masonry back into the classroom by giving students the hands-on experience and skills to enter the workforce. And in Cedar Falls, funds from the endowment have created a construction and trades pathway for the Center for Advanced Professional Studies for local juniors and seniors. These are just a few of the examples that overall complemented the $1.84 million in workforce recruitment efforts when you total up funds, cash match, and in-kind contributions. We are encouraging all members of MBI and schools and non-profits in their communities to begin looking at this year’s RFP. The application period for this year’s RFP will end on September 16, giving members and their partners plenty of time over the summer and beginning of next school year to formulate their applications. Applicants are encouraged to develop proposals that would require funding up to $30,000. However, availability of funds (above $30,000) may be awarded depending upon performance of the endowment’s investments and discretion of the Board members. We have funded proposals above and below in the past.

Awards Up to $30K

Since this is the first year funds have been made available in a post-COVID world, we expect this year’s round to be highly competitive. When formulating your applications, think of ways that your program stands apart from others. Are you using technology in new ways to recruit students? Are you finding community partners that are putting their own dollars forward? Or are you unique in the way you’ve developed a pipeline for students to enter this field? Answering yes to any or all of these questions might set you apart! Also, applicants should be cognizant of items that will score low including avoiding submitting proposals that only support payment of administrative salaries, proposals that DON'T directly benefit Iowa and proposals that create multi-year programs with no sustainability plan. When you’re ready, be sure to check out our website listed at the beginning of this article and begin formulating your proposal! We’re here to be a resource. We want you to be successful, because when you are, our companies are stronger. Please reach out to Adam DoBraska, MBI’s Member Services Associate, at ADoBraska@MBI.Build with any questions on the RFP process.

RFP Release Date:

June 13, 2022

RFP Proposals Due:

September 16, 2022

Notification of Awards:

December 16, 2022

Funding Start Date:

January 27, 2023