Research Manager (Staff Surveys)
Job Description
Salary range: £51,912 - £59,328
Band; Band 3
Job type: Full-time (37.5 hours)
Contract period: Permanent
Reporting to: Head of Survey Coordination
Team: Survey Coordination Centre in the Service Delivery Team
Location: Oxford/hybrid (up to full time from home in line with Picker’s remote and home working policy)
About Picker Institute Europe
Picker is an Oxford-based charity with an international reputation as a key authority in the measurement and improvement of patient experience. Our mission is to make person centred health and social care a reality for everyone.
Our work is focused on measuring, understanding and improving the experiences of patients, service users and staff. To do this we design and run surveys for public and private health and social care organisations, as well as national bodies, voluntary sector and international healthcare providers. We conduct original research to understand people's experiences of care. And we provide training, tools and support to equip organisations to improve services and deliver more person centred care.
Service Delivery Team
The Service Delivery Team provides tools and services that increase peoples’ ability to understand, measure and act upon experiences of care in order to improve its quality. The team works with a wide range of stakeholders, including providers, national bodies, academic institutions, and charities to develop and implement evaluation and improvement programmes that help to deliver person centred care.
The role is situated within the Survey Coordination Centre, which is responsible for managing the design, management and analysis of surveys within the NHS’s national staff and patient survey programmes. The programmes are conducted on behalf of NHS England and the Care Quality Commission respectively, and include a range of large scale and high profile surveys that are typically coordinated centrally but administrated locally by NHS organisations. These surveys are amongst the largest and longest-running of their kind in the world.
Purpose of the role
The Research Manager role is a responsible, demanding, and pivotal position, which offers the opportunity to work at the centre of the NHS Staff Survey Programme within the Survey Coordination Centre. The post holder will be required to ensure programme requirements from design and development to resourcing and implementation are conducted to the highest standard, meeting the needs of NHS England, stakeholders, and beneficiaries across the survey programme.
The post holder will be accountable, responsible, and have the authority for the development and improvement of the standard processes for the NHS Staff Survey Programme. This involves ensuring that the projects are managed efficiently and successfully whilst delivering excellent customer service. Many of the duties and responsibilities of the role will have to be completed to tight deadlines whilst managing uncertainty, particularly from third parties, and the post-holder will need to use their initiative, balanced with a keen sense of the extent of their personal authority.
Duties and responsibilities
Responsible for the programme management, design and delivery of the NHS Staff Survey Programme to the required quality standards and budgets, including:
o Use of project scheduling, resource planning/management and control tools to manage the programme
o Regular use of the same tools to monitor compliance with programme Key Performance Indicators
o Regular use of the same tools to ensure consistent and timely programme delivery and management data, providing well-maintained and accurate reporting to internal and external stakeholders.
o Support the preparation of monthly and annual financial and management data.
Build and maintain relationships with new and existing clients, external stakeholders, partners, and collaborators to ensure the organisation understands its clients’ current and future needs and clients remain up to date with the products and services available, providing professional advice to ensure the successful delivery of the programme
Oversee, with support and input from the Head of Survey Coordination and Head of Data Science, the design and production of analytical outputs.
Analyse and interpret descriptive data and present summary findings to colleagues, clients and stakeholders to enable informed decision making.
Lead the ongoing development, maintenance and improvement of standardised processes and assets to support the effective and timely delivery of the NHS Staff Survey Programme.
Leadership of the NHS Staff Survey Programme team including:
o Tracking the progress and quality of work being performed by colleagues, taking the initiative to tackle and solve issues at the point of identification as appropriate and possible.
o Provide timely and high-quality supervision to those engaged in the delivery of project work, with a particular focus on the Senior Research Associates for each programme ensuring that they understand what is expected, deliver what is required and do so in a way that complies with Picker’s quality assurance processes and behavioural norms.
o This includes ensuring effective training and supervision is deployed for Picker colleagues, temporary workers, freelancers, external partners, etc.
Lead the effective briefing and management of partners at key project stages to ensure the timeliness and quality of their work within agreed budgets.
O Support the Head of Service Delivery, Head of Research, Head of Survey Coordination and the Executive Team in the development and embedding of a client excellence model across Service Delivery.
In conjunction with the Head of Survey Coordination and the Chief Research Officer, develop and implement the strategic direction of the Survey Coordination Centre, pursuing a long-term strategy to maximise impact and business growth, and to build the organisation’s reputation as an expert and thought leader in line with its overarching charitable objectives and mission.
Deputise for the Head of Survey Coordination when necessary.
Lead on, and assist with, the preparation of proposals, tenders and quotations, coordinating input from colleagues as required, ensuring that all documents are accurate and produced to agreed standards and timescales.
Quality assurance of products (including senior review and sign off) in line with the relevant quality requirements of the programme.
Be an escalation point for customer and colleague queries ensuring an effective and timely resolution to queries.
Effectively and accurately communicate relevant summary project information to the wider organisation as and when requested.
General Duties
Contributing to the work of Picker by:
Fully engaging and participating in the achievement of Picker’s aims and objectives.
Advocating new approaches, processes and methods to enhance Picker’s performance.
Promoting the sharing of knowledge and communications across teams within Picker.
O Ensuring compliance with all company policies, internal working practices & external regulatory requirements on data protection and ethical standards (e.g. Quality Assurance Framework, Data Protection Act, UK GDPR, ISO 27001, ISO 27001, ISO 20252, and MRS Code of Conduct).
Other reasonable duties, as requested by line manager.
Person Specification
| Experience, knowledge and understanding | |
| Significant experience of applied quantitative research in social science,market research or similar | E |
| Demonstrable experience in managing complex survey and research projectsinvolving team leadership, alongside the management of a wider range ofinternal and external stakeholders | E |
| Demonstrable experience of managing project timetables, including reviewingcapacity and progress, and amending plans to address changing requirements | E |
| Significant experience of developing and maintaining relationships with clients,external stakeholders, collaborators or partners | E |
| Experience of managing resource and leading a team to enable them tocontribute their skills and experience to work projects in the most timely andeffective way | E |
| Understanding of the principles of confidentiality and data protection | E |
| Experience of budget management | E |
| Experience of managing relationships with subcontractors and/or suppliers | E |
| Experience of providing quality management information to support role andteam success | E |
| Experience of collating information for or writing formal tender documentationor research bids | E |
| Understanding of the principles of corporate governance | D |
| Experience of proof-reading business or research documents | D |
| Experience or knowledge of the health/social care/charity sectors | D |
| Experience of process standardisation methods (e.g. Lean, Six Sigma) | D |
| Skills | |
| Strong quantitative research skills in survey design (including mixed-mode surveys), research methods, and data handling, analysis, and reporting | E |
| Ability to apply innovative thinking to identify how new research methodologiescould be beneficial to the organisation and its clients | E |
| Impeccable customer service skills in a business environment | E |
| Demonstrable leadership skills, with the ability to lead projects through tosuccessful completion | E |
| Excellent oral and written communication skills, using a variety of media andwith arange of internal and external stakeholders | E |
| High levels of IT literacy, especially in Microsoft Word, Excel, PowerPoint,Outlook, and Dynamics | E |
| Ability to demonstrate high levels of attention to detail | E |
| Highly numerate and confident in dealing with quantitative data includingmanagement and financial information | E |
| Ability to work collaboratively at corporate and departmental levels and, wherenecessary, with external suppliers and contacts | E |
| Experience of using any of the following specialist software packages:Qualtrics, Click Up, SPss | D |
| Personal Qualities | |
| Flexible and facilitative working style | E |
| Strong organisational skills with a methodical approach and excellent attentionto detail | E |
| Ability to prioritise multiple demands, and work to deadlines | E |
| Ability to anticipate, analyse, diagnose and deal with problems effectively | E |
| Empathy with Picker and its aims | E |
| Qualifications | |
| Qualified to degree level or equivalent professional experience | E |
E = essential D = desirable
This job description is not contractual and is liable to change over time.
Picker is committed to equality, diversity, and inclusion in all that we do. We welcome applicants from diverse communities and backgrounds and we are a Disability Confident employer.
All roles at Picker require a criminal record check. Picker will not automatically refuse to employ someone with a previous criminal conviction.
For further details, please contact the HR Team by email; hr@pickereurope.ac.uk