Participant Information Sheet – Team leader
The Institute for Employment Studies (IES) has been commissioned to continue the evaluation of the Looking After You Too suite of offers, including a process evaluation of the new Virtual Away Days for teams. The aim of the Virtual Away Days is to provide personal and bespoke coaching sessions, which are tailored by an experienced coach facilitator to meet a team’s specific objectives. IES plans to observe the Away Day process to explore its effectiveness, identify areas for improvement and observe any evidence of early impact. The research findings will be used to make improvements to the Virtual Away Day offer for future teams.
What will the evaluation involve?
We are hoping to observe three teams through the full Virtual Away Days process. This will involve observation at three stages: the initial meeting between the coach and team leader; the two- or four-hour session with the whole team; and the follow-up debrief session between the coach and team leader. The team leader and the team members will all be asked to provide consent to be observed at each stage.
During the observations, following an introduction our researcher will turn off their camera and microphone and will not participate in the sessions. Your experience as a team will not be altered by the IES researcher. The aim of the observation is to evaluate how the away day process works, and while we will capture some top-level details about the content and topic areas discussed, this is not the focus of the observation. This is so that we can understand how effective the process is and where improvements and changes can be made to improve it for future cohorts.
What does taking part involve?
As the team leader, you can nominate yourself and your team to take part in the observations, although you can withdraw consent at any time. Your participation is completely voluntary. At the end of the initial session with the coach, you will be asked if you are still willing for the away day to be observed. You do not have to consent. If you are happy to proceed with the evaluation, you must subsequently check that all of your team members are also happy to be observed. IES will also ask for consent from all participants at the beginning of the away day. If consent is not given by all team members, the observation will not proceed. IES will join and observe the sessions virtually and not interfere with the running of the session.
The observations will not be audio or video recorded. The notes captured by IES researchers will be anonymous, and will not include any personal data, so you and your team will not be identifiable in any of the outputs generated. All research outputs will be managed in line with GDPR legislation. Any documentation that contains personal data will be deleted within 3 months of the end of the evaluation (approx. March 2024).
We will be conducting the observations from mid-July 2023 until we have completed three full teams.
Whom do I contact to take part or to ask questions?
If you are interested in participating in the observation, or if you have any further questions about the research, please contact our research manager, Megan Edwards megan.edwards@employment-studies.co.uk
About IES
IES is an independent, apolitical, international centre of research in employment policy and human resource management issues. IES is a not-for-profit organisation.