June's Leadership Magazine is out. My article is on page 69.
To outsource, or not to outsource, that is the research question…
“Supposing is good, but finding out is better,”~ Mark Twain
On our journey of moving from being a general reputation management consultancy to specialising and growing in the reputation research space where we now quantify company reputations, we have seen some interesting questions which often crop up about conducting research.
Won’t research break the bank? Research does not have to be an expensive exercise. Rather than viewing it as a cost, see it as an investment in your business. The insights from the results will add immense value to the business’ strategy. It will also provide a base to measure against to see whether the strategy is being implemented effectively. Let’s face it, presenting data and facts around the boardroom table is a lot more concrete and effective than trying to convince fellow executives that your gut feeling is to pursue a specific direction.
What is important, is to know what you want to achieve through conducting research and to be as specific as possible. When you know exactly who you want to get information from and what information you want from them, you can save much time. Research costs can quickly accumulate if a lot of time is wasted when the basic parameters are not agreed upon at the start of the project. It can be incredibly frustrating when a brief is murky and there is a lot of back and forth regarding the questionnaires and angles that need to be included in a survey, leading to unnecessary delays in the project timeline.
Why don’t we do the research using in-house resources? There are pros and cons for doing research in-house or outsourcing it. The two main positives for keeping it in-house is that it will keep costs down and the team will have a thorough understanding of their stakeholders and environment. However, I do think there are far more advantages in favour of outsourcing research:
· You are armed with a talented pool of specialists who thrive on crunching numbers, and get a kick out of analysing data, identifying correlations and trends and find great pleasure in producing pivot tables;
· You will get the best advice on how to tackle the research problem. You will know from your research specialists the right types of questions to ask and ideal data collection methods. It is recommended that you ask both open and closed-ended questions to get a balanced view. This also allows respondents to have an opportunity to give insights and suggestions.
A side note on data collection is that an online survey is not always the best solution. You will be guided as to which method will be most effective. A few years ago our team were asked to measure a specific aspect of the leadership team within a corporate company. We knew that the employees had recently completed a couple of other surveys and were mindful that survey fatigue would hamper our efforts to collect useful results. We set up focus groups, instead of conducting an electronic questionnaire and delved into very specific, pertinent issues giving us powerful insights.
· As a third party, you are objective; there is no emotional bond between you, the respondents and the results. The integrity of your research process cannot become tainted; you can be assured of independent, unbiased results.
Stakeholder groups, especially employees, are often very reluctant to give their honest opinion when a survey is conducted by an in-house team. Their first reaction is usually, ‘What if my manager sees my answers?’ We find that respondents are a lot more open and honest when their confidentiality is assured by dealing with an external research team.
Being objective, also makes it a lot easier to break bad news or communicate unfavourable results. I once had to break the news to the CEO of a large corporate that he was not viewed favourably by the market or employees. The results showed that the only way to salvage the company’s reputation and to curry favour with stakeholders was if the CEO and majority of the board were replaced! This was by no means an easy message to share during our research results presentation, but I know that it would have been almost impossible for an internal resource to present this type of feedback without fearing for their own position within the company.
· A reputable research house should be part of an industry body such as the South African Market Research Association (SAMRA); as a member you commit to upholding professional standards when conducting research and you sign a code of ethics that must be adhered to.
It is important to always include a covering letter that duly informs the respondents about the research and their role. You need to let the respondent know exactly what the purpose of the research survey is about and what the data will be used for. Respondents should also have a contact person and their phone number should they require any further clarity. Respondents also need to be assured that their inputs will be confidential and if they feel that their confidentiality is compromised at any point during the study, they can terminate the study. Treating people’s personal information properly, taking the Protection of Personal Information (POPI) Act into consideration is also very important.
· The turnaround will be much quicker when an outside research team conducts the work; research houses will have their own processes and methodologies that they use to streamline the research project and also have access to the latest tools and industry insights.
I’m sure you know by now that when it comes to company research, it’s safer to hand the reigns over to research experts. Do not waste time using your busy resources to conduct research in-house (taking staff away from their key performance areas for an extensive side project is most certainly counterproductive to the efficiency of your business). Stop the guessing game and invest in research and let the professionals produce the pivot tables for you!
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