1 / 47 Interviewer Quality Control Scheme 23rd Annual General Meeting 12th November 2009

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Interviewer Quality Control Scheme

23rd Annual General Meeting

12th November 2009

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Review of the Year

Inspections

Standards

Financial Review

Marketing/PR

MRS Update

MRBA Update

Agenda

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Review of the Year

IQCS Council CompositionVacancies

IQCS Activities in 2009

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IQCS CouncilComposition and vacancies

Interviewer Quality Interviewer Quality Control SchemeControl Scheme

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Current IQCSCouncil structure

4 representative membersAURAMRQSAMRSAQR

8 elected members7 data collection ‘suppliers’ 1 ‘user’

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Current IQCSCouncil for 2009Representing MR Industry Bodies:

AURA-VacantMRQSA - Penny Steele MRS - Chris SmithAQR - Liz Sykes

Elected ‘suppliers’:Jenny LyonsNatalie EdwardsVolker BalkMae McCollJackie MegaheyJeremy May

Elected ‘user’:Gill Welch –Resigned May 09

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IQCS CouncilFor 2010Elected ‘suppliers’ rotation system

One position to be filled: We currently have one elected vacancy to Council not

filled from 2008 Due to Council’s rotation Volker Balk is standing down

but is once again standing for re-election Nominations to Gill Wareing by Monday 23rd

November Forms are available tonight and on the website If more than two nominations there will be an election

via email and votes will be required to be in by Friday 11th December

Elected ‘user’ - an annual appointment

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Other members of the team

Administrator:Gill Wareing

Inspectors:Daphne EatwellGaynor Montague

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IQCS Council for 2009

IQCS Council is represented on the following industry bodies:

MRQSA Council

BSI Technical Committee

MRS Company Partner Service Advisory Board

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IQCS Activities in 2009


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IQCS Council activities in 2009 Continued to provide inspection services

Completed the revision of our IQCS minimumstandards

IQCS has also worked with the industry in 2009 by:

Liaising with MRQSA re the revision of ISO 20252This revision has been divided into 4 working partiesQuality management and scope – Australia and SwedenSurvey sampling and statistics – USData collection taking account of new technology and

including access panel requirements from ISO 26363 – Canada

Implementation and assessment/certification – UK and Netherlands.

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IQCS Council activities in 2009 Information and support to members

Working forums/meetingsIQCS.orgE Newsletters

Information and support for the industry per seAdvisory visitsIQCS related information available on the webWe held 2 workshops this year .A general working

forum in June covering Standards, MRS Initiatives and Employment legislation and earlier today on Data Protection. Today’s presentation will be available on our website shortly

Continued dialogue with members and the industry on how we continue to evolve

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IQCS Inspections in 2009


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The Inspection process in 2009 June Inspectors briefed in depth with additional areas

to look at Applications invited One application form for all methodologies

Summer/Autumn Inspections conducted

Autumn/Winter Judging Panel meets at least twice

Three Council members review anonymous reports Endorse or query Inspectors’ recommendations Queries are kept to one side, to be discussed with full inspection team

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The Inspection process in 2009

Inspectors debriefed

Feedback to Council / further decisions made

Feedback to members via the actual inspection reports and letter

Inspectors receive an annual appraisal in December each year

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Inspection results(For 2010 membership) Current Potential Membership

= 51 Versus 50 in 2009

25 IQCS inspections conducted to date (4 new applicants)

20 companies have passed but 1 company has failed to reach the minimum standards laid down by Council

This company has been invited to be re inspected and must pass all areas of the standard before IQCS accreditation is awarded for 2009

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Inspection results(For 2010 membership)

2 applications still to come in

5 advisory visits conducted this year

User Member Category is empty due to Marketing Directions ceasing to trade

IQCS user members are companies who do not have their own in-house data-collection, but commit to use providers who are IQCS accredited (and are inspected to verify this). Please let us know if you have any nominations

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Inspection results(For 2010 membership)

Currently 24 passed hold IQCS membership via their ISO 20252 accreditation

ISO companies will be asked to renew membership by 31st December 2009

The IQCS certificate which we issue and our website will clearly indicate if the member company has undertaken an IQCS inspection

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Membership breakdown

10 09

Fieldwork ‘Suppliers’ 27 25

Fieldwork ‘Users’ 0 1

ISO 20252 Members 24 24

Total 51 50

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Issues arising from 2009 Inspections References –endeavour to respond to member

companies ASAP pleaseThis is proving a really big problem for some of our small to medium sized members

One underlying theme that has started to come through this year is lack of fundamental admin detail e.g. signatures, dates and length of training and appraisals were at times missing

We are pleased to see this year that the previous continual problem of not being able to see salaried staff (who conduct supervisory tasks) appraisals has finally disappeared

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2009 InspectionsEvaluations

To date we have 15 out of 17 questionnairesreturned which is an 88% response rate ,sobetter than last year

Feedback from the inspections was again extremely positive and companies continue to welcome their vast experience . This was the strong message we received from new members undergoing their first Inspection

Inspectors prove to be a very valuable source of information and suggestions .One company says that they always pick up at least one new process/ system to implement from their annual inspection which will help them raise standards

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2009 InspectionsEvaluations

Inspector Performance Ratings95% satisfaction overall from the evaluation reports received to date for both inspectors

Across the following categories :As an IQCS AmbassadorUnderstanding of StandardsEnthusiasmThoroughnessAccuracyUnderstanding of the individual Company

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Feedbackabout the Inspectors

“It was the first time we have had this particular Inspector and she made it a pleasure”

“ The Inspector as usual was very easy to communicate with and as always gives us sound advise”

“Overall the inspection was a pleasant and encouraging

experience”

“This was our first Inspection and the Inspector was very professional , reassuring and gave us some good advise on how to refine our systems

A very good ambassador for IQCS”

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IQCS Inspections in 2009

With IQCS inspections having been conducted thisyear, indications are that the requirement for IQCS inspections still remains

It has been very encouraging that we have received 4 applications from new companies this year

They all requested our help via advisory visits prior to their inspections

We will establish 2010 inspection intentions in early June next year

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Standards


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Standards 2009Why the change?

Data collection is changing and evolving within the UK

With technology and online data collection increasing we wanted to ensure that the terminology and all methodologies are up to date and relevant

There have been no changes for over 6 years due to the link with BS7911 so all the good practise standards are still not mandatory

We have also endeavoured to streamline and simplify the minimum standards into a more user friendly document

We have added in clarifications and updated the glossary of terms

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Standards 2009What are the implications?

The new standards were emailed to all themembership in May 2009

They have also been posted on the IQCS websitewww.iqcs.org

The new standards applied to all existing member companies undergoing IQCS accreditation from September 2009. This allowed member companies a 3 month period to adopt any changes

Any new companies joining from September 2009 will have to work towards these new standards

From the Inspections conducted to date there have been no queries from membership and feedback has been very positive

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Financial ReportJeremy May


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Financial Statements ending 30th April 2009

Our accountants Baker Tilley Tax and Accounting Limited compiled and verified our financial statements in accordance with the Companies Acts 1985 -2006

A copy of the financial statements were sent via post to all IQCS members companies

Our solicitors are DMH Stallard

2009 saw a deficit of (£1,822) compared to a surplus of £740 in 2008

Leaving a total of £23,078 in Member’s Funds

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Marketing/PR ActivityChris Smith


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Marketing/PRactivities

Marketing and industry presence in 2009WebsiteAdvisory VisitsMailshotsMarketing presence at industry events and

publications (e.g. Research Magazine, Insight, BIG, MRS Conference)

Planned for 2010Marketing non-inspected member benefits to non

IQCS ISO20252 accredited companies Targeting non ISO20252 accredited companiesWebsite revisions – e.g. addition of online reference

requests facility to encourage active use of website resource as a member benefit

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Marketing/PRactivities

New Applicants for 2009

Opinion Research Services, a social research company based in the University of Wales, Swansea

Perceptive Insight, an independent full-service market research agency based in Belfast, Northern Ireland who conduct qual, quant and CATI interviewing

Tourism South East, who conduct tourism and leisure research, marketing the South East to the domestic market. Research methodologies include: Face to face, telephone, focus groups/consumer panels and mystery shopping

Voice Marketing, a market research and telemarketing company based in Sheffield conducting business-to-business and business-to-consumer projects

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IQCS AGM November 2009:Update on MRS Activities

Debrah HardingMRS Deputy Director General

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Agenda

•Update to the MRS Code of Conduct•Timeline

•Main MRS Code changes

•Legislation Update•Employment

•Data Protection

•Children

•Future Field events

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MRS Code of Conduct

Timeline for the MRS Code Update

•Original consultation

•January – April 2009

•114 responses

•25 attended Code Consultation meeting

•Additional consultation

•Response to original consultation and new comments

•July – September 2009

•30 responses36

Timeline for the MRS Code Update

•MRS Code on the Road Show

•September 2009 through to January 2010

•Edinburgh, Birmingham, Leeds, Bristol and several sessions in London

•Council – November 2009

•New Code – early 2010, binding 3 months after issue

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Changes to the MRS Code

•Main changes:

•Introduction of new, broader MRS principles

•Removal of 14-15 year old consent exemption on-street/in-hall interviewing

•Clarification on quality control, right to decline to answer , data collection hours and re-contact

•New rule on incentives – client supplied incentives can not be used for research projects

Section B – Expansion of Rule B11

•Addition of a comment before Rule B11:A re-contact question asks permission for a

follow-up interview, i.e. an interview for which a respondent is selected as a consequence of participating in a previous interview.

Any re-contact question should be agreed at the design stage with the client to cover any planned or possible consequential interviews.


•B15 If there is to be any recording, monitoring or observation during an interview, Respondents must be informed about this both at recruitment and at the beginning of the interview.

•Comment: This does not include monitoring (listening to but not recording ) telephone interviews for the purpose of quality control where interviewers have been informed that such monitoring takes place.


Designing the data collection process

•B14 Members must take reasonable steps to ensure all of the following:•that the data collection process is fit for purpose and

Clients have been advised accordingly;

•that the design and content of the data collection process or instrument is appropriate for the audience being researched;

•that Respondents are able to provide information in a way that reflects the view they want to express, including don’t know/ prefer not to say where appropriate;

•that Respondents are not led towards a particular point of view;

•that responses are capable of being interpreted in an unambiguous way;

•that personal data collected are relevant and not excessive.

Section B – Expansion of Rule B20•B20 Calls for face to face in home

interviews and calls to household landline telephone numbers or mobile telephone numbers (including text messages) must not be made before 9am Monday to Saturday, 10am Sunday or after 9pm any day, unless by appointment.

•Comment: The only exception to this is where local rules and customs differ from UK practice.

Section B – New Rule on Incentives

•Incentive: Any benefit offered to respondents to encourage participation in a project.

•B26 Client goods or services, or vouchers to purchase client goods or services, must not be used as incentives in a research project.


•Protect customer satisfaction research

•Definition of market research as distinct from marketing

•Agreed with Information Commissioner following introduction of Data Protection Act 1998

•Research does not contain a commercial message nor does it promote the aims and ideals of the client


•Product testing – as before

•Non-client incentives – as before

•Client incentives = promotional exercise

•Legal requirement not just MRS

•Follow other MRS Regulations: Using Research Techniques for Non-Research Purposes

•New MRS draft Guidelines developed to assist practitioners

•As promotional need to screen against client opt-outs, TPS, etc.

Section B – Removal of Exemption for Rule B27

•B27 Consent of a parent or responsible adult (acting in loco parentis) must be obtained before interviewing a child under 16.

Comment: A responsible adult (acting in loco parentis) is an individual who has personal accountability for the well-being of a child, for example, a guardian, teacher, nanny or grandparent. It is not an individual who has a limited or specific responsibility such as a lifeguard, instructor or employer.

Under special circumstances, permission to waive parental consent may be obtained, but only with the prior approval of the MRS Market Research Standards Board.

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Legislation

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Employment Update

•Temporary Agency Worker Directive

•All temporary agency workers will receive equal treatment compared to permanent workers

•basic working and employment conditions

•equal access to collective facilities

•access for agency workers to training both when working on an assignment, and in between assignments

•Currently on hold by the government

•Working Time Directive

•Since April 2009 paid annual leave increased to 5.6 weeks

•EU review? Announcement expected on 24 November

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Employment Update

•Flexible working - changes to the eligibility criteria. Now open to those with:

•a child under 17

•a disabled child who is under 18, and who is in receipt of disability living allowance

•certain adults who require care

Data Protection

•EU review of the Data Protection Directive

•Consultation taking place

•MRS/EFAMRO/ESOMAR submission

•Infringement proceedings against UK interpretation of the Directive

•Greater harmonisation - some of the liberal UK interpretation to be lost?

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Data Protection

•Likely to be changes to the online environment following Review

•Changes already agreed - EU Telecoms Reform

•Communications providers will be obliged to inform the authorities and their customers about security breaches affecting their personal data

•Prior consent for use of cookies51

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Children Update

•Safeguarding Vulnerable Groups Act 2006

•Sets out a new system of vetting and barring persons from working with children and vulnerable adults

•This system is the responsibility of the Independent Safeguarding Authority (ISA) (http://www.isa-gov.org.uk/)

•The ISA scheme is in addition to, and does not replace, current Criminal Record Bureau (CRB) check requirements

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Children Update

•From November 2010 persons in jobs of a specified nature or in a specified location either frequently or intensively will have to be registered with the ISA. This means:

•Researchers who work in schools (either at least once a month or on 3 or more days in a 30 day period) will fall within this scheme

•Other locations such as children’s hospitals, youth offenders’ institutions, and adult prisons are also within the scope of the scheme

•Registration will open in July 2010

Children Update

•The three former barred lists (POCA, POVA and List 99) are being replaced by two new ISA-barred lists

•Employers, local authorities, professional regulators and other bodies have a duty to refer to the ISA, information about individuals working with children or vulnerable adults where they consider them to have caused harm or pose a risk of harm. Referral forms and referral guidance are available.

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Children Update

•It is now a criminal offence for individuals barred by the ISA to work or apply to work with children or vulnerable adults in a wide range of posts

•Roles including most NHS jobs, Prison Service, education and childcare

•Employers face criminal sanctions for knowingly employing a barred individual across a wider range of work

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Future Field Events

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Field Schemes – Field Events

•Field ½ day Legal Seminars

•19 March 2010 - focus on ISA and on safe worker recruitment practices

•Field Conference

•2 one day events planned in July and September 2010

•London and Birmingham

•Themes tbc

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Key Contacts for Field

•IID Cards contact: Anne-Marie Leech [email protected]

•Thank You leaflets, Field Legal seminars contact: John Bizzell [email protected]

•Company Partner Service contact: John Steinitz [email protected]

•MRS Field Conference contact: Hayley Dack [email protected]

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Keep Up To Date!

•Member newsletter - MRS News

•Subscriber e-newsletter - MRS e-news

•MRS website: www.mrs.org.uk

•Member and Company Partner newsletter - Public Affairs and Standards Update

•Codeline: [email protected]

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Final Questions & Close

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Claire HarrisMRBA Update


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Interviewer Quality Control Scheme

23rd Annual General MeetingThank you for coming

Documents

1 / 47 Interviewer Quality Control Scheme 23rd Annual General Meeting 12th November 2009