Hiring, Training, and Retaining Research Staff and Interviewers

This chapter addresses the foundation of all successful field research: the business aspect of conducting field research. The acts of hiring, training, and maintaining an interview pool requires a set of skills that differs dramatically from that of the conceptual work of research. The chapter discusses selecting staffing patterns for full-time, contractual, and part-time workers. Suggestions are made for finding good applicants, checking references, making selections, mounting information systems to track and monitor work, creating institutional access, and training workers. The chapter closes with a discussion of creating positive organizational culture and protecting worker safety.