Setting up a new field/project office

Finding/setting up a new office would take some time. The best starting point is  to get in touch with colleagues in your office and ask for recommendations for good areas and brokers. In case, you are moving to an altogether new place then get in touch with experienced people in the region. You may reach out to Survey Coordinator in the region to suggest some leads to take this forward.

The general and more acceptable practice is to get a place on lease with proper documentation that is notarized from court. Leasing period is generally 11 months and is extendable, in most cases, but you should check with the land lord. Dealing with broker and landlords can sometime be a hassle so see that you go for a reputed broker. One must get in touch with the A&F to check on any prerequisites and other requirements before finalizing the lease. 

As a thumb rule, no one is allowed to stay in the office. Please ensure that the rue is made pretty clear and is tracked to ensure no one stays in the office and that the office closes down at an appropriate time in the evening. 

Creating a Survey plan 

The first step is to create a survey plan. The survey plan needs to written as you design your questionnaire and make decisions on whether it should be an electronic or a paper survey. You will need to share your survey plan with the people you are working with, especially your managers and PI’s. Give a heads up to the in-house survey operations team and data entry staff so you can make sure your timeline fits their schedule and you have the services/support available.

Your survey plan can work as a running document where you fill details as you figure them out. It should include the following:

Designing and Piloting a Questionnaire: Piloting questionnaires, translation, back translation -Who will be involved at these stages? Where will you pilot the survey? What questions are you specifically trying to answer in piloting your survey - Keep in mind not to go to the actual survey respondents but to find similar people – and how will you analyze the data? PLEASE REVIEW RESEARCH RESOURCES PAGE ON (povertyactionlab.org)

Manpower: Who do you need to hire for surveying and quality control? What are the payment structures for the staff (the latest payment guidelines, check with your Research Manager or reach out to Senior Manager (Research Operations)? When will you hire people?  Plans around training and re-training. 

Time line for data collection: When will piloting the questionnaire happen? When will their training happen? When will surveying start and finish? How does the timeline for data collection relate to the timeline for the intervention? Follow-up surveys?

Logistics: How will you move teams across survey regions?-transportation, distances, whether field staff be based at one location or will keep moving district to district etc. managing equipment how you will you charge, store and secure your devices?

Survey Tracking: How will you stay on top of the progress made in surveying? How will you monitor data collection and keep track of which survey is being checked?

Respondent tracking: What information do you want to collect? How will the tracking work out for surveys and the various module within a survey (if applicable) How will you record secondary information to be able to find respondents in second or third visit? How much time do you devote in this? How do you decide when to drop a respondent? What‘s your replacement plan?

Storage: Where will surveys/electronic devices be stored? Do you need a field office? Please remember that the project research team need to take care of storage during data collection, however, once project closes down and finally wraps up, all physical form that contain PI should be moved to a storage space (get in touch with RO vertical to get your stuff moved to one of the storage spaces). Please see that the cost of packing, transportation and unloading shall be incurred by the project.

Training Surveyors: Where will their training happen and how long will it take? What should be on the training agenda? How will you incorporate as much field training as possible? How many surveyors do you want to recruit?

What equipment and other items do you need to buy: Gifts for respondents, any equipment for taking anthropometric measurements and other survey material (e.g. stationery) for surveyors.

Your time: You are responsible for the whole survey and there are a number of things happening simultaneously that require your attention. It might be a good idea to strategize your field visit to get the most out of it. Make it unpredictable for everyone, target your field visits on various aspects, such as particular team, particular field manager, particular field monitor, particular area etc. 

One should give a lot of emphasis on daily de-briefing of field staff, both in regularity and in quality. The de-briefing sets up the expectations and seriousness for quality and is particularly essential during the first few days of starting the surveys. The objective is to find and iron out sticky points and hurdles that affect quality and efficiency in the field.

Vulnerability of the population: Certain target populations might be more sensitive as compared to others. We might require well trained and sensitized staff to be able to conduct surveys. The reviewing process for each project will provide recommendations based on the vulnerability factor of the population.