User researchers (URs) conduct research to understand the needs of people that we are designing services for. URs have several routes to recruit participants. You can explore these further by reading these blog posts about recruitment strategies and managing biases when planning recruitment.
This post explains who recruitment gatekeepers are, how they can assist in recruiting participants, and how to build good relationships with them. We illustrate this with a case study from the Social Work Workforce programme.
Working with gatekeepers
A gatekeeper is a person or organization willing to help recruit research participants when the researcher has no direct access to participants. User researchers identify and approach gatekeepers before seeking support from suppliers of participants. This is factored into planning time. Building relationships with gatekeepers can take longer than other recruitment methods but provide longer term benefits. For example, it can support teams with:
- Creating a list of users interested in taking part in future research
- Developing good rapport with external stakeholders and users
- Improving understanding of users and their communication and accessibility needs
URs access gatekeepers via their department’s networks (e.g. the Department for Education has dedicated teams that liaise with local authorities) or by reaching out to organisations directly.
How to work well with gatekeepers
Gatekeepers may need warming up to government URs due to potential mistrust of government, research fatigue, and because they want to ensure their clients’ safety (e.g. charities who work with people with negative experiences of government). When working with gatekeepers, some things to consider are:
- Research who gatekeepers are to ensure they are the right person or organisation to collaborate with
- Prepare concise communications about who you are and your request
- Check with your team to identify any sensitive information that can't be shared externally
- Agree on an ethical framework and safeguarding plan with gatekeepers to align with their procedures
- Explain to gatekeepers what’s in it for the people you’re trying to reach
- Consider what’s in it for the gatekeepers and plan to give it to them (e.g. research playback)
- Listen to them and feedback to relevant colleagues
- Make sure that you caveat that URs are not decision makers (we report to teams)
- Handle the research operations and admin so gatekeepers don't take on additional work to help recruit.
Case Study: Social Work Workforce URs reaching out to new types of users
Our problem
How can we recruit research participants we haven’t recruited before in a short space of time?
Our team started developing online content to help prospective social workers make informed choices about the right qualifying route. Prospective social workers were a new group of people we hadn’t approached before. We needed to understand their experiences so that we could meet their needs as best as we could.
Our approach
We recruited through organisations who had existing relationships with our target participants. We used three routes: a UR who had previously worked with our users, policy colleagues who linked us with gatekeepers they were collaborating with (e.g., training program suppliers), and course lecturers whose emails were publicly available.
During our initial calls with organisations, we explained that we were government URs, why the research was taking place, who we were looking to speak to, and how long the research phase was. We also stated that participants would be thanked with a financial incentive for their time, respecting their busy lives. We discussed our research ethics, participant consent, and data management.
We knew recruitment communications would be better coming from trusted sources within each organization. To minimise the burden on our gatekeepers, we provided a recruitment email template with a link of expression of interest form. Once gatekeepers sent these emails out, we processed the rest: sign-ups, speaking directly to potential participants, and booking sessions. At the end of the research, we made sure to email gatekeepers to thank them.
Outcome
We met our project timeline from recruitment to research delivery, recruiting and conducting research with 18 users with diverse profiles. This was possible due to the support from our gatekeepers.
In addition to the research sessions, our discussions with gatekeepers helped us learn more about various journeys into qualifying. We also built good rapport with gatekeepers creating opportunities for future collaborations.
Thank you to everyone who helped. We appreciate the support from all participants, colleagues, and gatekeepers.
Contact us:
socialwork.DIGITALRESEARCH@education.gov.uk
Are you a DfE UR?
Please contact the research operations team before reaching out to organisations. They may have existing relationships and can help make sure any panel building or creation of lists aligns with the departmental approach.
Are you part of the social work workforce?
Join our list people interested in taking part in research to improve digital services for the social work workforce:
https://dferesearch.fra1.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_03qTiKhMgXVbVfo
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