Your profile is your chance to tell the other community members about yourself, it can give context to your contributions to the forums.

We'd encourage you to share the reasons you visit the community, as well as something about you as a person, your role, and your specialism! It's up to you what you write, but please don't include any personal contact details like your home address, email, or phone number.

You can upload a profile photo (or avatar) to your profile. We'd prefer if it was a professional-looking photo, as long as you own the copyright.

To upload a profile picture select the profile icon, then 'Change Avatar'. The photo you choose to upload for your avatar should ideally be 'square' and be no more than 120 x 120 pixels in size or you may appear pixelated.

If you would like to start a new discussion thread, you first need to navigate to the (most) appropriate topic forum. Once there look for the Start a New Post button at the top of the page.

1. Enter a title for your comment or question in the Subject field.
2. Select the Forum to which you want to post.
3. Enter your comment or question in the Description field.
4. Help other community members by entering a few relevant key words/phrases (called 'tags') Separate tags using a comma, for example, bullying, management.
5. Click the Post button.

A private message is a communication between two people which nobody other than those two people can read. You can find all of the messages which people have sent to you and which you have sent to others from the Private Messages icon (an 'envelope') at the very top of the page.

You can bookmark forum post, blog posts, wiki pages, and individual contributors. If you wish to bookmark a blog post you are reading, click the 'bookmark' icon at the top of the page, and then 'Bookmark this blog post'.

You can opt in to receive both browser and desktop notifications of activities that occur within the Community, and you can choose how you wish to subscribe to these notifications.

When you open a new discussion thread you will automatically receive email notifications when other people contribute to the discussion. You should also see notifications appear in the top bar.

You will need to ensure that the Enable email contact box is ticked in your Settings.

If you would prefer not to see the Related Community Content pop up as you scroll down a page, you can 'turn this off' (or 'turn back on) under Settings.

CIPD members can access their digital membership card within the Community app.

Log into the app using the same email address and password as your CIPD online account. Once in the app, you can access your digital membership card by clicking on the top left menu bars and selecting ‘Membership Card’.