Wendwell are experts in the design and running of focus groups within organisations and to assess public attitudes. Within organisations focus groups are most commonly used to:
| Identify
work satisfaction and what is impacting on morale |
| Assess
how change is being experienced |
| Seek ideas for improvements |
| |
| Capture organisational learning (see below for examples of how these have been used and focus group trainings) |
Organisations use focus groups with the general public or with specific groups for market research or other gauging of mind-sets, problem solving and for demonstrating that knowing the views of others is important.
Wendwell provides training for Focus Group Leaders and Note Takers and will also support the design of Focus Groups to be run by others. Many people learn the basics of Focus Groups in a one-day training. Focus group work builds on existing skills and extends competencies such as questioning, summarising and working with groups.
We have written our own codes of ethics for employee focus group work and work with the general public. Whereas the relevant guidance of the Market Research Society and British Psychological Society are general our codes are specifically for Focus Groups. A copy of our employee code is available on our free Resource Page, along with our Focus Group Checklist.
Wendwell helps with other approaches to organisational diagnosis and advice on selecting the most appropriate approach. Some alternatives to focus groups are face-to-face or telephone interviews, questionnaires and soft systems / rich picturing. We can help with design of interview schedules and questionnaires and train people in their use.
Examples of Focus Groups and Focus Group Training Supported by Paul Burns
| Identify work satisfaction and what is
impacting on morale - In addition to annual annual employee survey,
quarterly focus groups were held to identify what lay behind results and
monitor responses to management initiatives to improve. |
| Assess
how change is being experienced - Before,
during and after a major change focus groups were held. The first groups
identified how previous changes were viewed. Later groups monitored
perceptions and issues during and after the change programme. The feedback
enabled better positioning of the change and the groups themselves promoted
more positive attitudes towards those leading it. |
| Seek
ideas for improvements - People from different teams were brought
together to identify ideas for improving key processes. The discussions on
how they viewed also each promoted improved cross-function working. |
| Initial
market testing using employees - A manufacturer used employee-only focus
groups to assess likely market responses to drawings and a prototype product
using trusted employees. This assisted design and marketing without risking
the idea being leaked to a competitor. |
| Capture
organisational learning - A company about to launch internal
markets identified managers who had been recruited from business already
using this approach. A wealth of ideas about how to organise internal
markets, promote them to employees and potential pitfall were
identified. |
| Training
for a charity - More feedback was needed on the most effective ways of
raising funds. By training charity staff to run focus groups it was possible
for the charity to undertake this work in a far more cost effective way and
to readily use focus groups to test campaign ideas. |
| Training
for civil servants - A central government department needed more
feedback on its work, how well understood it was and ideas for
improving services. Staff were delighted to have existing skills
acknowledged and to be able to interact more directly with the public. |
| Training
for company A - Human Resource managers trained to run employee focus
groups and helped with design of the focus groups. |
| Training for company A - Focus groups had been agreed as a way of establishing diversity needs and monitoring the impact of the diversity programme. A team was trained to design and run the groups. |