At Fieldwork, our world-class facilities are run by local presidents who are proactive in the day-to-day operations and play a major role in fostering meaningful relationships. Recently, we had the opportunity to speak with Karyn Picchiotti, President of Fieldwork Chicago-Schaumburg and the National Recruiting Center, about Fieldwork's recruiting methodologies and process.
Q: What has been the most valuable lesson you've learned about market research and client relationship building?
A: I started with Fieldwork when we first opened the doors in Chicago so my lessons have been many over the years. I think the most valuable lesson I've learned is the difference company culture makes in developing successful partnerships. We specialize in recruitment, but the value we bring to projects is founded in the meaningful relationships we create with our clients. For over 35 years, I have had the privilege of being part of a team that is undeniably committed to providing the best experience for our clients and I believe our company culture is critical in achieving that.
Q: What do you believe is one of the biggest factors that determines recruiting success?
A: Providing the right recruits for research projects comes largely from the level of commitment of our team. At Fieldwork, we all focus on cultivating a collaborative work environment. We want our respondents to feel taken care of and of course, we want our clients to feel the same way. But that starts by taking care of each other as co-workers. Success of our daily operations is a natural outcome of this focus. This dedication comes through as we continue to expand our recruiting reach both locally and nationally. Brand managers, insight directors, and moderators continue to choose to partner with us because this attitude of respect is at the core of what we do.
Q: What is the importance of having both local and national recruitment databases?
A: We continually grow both our local and national databases. The big advantages our clients receive are improved efficiency and quality. As both databases are at our fingertips from the beginning of the recruitment process, the lag time between the start and finish is greatly reduced. The wide range of potential respondents available and our unique recruiting tactics to find new ones ultimately allows us to provide informed feedback to set up a project for success.
In addition, having a local and national database allows us to quickly assist other Fieldwork locations with recruiting help. Truly, one of the cornerstones of our success is our commitment to working with each other to meet our clients' needs. Our entire network knows how to communicate and collaborate with one another to get the right respondents for any project, often pooling our resources including multiple phone rooms and expert project managers throughout the country and around the world.
Whether your project is localized or more geographically dispersed, having access to both local and national networks and working together really allows us to find hard-to-reach audiences, especially for projects with more challenging methodologies. Thankfully, because we have a lot of coverage with our nationwide database we can fulfill more client needs directly and gauge feasibility of recruiting quickly.
Q: How do you and your team maintain the databases?
A: We know that without organized databases, finding the right participants for projects would not only prove to be difficult, but also extremely time-consuming. That is why we work tirelessly on updating and improving them. We update information after every touch, append information not found on original records, tag respondents for quality control, and track participation to ensure fresh respondents are selected. A well-maintained database guarantees a higher percentage of screening contacts are legitimate candidates willing and able to provide accurate feedback for quality insights.
Q: What distinguishes how you manage projects?
A: We simplify the day-to-day for our clients by providing a single point of contact to facilitate all of their project details. This includes everything from booking the research venue and recruitment to coordination and processing incentives. All project updates, concerns, and questions are funneled through a single Fieldwork project manager to save time and energy. In this way we maximize the accuracy and efficiently of all project goals.
Once a project is confirmed, the recruitment process begins with a screener briefing between the client and their project manager. This is done to ensure all the qualifications are clear and are fully understood by the recruiting team. The project manager will then offer our clients constructive feedback on any grey areas that may need clarification.
Once the screener is finalized, the project manager begins project setup and initiates targeting potential respondents. After the setup is complete, the project manager proactively reports on progress and passes on any interesting findings from the field especially if a screener needs to be refined or questions arise.
Q: What is the standard recruitment process your team uses to yield high-quality respondents?
A: At Fieldwork, our recruiting is accomplished by a mixture of networking, targeted online prescreen results, social media engagement tactics, and sampling from our databases. This ensures we have a far-reaching network that can provide our clients with the right respondents for their projects.
To ensure quality, we employ a 4-touch process. This process is about going the extra mile for our clients by finding them the perfect recruits through additional communication efforts. Even if respondents are initially discovered through an electronic pre-screen, our team requires a verbal screening as protocol. When respondents pass the initial screener, they are sent follow-up details. Before a study, the selected respondents are called again and validated on key questions one last time before being confirmed to participate. After passing the re-screen, our team calls all selected participants as a final reminder, ensuring high show rates.
Believing in and using this process allows us to consistently deliver only the highest quality recruits to our clients looking for accurate insights from their research. We make it our biggest priority to meticulously hone our recruiting process. Our reputation rests on providing our clients with the absolute best people for consumer insights research.
Q: What do your clients appreciate most about Fieldwork?
A: I listen to client feedback and I'm constantly receiving compliments about our team efforts and positive attitudes. So, when I am asked about what sets Fieldwork apart, I highlight the quality processes we have in place, but no matter how good a system, it is the team that makes it all possible. Quality recruitment is not an individual effort, but rather the product of many combining expert knowledge and collaborating to produce extraordinary results. The process we have created to ensure our clients are receiving only the best care and quality stems directly from our continuous teamwork. Whether it is from our extensive databases, client-focused project management, unique recruiting methods, or ability to meet special project needs, our clients have come to know us by our team's dedication to building relationships and commitment to providing them with the best service possible.
This blog is part of the Fieldwork President interview series. Click here to read what Fieldwork Denver President Nikki Darré had to say about Fieldwork Denver and her thoughts on successful medical research recruiting!
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