The importance of user engagement within research and its implementation within the Working Late project

Introduction
User engagement has become a necessary component of contemporary research, references to user engagement are now frequently seen in research funding requirements, e.g. Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC) currently expects applications to specify plans for involving users in the research process (Rickinson, Sebba & Edwards 2011). The Working Late project has a strong focus on user engagement, and by implementing user input at key stages of the research, the benefits of user engagement have been easily identifiable.

Workinglate Project Background

Working Late is a four year collaborative research project addressing practice and policy issues associated with later life working, the project is funded by the New Dynamics of Ageing (NDA) Programme. Working Late project aims to develop and evaluate interventions and design solutions to promote health and quality of working life. The project comprises four interconnected work packages, which are underpinned by a high level of user involvement and utilise a model of continuous (iterative) active engagement with a range of user groups to ensure that all stages of the research are informed by the views, experience and expertise of stakeholders.

Identifying Users
The Working Late project has identified three user groups who contribute to the research via discussion panels: Older Worker Panel includes workers over 50, recently retired and members of an older persons reference group Organisational Expert Panel includes occupational health experts, organisational representatives and trade union representatives Expert Advisory Panel includes employment experts and representatives from relevant agencies

Implementing User Engagement

To ensure a range of user input each user group is involved in the project in the following different ways:

Importance of User Input

User Engagement has been found to be beneficial to research in several areas including; quality, impact and user satisfaction (Hwang & Thorn 1999). The Working Late project has received many benefits from involving users within the research process:

Panel meetings where the project is presented and feedback gained using discussions, focus groups and workshops Bi-annual newsletter to keep them up to date with progress Website, where newsletters and project information is available

Some individual users have been involved on a more practical level as contacts to aid in participant recruitment and in dissemination of our research.

The added perspective and expertise of our user groups New contacts, groups and organisational links to be used in future projects Help with recruitment and dissemination Increased impact of research findings

References
Hwang, M, I., & Thorn, R, G. (1999) The effect of user engagement on system success: A meta-analytical integration of research findings. Information and Management, 35, 4, pp 229-236. Rickinson, M., Sabba, J. & Edwards, A. (2011) Improving Research through User Engagement. Routledge, Oxon.

Ms Lois Kerr L.A.Kerr@lboro.ac.uk www.workinglate.org