About ORC International
Quality Systems
Quality policy
ORC International is committed to delivering the highest quality solutions to meet our clients’ needs. We are dedicated to continually improving and maintaining standards and investing in systems, training and procedures that enable us to constantly improve performance, efficiency and knowledge.
Our quality systems are compliant to and assessed against ISO 9001 and ISO 20252 for all customer research activities and client application software design and support.
Our aim is to continue to achieve extremely high levels of satisfaction for our clients.
Business improvement
To prove our commitment to delivering the highest quality solutions to meet our clients’ needs we have a dedicated quality manager, a quality circle comprised of representatives from all parts of the business and a team of internal auditors to check compliance.
We also use client satisfaction ratings and comments from the ORC International Customer Feedback Monitor (CFM) to review our processes. The CFM is an online quality of service questionnaire, which we ask all of our clients to complete at the point of final invoicing, or at the review period for continuous projects. Completed CFM ratings and comments are fed through to the managing director and project staff on an individual level and compiled at a company and divisional level for wider analysis.
An annual quality review is undertaken by the management executive, following from the quality manager’s report, which includes internal audit reports, external assessments, quality circle recommendations and actions, as well as CFM results and comments. The reviews recommendations seek to make significant business improvements and find smarter ways of working, which fit our clients’ needs more completely.
Quality assurance
All work is conducted to comply with best practice in research quality standards, from conception to output. We have well documented procedures for dealing with all parts of the research process, which are subject to thorough checks and supervision. Our internal procedures are written to the exacting standards of the Interviewer Quality Control Scheme (IQCS) for data collection, ISO 20252 for research activities, and ISO 9001 for all customer research activities and client application software design and support.
These standards are a total quality management initiative, offering a ‘kite-mark’ equivalent assurance to you. As a result of their implementation we have:
- Illustrated our management’s commitment to quality
- Clearly defined individual’s roles and responsibilities
- Designed resource and information systems
- Created an environment of continued improvement
- Implemented dynamic and robust systems for electronic back-up and retrieval of files
- Continually improved by using all projects as learning tools
- Logged our approved suppliers performance
- Ensured that staff training and development is aligned to our business needs and company vision
External auditors visit us twice yearly to ensure that our working practices continue to adhere to the required standards for IQCS, ISO 9001and ISO 20252.
In our September 2007 external surveillance visit, the UKAS accredited auditors commented that:
"…quality management systems continue to be robust and endemic within the culture in all areas seen."
Particular praise was given to our Call Centre operation, with auditors commenting on strictly monitored processes for interviewer recruitment and project management. Call Centre staff training and development were also highlighted as areas of strength.
Professional code of conduct
ORC International operates to a professional code of practice for market research: the MRS Code of Conduct, which is designed to protect the interests of researchers and respondents, ensuring clarity of purpose, minimal intrusion and confidentiality within an ethical framework.
We are also guided by the ICC/ESOMAR International Code of Marketing and Social Research Practice and, with these guidelines and those of the MRS, we aim to achieve the best practice standards across all areas of market research and all methodologies. We have research members in groups covering operations, business research, employee research , ethnic research, local government research and qualitative research, and a number of our researchers are also individually members of the Association for Qualitative Research (AQR).
ORC International has corporate membership to the Association of Survey Computing (ASC), a non-profit organisation, affiliated to the British Computer Society and the International Association for Statistical Computing. It has close working links with the Royal Statistical Society, the Social Research Association and the Market Research Society. In addition, a number our technology practitioners within both our research and survey computing divisions are also individually members of the British Computer Society (BCS), whose object is to promote the study and practice of computing and to advance knowledge of, and education in, IT for the benefit of the public.
Confidentiality
ORC International is registered under, and complies with, the Data Protection Act (DPA) 1998. Our external auditors examine our compliance during our bi-annual surveillance visits.
Data subject access
ORC International will make data available to data subjects, where data is held in an identifiable format and where that information is in a relevant filing system and will not identify any other natural living individual. A nominal fee may be applied for such requests and we aim to provide personal data to data subjects within 30 days.
Freedom of Information Act
All of our tender responses, quotes, proposals and related documents contain trade secrets and, as such, are classified by the act as “exempt information” in the event that any third party were to request a public authority to disclose them.
Investors in People accreditation
Investors in People (IiP) is a national standard awarded to organisations that place the development of staff at the heart of their business strategy. It is based on the view that organisations that train and develop their staff are the best equipped for success. We achieved accreditation for this important standard in 2000 and received highly positive feedback in the following areas:
- Communication
- Our appraisal process
- Strong management support
- Use of the annual employee survey
Click here for more information about our Investors in People Accreditation
For further information, please contact our business quality and process manager on 020 7675 1101 or by e-mail: quality4@orc.co.uk
