80% of employees have observed some discrimination in their current company according to a Kantar Inclusion Index.
Marketing, PR, advertising and market research were the most inclusive sectors according to the study. But there is still work to be done which is why associations such as the MRS, the Insights Association, ESOMAR and QRCA have launched initiatives to address Diversity and Inclusion (D&I) within the research sector.
What are the key issues?
ESOMAR DG, Finn Raben says the conversation divides into two halves: “The first deals with ‘external’ diversity practices in the implementation of research methodologies, such as sampling (frames) and question wording and the second with ‘internal’ practices such as recruitment, public statements and pledges. Various organisations are taking steps in these areas and ESOMAR is keen to align efforts with them.
“The ‘external’ practices are difficult to align internationally as countries have different legal views on these topics, and the recording or registration of related information. Sensitive data, which can include racial or ethnic origin, health records, or sexual orientation may require explicit permission from the data subject to process. For instance, statistical data about ethnicity can only be collected or used in France under very limited circumstances.
“Many jurisdictions outlaw collecting data on LGBTIQ+ and/or religious determination and thus any form of benchmark determination for the creation of a sampling frame or defining quota samples, becomes challenging on an international level.”
“We are very keen to support, highlight and promote national initiatives where this information is available. We plan to dedicate effort and resource to secure a wider information database that will allow us to build a multi-country, regional and ultimately global benchmark of initiatives and activities.”
Kim Smouter, Head of Public Affairs & Professional Standards at ESOMAR, convened a Community Circle discussion on D&I in response to growing interest from researchers trying to understand how the Black Lives Matter movement impacts research in terms of methodology and best practice.
“We wanted to provide a platform to identify key issues, researchers’ needs, what others are doing in this context and what ESOMAR can do to help such as promoting the creation of best practice. Participants wanted to understand the responsibilities that researchers must take on board regarding diversity, what should be more carefully calibrated, and how to be more inclusive and representative in the way we design and conduct research.
“In providing an interface between society and decision makers, researchers have a responsibility to reflect the aspirations of a more diverse society. We must ensure that research teams are sufficiently diverse to understand and tell this story. What can the research community do to be more sensitive to inclusion issues? One path is recruit more minority groups into the profession and ensure they are accepted in an inclusive environment. We could also embrace more participation from the black community by visiting relevant universities to talk about research. Or researchers from different backgrounds could be championed to highlight that we are indeed a diverse sector.”
Manifesto for Opportunity
The MRS (Market Research Society) is tackling the diversity through its CEO pledge – Manifesto for Opportunity. This asks CEOs to make five commitments towards creating safer and more representative workplaces. The pledge includes publishing pay statistics annually, working towards government targets for women and ethnic minorities at board level and improving recruitment practices.
So far 31 companies have signed up and the MRS is aiming for 100 by the end of 2021 to cover the vast majority of companies.
Gender and ethnicity will be covered in the pay statistics, MRS CEO Jane Frost said. “The government is already collecting information about the impact of COVID on people with an ethnic background and we need to look at the ethnic and gender pay gap, as it will be difficult to change without transparency. In the UK there was outrage over pay disparity for women in the BBC which has set a very public precedent. We note however, that this could be more complex for small businesses which are not exposed to government requirements to record pay, as well as countries where collecting or publishing pay data is forbidden.
“Market research has a lot of women at the junior level, but many women drop out and start their own businesses once they have a family because company work practices are inflexible. However, research companies are supposed to represent society and if they do not have flexible work practices, our sector loses a lot of talent leading to a dearth of women at senior leadership levels.”
So, does working towards government targets for the representation of women and minority ethnic groups at senior management level, mean quotas?
According to Frost, its more about improving hiring practices. “Research is a professional service and needs the best people to do the job but we need to push recruitment agencies to put forward a more representative sample in the first stage of recruitment. Companies need to work out a path towards senior levels for people with diverse backgrounds.”
The MRS is also planning to launch an apprenticeship programme to bring in new talent from sources other than the standard university route through which most senior positions are filled. Frost comments “We think apprenticeships will help us to get the broadest talent available whilst ensuring candidates understand the methodology and the statistical basis to uphold standards. This is based on a government-based scheme and we expect to roll it out mid-year.”
Better access
The Insights Association (IA) is also tackling access to research. Its newly established IDEA Council includes 17 people who represent diversity from gender, age, race/ethnicity, geography, LGBQTIA+ all the way through to the profession and the companies they work for such as BET, Microsoft, Accenture as well as QRCA. IA has also partnered with a certified D&I expert.
The Council is structured on four pillars: Inclusion, Diversity, Equity and Access with initiatives that aim to improve the Profession and the people in the industry and the Research. The plan is to do at least one thing within each pillar this year.
According to Melanie Courtright, CEO of the IA, “Access is a top priority. We must ensure that people from diverse backgrounds have access to our industry, our education, and know who we are and what we do.”
The IA plans to create partnerships with historically Black colleges and universities (HBCUs) and other non-predominantly white institutions (PWIs) and colleges, to offer them free membership and access to IA’s information, job board and conferences. IA will also go to senior high schools through its local chapters to broaden the candidate pool and recruit candidates out of college into the industry.
The plan is to work with members and non-members to assess racial/ethnicity and gender/sexual orientation diversity on different levels to benchmark how diverse the profession is. IA will compare this with census and location demographics, to develop ongoing national and local benchmarks to help measure the success of its actions.
IA will also gauge if there is equity in terms of opportunity, career progression and inclusion. Courtright comments “We want to develop pay and organizational diversity and career advancement metrics and benchmarks. We will do an inclusion benchmarking survey to measure where we are and how to move forward. We will ask how included people feel, how inclusive is their workspace, and compare this with the MRS and Kantar benchmarks to see how well the US performs in including diverse people in the conversation.”
The Research
Meanwhile IA is looking at how to ensure truly representative research and mitigate bias within insights and analytics. To do this more education is needed about microcultures and how not to treat racial and ethnic groups as the same.
Courtright remarks “We need to understand how microcultures are distributed across the US and rethink how to sample in a truly representative way, beyond simple national demographics. We will start at the U.S. Census level but aim to build a body of work that teaches researchers about microcultures and representation.
“Our micro-culture expert will help us structure cultural fluency and literacy education covering how to understand the different cultures across the nation as well as each racial segment. For instance, the term preferences for Black, Black American, African-American, BIPOC, etc. even within the Black community is critical to understand. We need to build a common lexicon to help us comprehend different cultures and be alert to words that can turn people off in a survey. We must think about the different political micro cultures and how they impact the way we poll. Even if we have Black or African-Americans in our sample, they might skew to a particular microculture within the Black community.”
Courtright underlines that panels will be impacted. “Requirements for representativeness are set by the clients and panels but we must step up on this. We need to prove that this is worth the increased price point and have data to demonstrate ROI, showing that if clients pay a bit more, they will have a better, more representative data set and improved business impact.
“This could impact survey data collection around quota plans, language and the questions that are asked as well as analytics. Findings will no longer be homogenous but built around micro-cultural groups across the US. If done well, this will reduce survey error throughout the process and research will be more representative of a deeply diverse US population. We are in a learning mode in an evolving area so we will start by building a body of knowledge, with workshops and education which might lead to best practice guidelines.
“The aim is to understand what the total population is and reduce error by giving everyone a chance to participate. This means building long-term engagement with underserved populations such as people with disabilities, or re-engaging those Republicans who do not participate in research because they feel their voice is misunderstood. Segmentation might have to be continually refreshed. We might want to think about differentiating LGBTQIA+ communities, but we will start by tackling race and ethnicity, which is the biggest survey issue. This is a huge area and we will progress faster if we collaborate with others such as WIRe, QRCA and hopefully ESOMAR.”
Compliance
There are opportunities for brands to fill in blind spots between different segments or ethnicities and to shift how that brands represent themselves to embrace differences. For instance, Gillette developed a new product aimed at the Black American market and reached a new customer base.
Clients, however, have concerns that exploring preferences amongst diverse consumers, ethnicities or LGBTQ groups might be complicated due to cultural sensitivities or data privacy or other restrictions in some jurisdictions.
Smouter comments “We are working to understand if there are issues that ESOMAR should cover in ethical or methodological guidance or regulatory issues we should monitor. It might be too early to define best practice but we are exploring where researchers need help in recommendations highlighting the issues and sensitivities so we can engage researchers in this debate.”
ESOMAR‘s Community Circle findings are here: Community Circle: Diversity and Inclusion – On the Road to Best Practices – ESOMAR, the global insights community The next discussion will be in March.
