Job Details
Employment type: Full-time
Hours of work: Mon - Fri, 9am to 5.00pm
Place of work: Birmingham/remote
Salary: £26,520-£30,000
About M·E·L Research
M·E·L Research is a social research agency, with expertise in research, evaluation and behavioural insights. With 40 years' experience in working for the UK's public services, we have a very strong focus on what we want to achieve as a business.
We believe that all businesses have a duty to be socially responsible to re-invest in society, be active contributors to the local community, and to minimise their environmental impacts. We push for social value – in why we work, how we work and who we work with. Click here to see our recently published Social Value report.
You can read more about what it is like to work at M·E·L Research here.
Our History
Formed in 1985, M·E·L Research has grown steadily to a core in-house team of over 25 research and evaluation staff, plus many more telephone interviewers and external CAPI interviewers and support staff. We are on an exciting growth journey, expanding our research and insights capabilities, enhancing our evaluation services, and embedding our data visualisation tools alongside recognised quality accreditations.
Joining M·E·L Research means becoming part of a confident and forward-looking company, ambitious about the future and committed to broadening the expertise and solutions we offer our clients. At the heart of everything we do is our social purpose: to make a meaningful and lasting difference to society, to the communities we serve, and to our own people.
Why work for us?
As part of our growth strategy, we are looking to appoint a Field Team Manager with a strong focus on the resourcing, coordination, and management of our external team of interviewers and supervisors.
This is an excellent opportunity for an experienced fieldwork Supervisor/Coordinator or Field Project Manager who is ready to take the next step in their career and play a key role in shaping the delivery of high-quality fieldwork across a diverse range of projects.
The successful candidate will receive comprehensive on-the-job training, mentoring, and support from our experienced Fieldwork Operations Manager. There will also be opportunities to attend formal training sessions as required. Ideally, you will come from a market or social research background and bring with you strong project management, people management, customer service, and communication skills. Experience in managing CAPI fieldwork teams is highly desirable, though we also welcome candidates with relevant transferable skills.
In this role, you will be primarily responsible for delivering face-to-face fieldwork, whether CAPI or CASI, either as standalone projects or as part of a blended methodology. You'll also be expected to provide operational support to our in-house CATI team whenever the business dictates where the balance of your support is required. Your role will be to ensure that all projects are delivered to a high standard, on time, and within budget. Much of our work focuses on social research, evaluation, and customer experience, including reputational and satisfaction surveys.
A key part of your role will be to ensure that effective mechanisms and processes are in place to recruit, onboard, train, develop, and retain a high-performing team of CAPI interviewers. Your leadership will be essential in delivering excellent service to both internal and external clients. Success in this role requires a commitment to working in a fast-paced environment, a proactive and supportive leadership style, and the ability to coach and empower interviewers and supervisors to perform at their best. Adaptability, resilience, and a drive for continuous improvement will be crucial to thriving in this dynamic setting.
Benefits
We offer employees a wide range of generous benefits including:
* Flexible working arrangements based around the needs of the employee (such as family commitments/needs/childcare). We are a very family-orientated business and encourage flexible hours and homeworking.
* Provision of employer contributions to Royal London personal pension scheme starting from a 4% contribution and rising to 8% (subject to employee contributions that meet the auto enrolment requirements)
* In addition, paid annual leave allowance of 33 days per annum, including bank holidays (pro-rated for part time hours), and your birthday
* 2 paid volunteer days per year
* Life assurance policy at 3x basic annual salary
* Health cashback medical care scheme and employee benefits scheme inc. retail discounts
* Eligibility for annual company profit and performance bonus scheme dependent on company performance
* Annual pay reviews and cost-of-living pay increases (also subject to the company's financial performance).
About the role
Post: Field Team Manager
Job Location: Mainly remote but will be required to work in the office occasionally
Salary Range: £26,520-£30,000 Depending on experience (37.5 Hours per week) plus potential profit bonus, pension and other benefits
Responsible to: Fieldwork Operations Manager
Responsible for: External face to face interview teams and supervisors.
Special conditions: Occasional need to work longer hours and weekends, plus be available to take calls from field staff on evenings and weekends when problems arise in the field, to ensure projects are delivered on time and to high quality. May need to do site visits, in-field quality checking or accompaniment, or train teams around the country, depending on how we deliver the fieldwork elements.
You will have responsibility for planning and overseeing the delivery of face-to-face fieldwork activities, reporting on progress to M·E·L Research's project managers and occasionally external clients. All work will be conducted in line with Market Research Society codes of conduct and adhered to the GDPR. You must be competent in managing a range of projects at any one time, and in supervising people. Ideally you will have experience in managing teams to deliver targets. Experience in a research fieldwork role is highly desirable.
You will manage projects from start to finish, recruiting and deploying staff, liaising with external supervisors or other fieldwork agencies, arranging for supporting materials to be printed/set up etc., liaising with project managers and clients and reporting weekly on progress towards targets.
Duties
Project management:
* Manage multiple research projects concurrently, ensuring delivery on time, within budget, and to specification.
* Where applicable, collaborate with External Field Supervisors to set and monitor daily and weekly performance targets for interviewers and teams, providing support where needed to meet delivery goals.
* Maintain clear and consistent communication across the business, including twice-weekly updates to project managers on project progress and weekly summaries to external supervisors, highlighting achievements and areas for improvement.
* Oversee all aspects of fieldwork delivery, including sample management, quota achievement, scheduling, and adherence to project timelines. Liaise with project managers to assess quota progress and recommend adjustments or mitigation strategies as needed.
* Utilise the Forsta platform to monitor project performance, interviewer activity and fieldwork quality.
* Ensure quality assurance procedures are followed, addressing any issues promptly, and support the implementation of health and safety protocols for all interviewers.
* Coordinate with the finance team to manage payroll and payments for self-employed interviewers.
* Ensure compliance with quality standards and audit requirements, including those outlined in our QMS, IQCS, and ISO accreditations.
Fieldwork and data processing management:
* Prepare all fieldwork collateral such as IDs, authorisation letters, showcards, setting up of CAPIs etc…
* Arrange for briefing sessions for interview teams, involving project managers and relevant staff
* Brief teams and answer day to day queries
* Delegate and manage work on a daily basis, keeping daily check on targets towards progress
* Deal with any issues reported whilst in the field and escalate where required.
* Handle external calls about projects by members of the public or customers who may have been called/interviewed.
Innovation:
* Identify improvements to our field research processes and work with Field Operations Manager and other senior managers to implement where required
Recruit, train and manage staff:
* Source and recruit new fieldworkers when required
* Train interviewers on MRS standards, how to undertake research, GDPR and any other formal training required
* Provide coaching and mentorship to supervisor/s (line management of junior staff may be required).
Manage quality assurance procedures:
* Manage the quality assurance procedure and undertake any checks on fieldwork activities
* Deal with any performance management issues, including training
* Work closely with Fieldwork Operations Manager to deal with any disciplinary issues
General duties:
* Undertake any other duties that may be needed by the company consistent with the postholder's overall duties, skills and abilities.