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Last updated: 23 November 2008
Focus Groups can be conducted whether or not the organisation will be using the Engaged Performance® Diagnostic Questionnaire, and if so, before and/or after the Questionnaire.
However, the Focus Group protocol will alter slightly depending on the individual organisational circumstances:
Elements to Consider:
How many people will be invited to each focus group? We recommend 8-12 participants;
When should it be held? Morning or afternoon is best - holding a focus group session around lunch means people may focus on the food, not the discussion;
How long it should last? We suggest approximately 2 hours; and
Where it should be held? This is less important, but all participants should be physically present in the room where at all possible - having individuals participating through a video-conference link adds an odd dimension to the group, as the person on the television can easily become the centre of the discussion.
Design should also include amendment of the Engaged Performance® attributes if required - this should not be undertaken if your organisation will be using the standard Engaged Performance® Diagnostic Questionnaire with Hay Group, because this will affect your ability to link to the Hay Group normative data, and the testing of these amendments with a relevant (HR?) body;
It is also important to consider who will facilitate the session. A focus group should be facilitated by someone with training and experience in facilitation techniques, and should not be facilitated by the line manager of any of the participants. It may be more effective to use an external facilitator, to encourage openness by ensuring that participants are confident that everything will be confidential.
The facilitator should understand the organisation and the organisational priorities, both short and longer term. This will require a briefing session if an external facilitator is used.
If the objective is to obtain an accurate understanding of current staff priorities, they should be individuals who are representative of the population, but are also able to express themselves effectively. 'Representative' means choosing participants who represent:
If only one or two focus groups are to be conducted, they will, through necessity, include employees at all levels within the organisation in the same group. However, if more focus groups are to be conducted, you are likely to get more honest and open responses when the groups comprise individuals at a similar level within the organisation, either in the same or different departments (i.e. horizontal or diagonal selection of participants, rather than vertical).
Depending on the specific issues within your organisation, it may be prudent to consider conducting focus groups that address the issues of specific groups (e.g. women, ethnic-minority employees, part-time employees or employees with disabilities).
If a largish number of focus groups are to be run (or they are to be facilitated by different people), running a pilot session is a sensible approach.
At the beginning of each Focus Group session, the facilitator should make an announcement to the following effect:
'Focus groups like this one allow us to get your honest opinions, without which we would be working with a series of assumptions and anecdotal tales. So, we urge you to speak openly. None of your comments will be attributed to individuals, and all the findings will be compiled without names of attendees.'
The format should be appropriate to your organisation. One possible approach is:
A more detailed outline is available here.
At its simplest, this identifies staff priorities. The use of anonymised quotations is valuable in conveying genuine views effectively.
At the other end of the scale, this could result in a report providing a detailed analysis of the focus groups, plus commentary and recommendations for Priority Actions.
Remember that staff views will not provide the complete picture, because:
This is why some senior team involvement is crucial.
There are two main objectives for conducting Focus Group sessions after the results from the Diagnostic have been fed back to participants:
There will therefore be some differences in Focus Group Design and Selection between pre- and post-diagnostic Focus Groups:
The design will aim to get more information on the specific areas of interest arising from the results, and will depend on your individual Priority Areas. Many of the Action Planning questions will be relevant here also, particularly in the more qualitative areas, particularly Quality of Work, Inspiration/Values and Enabling Environment.
The participants will be representatives of groups who felt particularly strongly about one or more of the Engaged Performance® factors (e.g. women on Work/Life Balance), or target groups (e.g. groups of employees with low retention rates)