Fewer questions with more “practical and tactical results” for risk managers: this is how Cristina Martinez describes plans for the 2014 FERMA Benchmarking Survey. Cristina is the head of the working group that is planning the survey. The other members are vice president Michel Dennery, board member Isabel Martinez, scientific adviser Marie Gemma Dequae, executive director Florence Bindelle, EU affairs adviser Julien Bedhouche and project assistant Christel Jaumoulle.

The current economic climate has increased the importance for risk managers of getting recognition of their value to their companies. The 2014 Benchmarking Survey is part of FERMA’s vision to support its member associations in their work for the risk management profession, in combination with the planned certification of professional competence.

With this in mind, plans are already well underway for a fresh approach in the seventh edition, including bringing in potential new partners. As Cristina says, this will be the seventh edition of the survey, so the working group has more than 12 years of experience of the survey and feedback from member associations and individual members to guide it. This will allow them to capitalise on knowledge from previous years when coming to the analysis.

“We plan to format the questionnaire to reduce the number of questions and make it more ‘user friendly.’ We are also looking at the structure of the report so it is a practical and tactical tool for risk managers,” she explains.

From her actuarial background, Cristina wants to make the results as robust as possible so they can have continuing applications. She says the use of the survey results will not end with the announcement of the results at the 2014 FERMA Seminar, although that will be a highlight. “We intend to use all the data – not just by announcing the key findings at the seminar – but to create the basis for further analysis of the issues with the national associations.”

For example, the working group hopes to engage the national associations and specialised partners to go deeper into the creation of the questionnaire and the implications of the results.

Revised structure

With this in mind, the survey working group has agreed a revised structure for the questions and the results, which will be divided into three sections:

• Professional insight – including salaries, head counts, budgets and responsibilities
• European risk map – combining risk governance and identification of typical and emerging risks
• Insurance – including more information on budgets

The detail, however, has not yet been agreed, and Cristina stresses that FERMA needs member associations to be actively involved in the design of the questionnaire and the presentation of the results. Each member has been asked to appoint a survey representative to take part in the discussions.

“There are many risk management surveys, but FERMA is really the only one in a position to provide a deep, independent and transparent analysis of risk management across Europe,” she concludes.