New Employee Research Guidelines

The Market Research Society (MRS) has this week announced the launch of new guidelines on Employee Research, aimed at reinforcing The MRS Code of Conduct in this sensitive area of research.

Developed in conjunction with The MRS Employee Research Group (formerly the Human Resource Interest Group), the guidelines are intended to provide comprehensive and up-to-date guidance to everyone involved in the field of employee research.

The new guidelines expand on The MRS' strict Code of Conduct to cover a range of issues fundamental to employee research, including protecting the employer-employee relationship, maintaining staff anonymity, and respecting the workplace culture. Importantly, the guidelines provide directions on new techniques now commonly practised in employee research, in particular online surveying and gathering email responses.

The guidelines emphasise that the key principles of The MRS Code of Conduct - confidentiality, anonymity, honesty, and respect - remain central to conducting employee research. Considerable importance is placed on the need to guarantee transparency at all times, keeping both the employee and the employer informed of the research process, what it involves and what it aims to achieve. In addition to reinforcing The MRS Code of Conduct, the guidelines also reiterate the fact that all personal employee data is covered by the Data Protection Act 1998 and that anyone involved in the research process is also bound by these laws.

Peter Goudge, Director, BPRI and co-author of the guidelines commented, 'While The MRS Code of Conduct provides a thorough grounding in the correct practice of market research in general, employee research is a relatively small but fast growing field which requires full awareness of the latest issues to ensure professional conduct. This is the fundamental drive behind the development of these new guidelines. We wanted to provide researchers working in this delicate area with clear guidance on how to handle situations which they face frequently so they can be sure that they are always working within MRS regulations. Equally, the guidelines will act as a valuable frame of reference for everyone else involved in or with an interest in employee research. In recent years, with the advent of more sophisticated methods of conducting employee research, issues of confidentiality have become more pressing. Conducting surveys via email and through a company's intranet are now accepted forms of employee research, yet there were no specific guidelines explaining what was and was not good practice.'

Peter concluded, 'These guidelines should provide useful clarification for everyone involved in employee research and help to reassure clients and employees in particular that researchers are working to the highest ethical standards.'

Copies of the new Employee Research Guidelines are available on the code and guideline section of The MRS website which can be found at: www.mrs.org.uk

All articles 2006-22 written and edited by Mel Crowther and/or Nick Thomas unless otherwise stated.