Where is the research industry still falling short on inclusion?

Make research accessible 
There are accessibility problems across research, from inaccessible survey design to processes that are not inclusive.

Speaking on a panel session to showcase research highlighting the lack of representation of marginalised groups, Christine Hemphill, managing director, Open Inclusion, said: “Research is not very accessible today. We need to do better. We need to create platforms, tools, mindsets and skillsets to make it much easier for everyone to engage [with research] in a really inclusive, accessible way.”

She added: “Humans are remarkably diverse. So, it’s about turning up with a bit of humility and saying: ‘We’re not sure what’s going to work best for you. You are the expert in you – tell us, and we’ll make sure we can adapt this to make it work for you.’ It’s about accessibility both in design upfront but also adapting accessibility to individuals.”

The accessibility problem is not confined to research: Hemphill highlighted findings from Open Inclusion’s study for The Value 500, in which 63% of participants reported that brand communications or advertising content is inaccessible.

Quoting one of the participants from the study’s focus groups, Hemphill said: “Inclusion without accessibility is nothing.”

She added: “Our role as researchers is to create a pipeline between those that know and those that need to know.”

Hemphill said: “If you start at the edges, you get the centre for free, because people are so much more than their individual characteristics; they also have all their other characteristics they bring to the research.”

Value community knowledge
In the first session of the day, Kenny Imafidon, co-founder of ClearView Research, held a fireside chat with registered pharmacist and community researcher Sadia Khan, and Dean Foster, co-founder of Peckham Soup Kitchen, a participant in a recent ClearView research project on health inequalities.

Responding to an audience question on what he has learned from the community research, Imafidon said community knowledge is currently overlooked.

“We’ve learned that knowledge doesn’t start and finish with us. Community knowledge is not considered robust but the people who are doing this on a daily basis are the experts,” said Imafidon.

He added: “As researchers, we have the opportunity to be storytellers and through community research we get the opportunity to tell stories we would otherwise be unable to tell.”

Imafidon also talked about the use of language in research, noting: “We should learn to speak to people in plain English. The desire to sound smart loses people. For us, understanding the importance of simplicity has been really important.”

Don’t let fear win
Discussing the ‘different layers’ required of organisations to build in inclusion, Hemphill acknowledged: “This can feel overwhelming. Fear can take over and then you do nothing.”

However, she urged researchers: “Keep turning up. Stay curious. Stay open and keep co-creating so that we challenge not just who we are speaking to, but how we are speaking to them. Ensure we are not accidentally excluding people, whether it’s accessibility or screeners.”

Speaking on the same session, Risham Nadeem, business director at C Space, talked about the need for researchers to prioritise when it comes to sample, saying: “You need to decide what is important. You have to make trade-offs because ‘perfect people’ don’t exist. Doing something is better than doing nothing or waiting for what ‘perfect’ looks like.”

Maciej Stryjek, head of marketing at The Valuable 500, argued that businesses and brands should be viewing inclusion research as a regular, routine endeavour. He said: “Push everyone to routinely do feedback loops with communities. Assume you’re going to have to research with underprivileged communities as often and as routinely as you test your advertising effectiveness.”

The forgotten issue: class
Independent researchers Annabelle Phillips and Ella Fryer-Smith gave a presentation on the work of the Social Equity Group, which is focused on class and looks to ensure that both the industry and research practices are inclusive. 

The fact that social class is not a protected characteristic has been ‘difficult’, and led to some ‘confusion and rethinking’, explained Phillips. 

Discussing the intentions of the group, Phillips said: “We want to challenge the industry’s bias towards working-class audiences – and we do think there is a big unconscious bias. We tend to think we’re liberal, open and have a good overview of the world, but we can be a bit restrictive to those who may not share those values.

“We think class really suffers. We want to promote the active inclusion of working-class researchers in the industry and celebrate the value working-class people can bring to market research. It’s really important for the industry to be that voice of the world to the world.”

To do this, the group wants to challenge bias through case studies, promote market research as a career across schools, and wants to work with the MRS apprenticeship scheme and also explore pay parity in the sector.

Phillips also raised the issue of incentive parity. “People tend to pay ABs more than DEs to take part in qual. Why are their views any more important?”

The group is conducting a pilot project to define working-class in research, with results expected at the end of June. Fryer-Smith said: “Defining working-class is difficult, to say the least. We want to come up with a more nuanced modern definition of what ‘working-class’ means.”

Regain momentum
The sector has forgotten some of its inclusion lessons in recent years, according to Mark Thorpe, director at Truth.

Speaking in a session to close the conference, Thorpe said: “We have to become better at saying no to the things we don’t want to happen in our industry. We need to ensure everyone is saying ‘no’, not the wonderful fanatics in the room here – EDI is about the benefit of every single person, This is a movement to make workplaces in our sector better for everyone. 

“We also need to be better at saying ‘yes’ to what we want and what we feel is right for a culture to grow, develop and prosper.”

He added: “It feels our industry has decided to forget some of the lessons we’ve learned over the last few years. The reality is none of us can truly breathe freely until all of us can.”

Thorpe urged research businesses to sign the MRS inclusion pledge if they had not already done so. For those who have signed it, he urged employees to hold their leaders to account, saying: “Find out who is responsible for the inclusion pledge within the business, and ask what they plan to do moving forward – and what the timeline is. Signing on the dotted line isn’t enough.”

He said: “Tell them it’s important for you and the business to have clear sight of what progress is being made. My view is things have gone backwards. We need to be shown where progress is happening.”