We’re delighted to announce that despite the problems posed by Coronavirus, during a week when we moved from a Tier 3 restriction to a national lockdown, we were still able to go ahead with our ISO20252 audit.

Remote working proved to be no obstacle when it came to our team providing full accounts of our quality control procedures – meeting both industry regulations in addition to the legal requirements of GDPR and the Data Protection Act 2018.

No doubt Team Acumen will be celebrating in style as soon as it’s safe for them to do so.

If you’d like more information about how our Quality Controls can enhance your research, please contact Liz.Diez@acumenfieldwork.com

Acumen are delighted to confirm that they will be fully endorsing the Recruiter Accreditation Scheme which is due to launch within the next week.

The scheme, which is the first of its kind in the industry, has been developed by the MRS and the AQR in a joint initiative designed to provide a formalised standard for market research recruitment. It will create an industry-wide set of standards – creating quality assurances for anyone involved with procuring the services of recruiters. Additionally it will also provide a path to professional recognition for recruiters, who have frequently been one of the most overlooked parts of research supply chain.

It’s for this reason that Acumen are pledging their support for the scheme. Our ethos has always been to put quality at the heart of  everything we do. In fact it was our very own founder, Julie Fuller, who first raised the notion of a professional qualification for recruiters when she was elected to the AQR board over 5 years ago. Since then it has been continually championed by Acumen, most recently by our Fieldwork Director, Becki Pickering, who has been part of the steering committee overseeing the final stages of the scheme’s development.

Highlighting its importance, Becki said “This is a watershed moment for the market research industry. Recruiters are an essential part of qualitative market research and the scheme will recognise this fact by elevating the work that they do. Not only will it provide a professional qualification but it will also be a resource for anyone who recruits market research participants.”

Underpinning the scheme are a number of modules which cover everything from new and emerging recruitment techniques to best practice around data protection and GDPR compliance. Each module will be delivered via the scheme’s dedicated website and will use videos, quizzes and webinars to deliver the content. There will also be a number of free resources for recruiters, in the form of template documents, in addition to providing a directory of accredited recruiters for clients to use.

Acumen will also be committing to the scheme by using only accredited recruiters for their projects. We hope that by doing this we will enable as many of our suppliers to participate in the scheme, in addition to promoting a best in class ethic with our clients. By collectively committing to this scheme we will, in time, effect real change within the industry; facilitating a quality first approach to all of our qualitative recruitment.

If you would like to know more about the Recruiter Accreditation Scheme or how we can help with your market research projects, you can contact a member of our team by email or by calling 0161 234 9940.

The outbreak of Coronavirus is a rapidly evolving situation which is presenting challenges for people at all levels of society. At Acumen we’ve been working hard to prepare for these and many other adverse situations that can arise and impact the work we do day to day.

Our first priority is always ensuring the safety of our team, the clients who work with us, our partners in the research supply chain and, of course, the public who participate in our many and varied research projects.

We have been listening to the advice provided by the UK Government, the NHS and the World Health Organisation and have responded with a number of measures to help us as the situation evolves.

In terms of our day to day operation it is still very much business as usual at the moment. We are still operating at normal capacity, quoting on projects, organising research, and delivering our usual high level of service every day. In the event that the spread of Coronavirus would impact our ability to work from our office then we have contingencies in place to allow any of our team to work remotely, ensuring there would be no disruption to our services.

We have also implemented a number of measures to the way we’re working in an effort to mitigate the risk posed by Coronavirus to our participants, clients and research partners.

All screening material now includes questions which encourage participants to self-isolate and contact the relevant health authorities if they have either personally visited or been in contact with someone who has visited any of the most severely affected countries in the last 14 days. This is irrespective of whether they are displaying symptoms or not.

For participants who are due to take part in research we have implemented an SMS system to request that; “Given the evolving COVID-19 situation we request that, prior to attending any research, you follow the public health advice relevant to any recent travel you may have completed or symptoms you are experiencing.”

Additionally, we are providing all participants, interviewers and researchers with information on how they can practise good hand hygiene and advising them on how to minimise contact through social distancing and avoiding physical contact.

We have also been in constant communication with the many venues, interviewers and other suppliers that we work with to deliver our research services to ensure that all our following the latest advice on the ways to mitigate the impact of Coronavirus on our industry. Further information can be found via the MRS website here.

The main focus of our business is to plan for all eventualities but if you have any questions about current or future research projects that you would like assistance with then please do not hesitate to get in touch.

The Acumen team are ready to help.

LAST UPDATED: 11/03/2020 – 16:00

At Acumen we’ve always championed the importance of quality assured research services through our work within the industry. Whether that’s through Acumonitor, our bespoke tool for detecting fraudulent participants, or the rigorous standards of our ISO 20252 accreditation.

We’re thrilled to announce that our most recent ISO20252 audit can now be announced and, once again, we have passed with zero discrepancies – meaning that we are fully compliant with the industry standards for all methodologies of market research.

This year’s audit has been led by Liz Diez who took over the role of Head of Compliance & Business Development after working at Acumen as a senior project manager. With her keen eye for detail Liz has been ably leading our teams through the changes brought in by the implementation of the GDPR and ensuring this works to complement our existing ISO20252 accreditation.

With the news that we have passed once again without a single discrepancy we’ll be continuing in our work leading the way in the industry on high quality market research services.