Our Approach…
Across all areas of activity, our prime aim is to provide clients with the data they need as efficiently, promptly and cost-effectively as possible. In practice this means:
- Being flexible to client needs
- Advising clients about the most suitable methodologies
- Clarifying and articulating research questions
- Project planning and stringent project management
Analysis and interpretation of data is integral to our work. A draw back to ‘off-the peg’ research (i.e. using a standard package for staff attitude surveys or client satisfaction) is that whilst the data may be collected efficiently there is very little interpretation of results. We have scope to ensure that data analysis and exploration addresses pertinent issues in depth with statistical rigour where necessary.
Survey management lies at the heart of many of our projects. ERL started administering surveys in-house as a means of ensuring high quality data collection for our own research projects and we continue to see this as an important strength to our work. The importance of robust data collection and attending to every aspect of the process is key to our survey management and includes:
- Careful questionnaire design and testing
- Sampling strategies focused to the needs of the project
- Deploying well timed and targeted reminders
- Ensuring coding is accurate and well supervised
- Data capture is accurate and checked
Expertise and resources built up at Employment Research are now used by other research organisations so in addition to our own research, a significant proportion of our business is providing survey administration for other organisations. We now manage all kinds of surveys ranging in size from 100 to 20,000 plus…