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Tips from practitioners on how to recruit participants from diverse or minority backgrounds

Here are some questions you should be asking clients before you recruit participants:

About recruitment brief

  • What is currently done?
  • Is this a piece of continuous research, or a new project?
  • Does the data need to be nationally representative (Nat Rep)?
  • If so, what characteristics are being used to determine whether a sample is Nat Rep?
  • What type of research is it? Qualitative vs. quantitative – sample size may impact ability to meet the quota
  • Will clients give you more time to recruit if the recruitment characteristics are challenging?

Recruiting participants

  • How best to recruit the participants requested? Does the client have groups and/or potential participants they already wish to target?
  • Are there community groups and/or interest groups representing those you are trying to reach which you can liaise with to help with recruitment?
  • Can you approach participants who have taken part in research before? For example, does the requirements for participants not to have taken part in any other research in the last 6 months apply?
  • Can you have participants who know each other?
  • Is snowball recruitment acceptable using family and/or community group networks?
  • Do some participants need additional incentives to pay for travel and/or parking to get to venues? For example, if participants have mobility issues.
  • Can participants bring a companion when contributing to research? For example, to help participants with any physical or emotional challenges such as anxiety.

Methodological considerations

  • For online research ask whether there is flexibility in the methodology so as not to exclude people who are less confident online. For example, can tele-depths be offered instead of a Zoom call, or an offline version of a homework task?
  • For in-person research how accessible is the venue, is there step free access, can they provide larger print handouts?
  • For one-to-one interviews establish how many researchers there will be and the gender identity of the researcher(s) to ensure participants are going to be comfortable taking part.

Are there other tips you can add here? I need some practitioner input!

For more detail see: