Terms and conditions  (things you need to know)

Before consenting to take part in the study, please read and understand the information below.   If you decline to take part, thank you for considering our request.

Important things to know  – what will participants be asked to do?

If you take part, you will be asked to answer the online questionnaire (11 questions about e.g. business size and sector, internet use, priorities and obstacles for topics on the website).  We will randomly let half of you onto the website for July, August and September and half on for October only, when the site has had a few months development.  Either way, overall, everyone gets to use the website. Everyone will be asked to complete a second short online questionnaire in September.

Also, if you want the chance of an hours free workplace consultancy to help your business, you can also volunteer to be one of 10 businesses to give extra feedback. This is via two 20 min phone calls (one at the start and end of the study) The questions are about priorities and how useful the site is in practice.  We offer to repay your time with 1 hour advice on workplace health topics, for free, from the workplace expert, Jane Abraham. This will be at the end of the study.

Participation in the phone interviews – 10 people only

If you are one of the 10 to give phone interviews, note that main questions are about your views on the website, your views on the topic areas and ideas for helping put things into practice. However, other specific questions may come up in conversation around these.

This project involves an open-questioning technique where the precise nature of the questions asked have not been determined in advance, but will depend in the way in which the interview develops.

In the event that the line of questioning does develop in such a way that you feel hesitant or uncomfortable, you are reminded of your right to decline to answer any particular question(s) and also that you may withdraw from the project at any stage without any disadvantage to yourself of any kind.

You would still get the workplace consultancy at the end of the project.

Why we are developing the website and evaluating it

The Centre at the University of Exeter is exploring opportunities to interact with local business on things like healthier workforces and on sustainability practices for business, as ways to improve company performance, resilience and growth potential.

To do this The Centre is interested in how technology, including websites, can be used to support businesses in Cornwall. There are over 22,000 small businesses in Cornwall and many with 50 or less employees. This size of business is less likely to have dedicated staff to deal with things like human resources and sustainability and so may be looking for specialist support or resources. The website aims to fulfil this need and help these businesses.  We are interested in what people need and how it should be presented to them to work best.  We will also gauge whether, to some extent, people using a site have experienced a useful effect for their business

Participants required

We want at least 100 owners or directors of small or medium business in Cornwall (with about 5-50 employees) to use and help us evaluate the pilot website. We want another 100 to be our “control group” so that they also complete the online questionnaires but only see the website at the end.  This may help us see how using the website makes a difference to people.

 Why me?

As you run a business of that size in Cornwall, we invite you to take part.

What would the Workplace Consultancy cover?

Jane Abraham, the Centre’s Healthy Workplace Advisor, will offer participants of the study 1 hour of an informal consultation on diagnostics of where improvements could be made within their own workplace to improve the health of their workforce.

Janes background of working for the Dept. for Health, Dept. for Work and Pensions and for the National Advisor for Work and Health on health, work and wellbeing, and as a consultant to employers across a range of sectors, gives her the expertise to help employers pinpoint where they may have problems and identify tailored solutions and improvements that could be made to overcome them.

The overall aim of the consultation is in an advisory and awareness raising capacity which involves:

• Discussing the individual employers issues related to staff sickness absence, managing people and corporate social responsibility. This will enable the employer to ask questions on areas that may concern them regarding staff welfare and managing them effectively
• Based on this discussion and any data that the employer wishes to share on the above i.e. absence recording, policies implemented, turnover and stability of staff, community activity etc. a brief diagnosis will be completed and agreed to identify and prioritise where improvements can be made
• The session will then include active signposting to existing tools and resources that the employer can access at no additional cost to help implement some of the agreed improvements. If specialist support is needed, such as an HR professional, then local providers could be suggested

At no point will either legal or financial advice be given to the participants. If an issue arises they will be signposted towards appropriate professional support for guidance.

The consultation will be entirely confidential and no records will be kept on any data discussed at the meeting or information disclosed.

Any information,  resources or tools that are discussed will be up-to-date and based on good practice guidance.

Payment / Reward

Taking part in the study is voluntary and there are no payments.

Time Commitment

A 5-10 minute questionnaire now and another In September, both online.

Time spent using the site is up to you.

There are brief rating questions built in to the site and feedback options, but these can be skipped.  Sometimes after you log into the site, you will get a brief, mulitchoice question

The whole evaluation only runs from July to October

Can I change my mind and withdraw from the project?

Yes. You are free to change your mind and withdraw at any time, without any disadvantage to yourself.

If you wanted to withdraw and request your data to be destroyed, you can just click the link In the website (Leave the study).  This will trigger an email to you and a hyperlink for you to click (to confirm your request to permanently leave the study and delete all your data). Deletion of records is automated.  If you have given an interview, this data will also be deleted by the researcher and you will not be re-contacted for follow up.

Data and results

All the information we collect is confidential and stored securely and only used for the site development and study to understand what businesses can get from such a website. Only the research team have access to it.

Overall results may be published, but nothing will be individually identifiable. All data online will be made anonymous and securely held.

The website will use browser cookies to track your use of our site. This is so that when you re-visit the site, your log in details are stored.  It will help us watch overall patterns of use for our site testing only.  We will track what is popular and how long people spend.  Please click here to see the cookie policy.

At the end of the study, everyone who has taken part will get a short report on general things we learnt.  This might be interesting to you and is a way to make sure that knowledge is shared.

Disclaimer

The content on our site is provided for general information only. It is not intended to amount to advice on which you should rely. You must obtain professional or specialist advice before taking, or refraining from, any action on the basis of the content on our site. Although we make reasonable efforts to update the information on our site, we make no representations, warranties or guarantees, whether express or implied, that the content on our site is accurate, complete or up-to-date. The University accepts no liability for any reliance which is placed on this website.

Questions or complaints

If you have any questions or feedback about our project, either now or in the future, please feel free to contact:

Professor Lora Fleming

European Centre for the Environment and Human Health

University of Exeter Medical School

Knowledge Spa

RCHT Treliske

Truro

Tel: 01872 258131

Feedback – all comments welcome

During the project, if you have any comments and constructive input, please email any feedback to: j.a.abraham@exeter.ac.uk

thank you