During the recruitment process you search for, identify and invite the right individuals to take part in your study. Organisations can do this with the support of a professional recruitment partner or do it themselves if they have the right conditions and resources in place. For those new to recruitment, it sounds like a quite straightforward process. It’s actually a highly demanding and time-consuming task.
Here’s a list of key things to take into account if you’re considering in-house research recruitment for the first time.
Identify relevant characteristics of your participants
Once you know what you want to learn, you should be able to identify the appropriate research methods and the characteristics of the people who are best suited to provide you with relevant information. It’s important to keep a balance. It’s very easy to go too vague (because everyone is your potential customer) or too specific (making it extremely difficult to reach participants). Define your priorities in case you need to adjust any criteria as you recruit. You should review your goals and plan accordingly.
Double-check your ability to contact people
The fact that your organisation has contact information of people that are relevant for your study doesn’t mean that you can use it to invite them to participate. You should always consult with legal experts first to understand if you are allowed to use your customers’ personal data and how.
Define incentives and delivery
Your organisation will benefit from doing research. You need to also consider how your participants should benefit from taking part in it. You can define incentives or compensations if appropriate. If you do, you should know in advance exactly how you’re going to deliver them and set the right expectations.
Identify key gatekeepers and their involvement
There might be people who can facilitate or interfere with your access to potential participants. For instance, there might be account managers, executives or similar roles that are responsible for the relationship with your target group. Many times and for different reasons, we’ve seen these gatekeepers blocking access to certain people or briefing participants if they feel threatened by the project (even if you see no reason for them to). Consider if you need these gatekeepers’ support and if they might perceive any risks or reasons not to cooperate with the project, and how you will deal with that scenario.
Prepare a communication and contact plan
You will have to communicate with your research participants at different times and for different reasons. Depending on your context, you should consider in advance the most appropriate way to communicate. Create a plan and combine different channels and approaches at different times to make it more effective. Craft the communication experience and approach people in the most personalised way you can.
Screen your participants
You need to make sure that the people you invite to the study fit the criteria that will help you meet your research goals. Prepare a set of questions that will help you identify the right participants. You should always ask these questions and document the answers before sending people any formal invitations. This can also help you get a sense of their personality and how interested or engaged they might be in the process.
Prepare for rejection
Unfortunately, it’s quite likely that most people will reject your invitation to take part in your study. Also, some of those who accept your invitation will not turn up. Take this into account in your planning as you might need to invite way more people than your goal. You might need to schedule more sessions than you expect as well.
Define metrics of success and corrective actions
Track and assess recruitment progress. Define metrics to understand how the process is going and where you might be struggling. It can also be a good idea to plan corrective actions if certain goals are not met.
Don’t take shortcuts
Recruitment is a fundamental step in the research process and it can easily (and painfully) become a full-time job when you do it yourself. It’s tempting to take shortcuts and skip steps when things become challenging. But don’t let short-term thinking get in the way. Recruiting the wrong people is extremely detrimental to the quality and relevance of findings and it compromises any decisions where they are used as an input.