Quantitative research

01 Tracking customer satisfaction

IT Service Provider

The client needed to better understand its customers' views about the quality of its services, communications and information. It also wanted to develop a benchmark for ongoing, possibly annual, satisfaction surveys . . .

02 Rating ICT user satisfaction

Large Government Department

An Australian Government Department was given a significant budget to upgrade its ICT services and systems, and for the past two years has been surveying users (employees) on a regular basis. Of particular interest has been system availability and responsiveness, help desk support, IT training and how well new IT procurement procedures worked . . .

03 Employee Survey

Large Government-owned Business

A Government-owned Business (GOB) operates a state-wide rail network. In 2002 it introduced a new set of corporate values and behaviours, and made a commitment to generate an employee index of how well the organisation was demonstrating these values. The index is effectively an internal benchmark, and for senior managers became part of their at-risk remuneration packages . . .

04 Workforce retention and professional development

Media Company

The senior executive of a media company wanted to better understand key workforce issues, and identify which changes to working conditions would be acceptable to staff. He also wanted to identify differences between younger and older employees, especially factors which could affect retention . . .

05 Long term study of cancer carers

University Research

The Psychology Department of a metropolitan university was conducting a three year study of cancer carers to determine the problems they encountered . . .

06 Continuous monitoring of employee satisfaction

Engineering Company

A project-based engineering company wished to monitor levels of staff satisfaction during a major engineering project. Because the project involved multiple stages over three years with progressive changes in team members, the company wished to detect any HR problems as soon as they occurred. In this way it could take corrective action immediately to ensure that the project proceeded smoothly . . .


Qualitative research

07 Visitor experience in detention centres

Immigration Department

A government inquiry into detention centres had recommended that improvements be made to the visiting procedures at a number of detention centres. The Department of Immigration and Multicultural Affairs felt it needed a clearer understanding of the issues surrounding visits to centres, and commissioned ASR to assist . . .


Quantitative & qualitative research

08 Client satisfaction

Immigration Department

This government agency interacts with clients and potential clients in Australia and overseas, using a combination of telephone, web, letter, email, and face-to-face contact. The agency wanted to understand how effective its different service channels were and what additional information, if any, its clients needed . . .

09 Proposed merger of two associations

Member Feedback

Two industry associations that shared, in part, a common membership base wanted to investigate the feasibility of merging . . .

10 Citizen portal

Large Government Department

A Commonwealth Government Department coordinates the operation of several large service-delivery agencies. The Department wanted to investigate the public's views on a proposed web portal: a single point which would provide service information and update clients' personal information to many agencies . . .


Specialist research

11 Psychometric research

Team Effectiveness

A company experienced in research and development had developed a questionnaire for measuring the effectiveness of multi-disciplinary scientific teams and knowledge workers. After refining the process with over 4,000 data sets, the company used a robust structural equation model to develop a report which measured the effectiveness of a new team against the normalised model . . .

12 Human resources

360° on the Web

An international HR firm approached ASR to conduct 360° surveys on its behalf. The firm services a large client base throughout Australia and South East Asia. It has developed its own framework for 360° surveys with strict reporting requirements. Each of its clients may vary the content of a questionnaire or report, provided it fits within the standard framework . . .

13 Auditing of local government

Audit Agency

A State Government Auditing Department was engaged in an audit of Local Government Authorities (Councils), to ascertain the range of support services provided to their communities. This was potentially a long questionnaire that posed problems over the web . . .

14 Medical

Pharmaceutical Company

A market research company required a number of surveys to be conducted within the fraternity of medical specialists, general practitioners, nurses and hospital administrators. The purpose of the research was to measure the range, type and brand of drugs being used in certain treatments . . .

15 Medical

Pharmaceutical Manufacturer

On behalf of a pharmaceutical manufacturer, a market research company wanted to collect information from hospital pharmacies on the type and quantity of drugs dispensed to patients with certain types of cancer. The requirement was for a web survey system that could be used within hospital pharmacies to collect and collate data for patients and maintain a full history of drugs dispensed to each patient . . .

16 Survey Manager - quality monitoring

University

A regional university sought a sophisticated survey application that would support its internal research unit. The unit conducts a wide range of surveys on staff and student issues, and assists staff in conducting web surveys for their academic research projects . . .

17 CompTrack - training admin simplified

Government Agency

An Australian Government agency sought a system for booking training which would manage the administration of training for 800 employees. Requirements included notification of courses to employees, managing registrations for internal and external courses, tracking training for each employee and production of training documents, name tags, attendance certificates and training cost reports . . .

18 OnTrack - performance management

Government Agency

The head of a state government agency mandated that all employees use an online performance management system. The project was put out to public tender, and ASR was subsequently invited to customise and install its OnTrack application . . .

19 OnTrack - performance management

Oil Company

A national oil company had been using a Microsoft Word template for its performance management process. Consequently there was no way of monitoring compliance across the company, nor any means of ensuring that the same version of the template was used by all parties and that parties did not edit each other's contribution . . .