Less Talk, More Action: Practical Tips to Make Insight More Inclusive
Market research is innately a people-centred industry. Our job is to gather, analyse and report on the opinions and behaviours of the public and to provide strategic advice to businesses, governments, and non-profits to improve their services. This means that as insight professionals we have a responsibility to ensure that the breadth of the population is represented in our work, even if it involves changing our approach and asking uncomfortable questions.
In recent years, industry groups and networks like WIRe (Women in Research), CORe (Colour of Research) and MRSPride have formed to promote diversity and inclusion within the research sector. These groups run workshops, webinars and initiatives to inform, educate and debate ways to be more inclusive within research.
After listening closely to the expertise of others in the industry, we thought it would be helpful to distil some of the key points we have learned to provide practical tips on how to improve diversity and inclusion in the work of research agencies and clients. This list is by no means exhaustive but will hopefully help to spark ideas about how our research can be more inclusive on a day-to-day basis.
FOR AGENCIES:
1. Aim for CityRep in qualitative recruitment: The CORe group has developed the concept of CityRep, which ensures that the ethnicity of participants reflects the area in which research is being conducted. By looking at ethnicity statistics at a local level (rather than deferring to the national ones), we can better represent the population of the region in which research is being conducted.
2. Include more gender options and ask for preferred pronouns in recruitment screeners: Restricting gender options to ‘Male’ and ‘Female’ excludes anyone who identifies outside the gender binary and doesn’t reflect modern society. ‘Non-binary’ should be included at the very least and ideally this should be an open-ended question to allow for self-definition. Also, including a gender pronoun question in screeners avoids the assumption that everyone is a cisgender male or female and limits the risk of misgendering participants.
3. Encourage nationwide recruitment including rural regions: Online fieldwork has significantly improved the breadth of qualitative research over the past year allowing us to more easily include those who live outside of major towns and cities in research. Simultaneously, increasing numbers of people are moving out of large urban areas to enjoy more space in rural locations. It is therefore critical we continue to include a wide variety in the types of locations included as face-to-face fieldwork starts to return. Where possible, ‘UK-wide’ recruitment should reflect the four nations of the UK and include quotas and extra flexibility for participants from rural regions (e.g. allowing them to join via mobile if they have a bad WiFi connection) which will help to provide a sample that better reflects the wider population, rather than solely relying on a city-based perspective. As Sarah Morris, Director of specialist rural recruitment agency FieldMouse Research puts it: “These aren't just seldom-heard-voices, they are never-heard-before-voices. And not because they are digitally excluded or socially isolated, it's almost entirely because fieldwork is typically not conducted in rural and remote parts of the UK.”
4. Ask all participants if they have any accessibility requirements: A benefit of the increase in online fieldwork has been the opportunity for disabled people to engage with research and participate with greater ease. While the industry has previously highlighted the need to consider accessibility to venues for those with mobility issues, there are multiple other considerations to ensure we’re making our research inclusive for those whose impairment may not be immediately evident such as those with a hearing or sight impairment. As Hilary Ingleton, Head of Research and Insight at the RNIB, highlights: “There are around 2 million people in the UK with sight loss but very often research approaches are insufficiently inclusive to include the voices of this very large group of people and so they are seldom being represented in mainstream research. This is a massive potential audience whose voices are just not being heard!”
To ensure your research is accessible for everyone, ask all participants their accessibility requirements in advance and be prepared to make any adaptations required. This might include, but is not limited to:
creating stimulus with larger fonts and/or adjusting colours used;
record audio files to accompany text, and allow participants the ability to listen again;
offer personal copies of stimulus to enable individuals to read close up; and
use names when directly addressing participants.
Researchers should remain flexible when choosing appropriate methodologies to the most suitable approach for participants is prioritised, rather than just doing what is easiest for the researcher or client.
5. Avoid homogenising ethnic groups under the term ‘BAME’: Viewing all Black, Asian and ethnic minority communities under the same umbrella is predictably problematic. The term ‘BAME’ has been termed a 'clunky description’ as it combines a whole host of ethnicities including Black African, Caribbean, Indian, Bangladeshi, Chinese, Irish Traveller and many more into one group. When recruiting participants and conducting analysis, it is important to understand the value of each demographic and to consider how to ensure different demographics are reflected without grouping them together into one very broad definition.
6. Recognise modern families and avoid basing life stages around traditional family structures: In research, life stage terms often focus on the presence of children in the home e.g. pre-nester. This approach fails to reflect modern society, assumes that everyone has or will have children, and doesn’t account for dedicated caring responsibilities for others, not just children. Instead, we suggest you consider what will impact on a person’s lifestyle, attitudes and behaviours and adjust recruitment accordingly. For example, asking if someone has caring responsibilities rather than solely whether they have children, or if they have responsibility for children whether they live with them full-time or not. By considering the needs of the project rather than making assumptions on life-stage, will in turn produce a more accurate analysis of participants and the society we live in.
FOR CLIENTS:
1. Make an effort to conduct research with under-represented and under-researched groups: To truly understand the perceptions and behaviours of the diverse range of people who engage with your brand, it’s necessary to commission research with minority groups. By always talking to the mass market, you may be missing an opportunity to understand in detail the experiences and perceptions of different demographics and how and why they differ.
2. Ask agencies to demonstrate their commitment in the research design: State your expectations for inclusivity and representation in the project brief and ask agencies to provide details on how they will ensure representation of targeted regions and demographics in their proposals. This forces agencies to think about it in the research design and demonstrate how they will deliver against it. They can then be held accountable as the project progresses.
3. Allow sufficient time for recruiting an inclusive sample: With increasingly fast turnaround time and demanding schedules across the industry, inclusion can be de-prioritised in research, potentially limiting the quality of insight produced. To maximise the opportunity of getting good quality participants from various backgrounds, where possible, allow sufficient time for the recruitment stage of qualitative projects. Discuss with your agency how long is required depending on the groups you’re planning to include.
4. Ensure stimulus materials include a diverse range of people: Seeing ‘someone like me’ interacting with a brand or product is proven to increase relevance and engagement. Often stimulus materials only represent white, non-disabled people and exclusively include nuclear families. When briefing creative agencies and internal creative teams, ask them to consider reflecting a broader range of people in their mock-ups.
5. Put diversity and inclusion on the agenda with stakeholders: Insights teams are in a unique position to engage and educate people from across their business on important themes. By highlighting the need for inclusive research, you can set the agenda for addressing and improving diversity and inclusion across the wider business.
We’d welcome any other suggestions to ensure we’re being as inclusive as we can.
