Jorge Alarcón Fernández, a Verian Client Manager in Spain, shares his thoughts on the importance of interviewers in understanding citizens and providing evidence that informs public policy challenges. You can read the original blog post in Spanish.
The birth of the social sciences and the objectivity debate
At the end of the 19th century there was an important scientific-philosophical debate about the differences between the traditional pure sciences and the more recent social sciences. Around this time both were beginning their process of academic institutionalisation, for example Émile Durkheim (1858-1917) establishing sociology.
In this debate, the objectivity of the results obtained in social research was mainly questioned since, in contrast to the pure sciences, aspects such as the personality or ideology of the social researcher biased the results of his studies. Undoubtedly, the social sciences were viewed with great suspicion by traditional scientists coming from areas such as mathematics and medicine.
Of course, over time and as this debate evolved, it became clear that research biases were present in both the pure and social sciences, at all their stages. In this sense, Thomas S. Kuhn's 'The Structure of Scientific Revolutions' was a revolutionary publication that came to define science altogether as a 'social construct', i.e. susceptible to the subjectivity and specific interests of a scientific community framed in a political, economic and social context.
As a result of this debate, it is likely that a special focus has been placed on reducing biases as much as possible within the field of social research. The aim of this is generating valid, reliable and representative data of the object of study in question: society in our case.
Verian and the commitment to quality in social research
Of course, for Verian, a leading, independent, global company, specialised in social research and consulting on important projects, quality in research is key. It allows clients to make decisions based on reliable knowledge of what happens in society, thus being able to activate public policies that generate a real benefit for citizens. Of course, it is also the key to our clients' continued trust in us.
A fundamental axis to achieve these high quality thresholds is the commitment of Verian Group and Verian Spain to comply with ISO 9001 and ISO 20252 (the quality standard of the social and market research sector), as well as with the highest ethical and professional standards, always in pursuit of these valid, reliable and representative results.
Verian Spain has a very important challenge added in this sense, which differentiates us from many other companies in our sector. We have a very large personal field work team, equipped with great experience, who are available to clients or projects that require them.
Of course, Verian Spain offers all kinds of quantitative (including telephone and online surveys) and qualitative (focus groups, in-depth interviews, etc.) research alternatives, but we want to focus in this publication specifically on the particularities of personal fieldwork.
The crucial role of the field interviewer
In some of our studies, with this large-scale personal fieldwork methodology, a very large team of professionals can be involved, in excess of 90 or 100 full-time professionals, plus the technical staff more directly in contact with the client, the Operations (back-office) and the bulk of the interviewers in the field.
The interviewers are, ultimately, the professionals who maintain direct contact (often 'cold door') with our object of study, the citizens, trying to get their opinions, attitudes and evaluations, applying questionnaires that mostly last about 20-30 minutes, often are close to an hour and, in some special cases, can exceed 90 minutes! Quality control of their work is therefore essential.
Contrary to what many people may think, the interviewers' job is not to show up at a particular location to survey the first person they come across. If this were the case, our work as a social research firm would not be as valuable.
On the contrary, it is not an easy task at all. Our interviewers must follow very strict protocols during their daily work (based on complex methodological designs), and also undergo continuous training and evaluation processes to ensure that they achieve the highest levels of quality in their work.
Specifically, all interviewers newly arrived at Verian receive initial training, both theoretical and practical, around aspects such as professional ethics, survey protocols, quality processes, supervision. For each study in which they participate, they also receive specific training on its objectives, citizens' eligibility criteria, protocols for contacting households and individuals, and, very importantly, on all the characteristics and internal keys of the questionnaire to be applied. They cannot start working on a study without first having conducted a series of pilot interviews to understand the questionnaire.
In certain studies, interviewers have to go through an evaluation process carried out by the client himself after the initial training. This may include a theoretical exam and practical tests, which approves their participation in the project.
In order to avoid introducing bias during the interview process, our interviewers must at all times follow certain protocols, for example:
- Read the questions and answer options as they are written, without offering interpretations to the interviewee, unless there is a specific instruction to do so
- Maintain a reading rhythm of the questions adapted to the citizen in front of them
- Repeat questions or answer options, verbatim, whenever necessary
- Remain neutral and do not comment on the answers or opinions of the interviewees
- Create empathy and a climate of trust with citizens so that they respond as spontaneously and reliably as possible
They also cannot personally select the individuals to be interviewed (one of the basic keys to good population sampling). There are different working formulas that Verian uses to guarantee the maximum randomness and representativeness of this process, for example:
- Random route tracking for the selection of streets, buildings, homes and, within them, of a resident person
- Postal address samples, provided by the National Institute of Statistics, through a rigorous selection of sampling points in the territory, and the full names of those within each of them to be interviewed, or their address
Likewise, each study is a different world. The normal thing, and this is almost always the case, is that our personal field interviewers apply a structured questionnaire with a majority of closed and pre-coded questions, in the traditional style. However over the years we have had studies in which our field agents have carried out additional tests, for example:
- Cognitive tests on respondents.
- Physical tests to respondents, such as grip strength tests with the use of dynamometers, or spirometry to measure the amount of air inhaled and exhaled and the speed with which it is done.
- Or even going so far as to take dried blood samples!
On the other hand, any person of any social status is susceptible to being interviewed in our fieldwork, especially in those that we carry out 'at home' (the most representative); from people with very low educational levels and/or scarce economic resources, young people, elderly people (sometimes of quite advanced ages, a segment where we have a lot of experience), to people of the highest social and economic status (who also, thanks to the serious protocols of our fieldwork, the quality of our interviewers and, of course, the status of our clients, open the doors of their homes to us to conduct interviews). Of course, in general, no one is waiting for us in their homes with open arms to participate in an interview that can last a while.
With all things considered, can you imagine the difficulties an interviewer goes through in one of these personal field studies? From working in the middle of summer or winter with extreme temperatures trying to get the participation of citizens or having to drive for hours on a road in bad conditions to reach a small town selected for interviews. It is not at all easy.
To ensure the quality of their work, we supervise a significant and representative percentage of the work carried out by each interviewer by telephone or through revisits by field inspectors. During this supervision we check, among other things, that the interview actually took place, where it was conducted, its approximate duration and whether specific survey materials were used.
But there are personal field projects, of enormous methodological relevance and importance for the client, where we supervise and review in depth 100% of the interviews carried out, from the beginning to the end of the questionnaire, including the listening of audios collected during these 'face to face' interviews (logically, in this last aspect, always under the informed consent of the respondents).
Likewise, for each study and on a weekly basis, meetings are held between our technical and operations staff and the interviewers, in order to learn about the difficulties they encounter on a daily basis and try to find solutions and improve their work dynamics. In these meetings, although we try at all times to maintain a serious and technical working atmosphere, sometimes humorous anecdotes are shared, from families who invite them for dinner at the end of an interview or surveys in small villages where their presence can become the news of the month.
A fundamental pillar for Verian Spain
Our field interviewers are one of the keys to Verian Spain's success in this field of large personal survey projects, many of which are of an institutional nature where the methodology is of high importance.
From these lines we want to thank the great work of our team of interviewers (many of them already quite veteran in our company). We would also like to thank the participation of citizens in these studies that contribute every day to form a deep understanding of their attitudes, concerns, demands and experiences, which ultimately help our clients to address and try to solve the challenges of public policy.
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