Introduction

PCG (The Professional Contractors Group) was formed in May 1999 to provide independent contractors and consultants with a representative voice in opposition to the Government's IR35 taxation proposals.

The PCG Board was looking to review its medium and long term strategy options and supporting governance. AHC was therefore engaged to provide external facilitation of a number of strategy workshops in order to help identify a vision for the future of the organisation and a plan for achieving it.

The Challenges

PCG had grown rapidly from initially being founded as a single issue pressure group to contest IR35, to becoming a professionally managed membership association consulted by Government and industry on a wide range of policy issues.

The organisation had recently appointed a new Managing Director to run the business as a professional trade association rather than purely a member-run pressure group.

A key challenge was to effectively manage obtaining feedback from the Board and the membership as a whole, all of whom were used to managing their own micro businesses, and therefore all of whom had strong opinions on how every aspect of PCG should be run.

An additional challenge to be addressed was that, whilst IT contractors had historically formed the largest group of members, PCG membership was now growing and diversifying across a wide range of sectors, each with their own individual issues and focus.

Our Approach

We firstly undertook interviews with the management team to gain their perceptions on the challenges that PCG and its membership were facing. We then used this information to help us undertake an online survey of PCG members to gain their feedback on:

• The key issues they are facing
• The role of PCG in addressing these issues
• Current performance of PCG in terms of services and support provided
• The image and profile of PCG
• The future for PCG

The results of this survey were then feedback to PCG as part of a series of strategic workshops that we facilitated with the management team and representatives from PCG's Board and Consultative Council.

In these workshops, we used our proven structured approach to help the PCG team to:

• Identify a vision for the future
• Agree the scope and breadth of the membership it represents
• Establish core values for what the organisation stands for
• Agree key objectives for the moving the organisation forward, together with performance measures and targets
• Develop a series of strategies for achieving these objectives

Our strong facilitation skills and independence allowed us to ensure that, whilst everyone had the opportunity to have their say, focus was maintained on achieving the objective of developing a plan of action. By splitting the workshop into smaller syndicate group sessions, we were able to focus different groups on identifying solutions to particular issues that could then be presented back to the group as a whole. This also helped ensure that discussions focused on issues relating to the sector as a whole, rather than those of particular interest to individuals.

The Benefits

PCG now has a clear understanding of what it stands for, where it is heading, and what it needs to do to get there. By documenting this, PCG has a clear reference tool with which to measure and communicate progress to relevant stakeholders.

PCG is already well down the road to implementing several of the key strategies formed as part of the review we facilitated, including:

• Undertaking a re-branding exercise resulting in the change to the organisation being known as "PCG - the voice of freelancing"
• Launching a new and improved PCG website
• Undertaking an internal resource review, with the resulting appointment of new Heads of Commercial Development and Public Affairs and a new dedicated Membership Manager

As a result, PCG's membership has continued to grow and the organisation continues to improve and develop the range of services and support it offers UK freelancers.