ORC International
Encyclopedia
ORC International is a leading market research
agency and the global research operating unit of Opinion Research Corporation
. The company's UK headquarters are located at 186 City Road, Londonadjacent to Silicon Roundabout
, with another office in Manchester
.
ORC International was ranked 13th worldwide and 26th domestically in the 2010 UK Research Industry League Tables published by the Market Research Society. It is consistently a Honomichl Top 50
company - ranking 20th in 2011.
. In 1992, ORC International expanded into the UK with the acquisition of Research by Telephone in London. The company then acquired Gordon Simmons Research Group in 1993, and SIA Group in 1996, the merger being completed in 1998. In 2006, the firm (Opinion Research Corporation) was acquired by Infogroup (formerly InfoUSA) for $134.3m. The company announced its' return to independent status through a partnership and majority investment from Lake Capital
effective 1st July 2011.
for public and private sector organisations at both a local and global level. The company's expertise and service capabilities encompass customer research, employee engagement
research, financial services research, and applications of IT in research and data collection.
, DWP
, MOD
, MOJ, NHS
, and FCO
. ORC International was appointed to conduct the pilot Civil Service Employee Engagement Survey across eleven UK government departments and encompassing some 250,000 civil servants. Following the successful pilot all government departments employing 500,000 people in total, will complete the same survey.
The Civil Service People Survey was launched in October 2009, and is one of the largest employee opinion surveys ever undertaken. The Civil Service People Survey was rolled out across a total of 96 departments, agencies and NDPBs. More than 340,000 people took part in Britain’s largest ever employee engagement survey aimed at improving innovation, efficiency and staff wellbeing in the Civil Service
and customer satisfaction
in a local government context.Linking employee and customer data – a new way forward for local government? identified some key findings: clear associations between staff understanding the goals of the Council and satisfaction levels amongst citizens and increased employee pride in working for the Council shown to have a positive impact on citizen satisfaction.
In 2003, Nationwide Building Society
and ORC International won the financial award in Marketing Magazine’s research awards for their work to develop a mathematical analysis tool that reveals the link between employee commitment, customer satisfaction and business performance. Working alongside the building society’s planning and development team, ORC International uncovered strong links between people management
and its product sales, after analysing data from a mix of HR indicators, a staff attitude survey, sales figures and extensive customer research. This business model
has been used to investigate how research data can be combined with management information and performance measures to gauge their relative impacts.
Recent research by ORC International identified that employees in the global financial services sector are the most engaged. The 2010 Infogroup Perspectives survey explored healthy and sustainable employee engagement on a global scale, defining engaged employees as ones who are advocates for their organisation, committed to staying there in the future and going above and beyond their usual duties to achieve their organisation’s goals. The survey results also identified the UK as the lowest performing country in the area of job security
.
Workers have "optimistic illusions" about their own health, according to 2011 research published by ORC International. Figures from the UK Healthy Workplace Survey reveal that 42% of regular smokers claim to be either healthy or very healthy. Just 17% of smoking employees perceived their lifestyle as an unhealthy one.The survey also found that only 12% consider their lifestyle to be unhealthy or very unhealthy, despite the fact that just 40% engage in at least three hours of exercise per week.
(BIS) in November 2009 to conduct an evaluation of the Companies Act 2006
, to assess
awareness of and compliance with or the adoption of key measures implemented. Overall, over a third of companies disagreed that Company Law had been simplified (34% NET), whilst one fifth of companies agreed indicating that time is needed for the changes to further embed themselves and for benefits to be realised.
In December 2008, the standard VAT
rate was temporarily reduced to 15 per cent; a change that remained in place until January 2010. ORC International was commissioned by HMRC to undertake research with businesses and trade associations to explore the compliance burden and commercial impact of the VAT rate change. The research found that most businesses felt that it had no impact on either their customers (55%) or their organisation (63%).
The UK Health and Safety Executive
(HSE) has contracted ORC International to gather information which will inform the UK's Impact Assessment on possible changes to the Seveso II Directive.
Charging Research conducted by ORC International for the Consumer Council for Water
in 2007-8, found that customers believe metering is the fairest basis for charging for water services. However compulsory metering may be contentious as the research indicated 27% of customers oppose it and only 40% support it.
In 2008 the Civil Aviation Authority
, as part of a large-scale review of the passenger experience at major UK airports commissioned ORC International to interview passengers at Heathrow, Gatwick, Stansted and Manchester Airports. One area that was highlighted as performing poorly against international service standards was customer service and attitude of airport staff.
Research commissioned by St Mungo's in 2007 by ORC International found that by helping 125 homeless clients into proper and stable employment each year could save the economy as much as £5.6 million, or £45,000 per client, per year.
of households in the lowest income group held home contents insurance
compared to over 80 per cent of those with average income.
Research carried out in 2010 by ORC International reveals that one in five intermediaries active in the group pensions market believe they will have fewer customers and earn less as a result of the Retail Distribution Review (RDR).
ORC International was commissioned in 2008 by the Association of British Insurers and the British Bankers Association to undertake research to evaluate consumer reactions to a new 'Assisted Purchase' distribution channel. The research found that while there are clear indications that AP models will promote consumer benefit in terms of encouraging engagement with the financial services
industry, there are challenges which still need to be addressed to reduce potential for consumer detriment.
This research was recognised by the Market Research Society as a finalist in their annual Research Excellence and Effectiveness Awards 2007. The panel commented: "The judges enjoyed this paper because it demonstrated how, with the use of event based online data collection and real time web based reporting, it is possible to take the assessment of hotel guests’ satisfaction to a new level. The judges thought that this was surely the end of the tired little self-administered questionnaires we find lying in our hotel rooms and the start of a fresh new e-approach to assessing customer satisfaction in hotels."
ORC International currently conducts customer satisfaction research in the UK and overseas for restaurant chain Yo! Sushi
. The survey will be fielded in all Yo! Sushi restaurants gauging customer reaction to food, drink, service and the overall restaurant experience.
Arts Council England
has made it faster and easier for organisations who receive funding to submit their annual figures, by launching a new online tool developed by ORC International.
, ISO 9001 and ISO 20252 for all customer research activities and client application software design and support.
ORC International operates to a professional code of practice for market research: the Market Research Society (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. ORC International holds Market Research Society company partner status as well as membership of the European Society for Opinion and Marketing Research
.
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.
Market research
Market research is any organized effort to gather information about markets or customers. It is a very important component of business strategy...
agency and the global research operating unit of Opinion Research Corporation
Opinion Research Corporation
Opinion Research Corporation, based in Princeton, New Jersey, is a demographic, health, and market research company. It was founded in 1938 by Claude Robinson and George Gallup, although Gallup quickly left the firm in 1939....
. The company's UK headquarters are located at 186 City Road, Londonadjacent to Silicon Roundabout
Old Street Roundabout
Old Street Roundabout is located on the boundary of the London Borough of Hackney and the London Borough of Islington, and is an interchange system at the junction of Old Street and City Road...
, with another office in Manchester
Manchester
Manchester is a city and metropolitan borough in Greater Manchester, England. According to the Office for National Statistics, the 2010 mid-year population estimate for Manchester was 498,800. Manchester lies within one of the UK's largest metropolitan areas, the metropolitan county of Greater...
.
ORC International was ranked 13th worldwide and 26th domestically in the 2010 UK Research Industry League Tables published by the Market Research Society. It is consistently a Honomichl Top 50
Honomichl Top 50
The Honomichl Top 50 is an annual compilation of the top 50 revenue-generating marketing research firms operating in the United States. The Honomichl Top 50 is published by the American Marketing Association magazine, Marketing News...
company - ranking 20th in 2011.
History
ORC International was founded in 1938 by Dr. Claude Robinson, a pioneering figure in market researchMarket research
Market research is any organized effort to gather information about markets or customers. It is a very important component of business strategy...
. In 1992, ORC International expanded into the UK with the acquisition of Research by Telephone in London. The company then acquired Gordon Simmons Research Group in 1993, and SIA Group in 1996, the merger being completed in 1998. In 2006, the firm (Opinion Research Corporation) was acquired by Infogroup (formerly InfoUSA) for $134.3m. The company announced its' return to independent status through a partnership and majority investment from Lake Capital
Lake Capital
Lake Capital Partners is a private equity firm focused on growth capital and leveraged buyout investments in lower middle market companies across a range of service businesses...
effective 1st July 2011.
Operations
The company undertakes market researchMarket research
Market research is any organized effort to gather information about markets or customers. It is a very important component of business strategy...
for public and private sector organisations at both a local and global level. The company's expertise and service capabilities encompass customer research, employee engagement
Employee engagement
Employee engagement, also called worker engagement, is a business management concept. An "engaged employee" is one who is fully involved in, and enthusiastic about their work, and thus will act in a way that furthers their organization's interests...
research, financial services research, and applications of IT in research and data collection.
Employee research
ORC International conducts large-scale employee engagement surveys for the main UK central government departments including the Cabinet OfficeCabinet Office
The Cabinet Office is a department of the Government of the United Kingdom responsible for supporting the Prime Minister and Cabinet of the United Kingdom....
, DWP
Department for Work and Pensions
The Department for Work and Pensions is the largest government department in the United Kingdom, created on June 8, 2001 from the merger of the employment part of the Department for Education and Employment and the Department of Social Security and headed by the Secretary of State for Work and...
, MOD
Ministry of Defence (United Kingdom)
The Ministry of Defence is the United Kingdom government department responsible for implementation of government defence policy and is the headquarters of the British Armed Forces....
, MOJ, NHS
National Health Service
The National Health Service is the shared name of three of the four publicly funded healthcare systems in the United Kingdom. They provide a comprehensive range of health services, the vast majority of which are free at the point of use to residents of the United Kingdom...
, and FCO
Foreign and Commonwealth Office
The Foreign and Commonwealth Office, commonly called the Foreign Office or the FCO is a British government department responsible for promoting the interests of the United Kingdom overseas, created in 1968 by merging the Foreign Office and the Commonwealth Office.The head of the FCO is the...
. ORC International was appointed to conduct the pilot Civil Service Employee Engagement Survey across eleven UK government departments and encompassing some 250,000 civil servants. Following the successful pilot all government departments employing 500,000 people in total, will complete the same survey.
The Civil Service People Survey was launched in October 2009, and is one of the largest employee opinion surveys ever undertaken. The Civil Service People Survey was rolled out across a total of 96 departments, agencies and NDPBs. More than 340,000 people took part in Britain’s largest ever employee engagement survey aimed at improving innovation, efficiency and staff wellbeing in the Civil Service
Employee engagement
London Councils the local government association for London, back a recent study by ORC International which found clear associations between employee engagementEmployee engagement
Employee engagement, also called worker engagement, is a business management concept. An "engaged employee" is one who is fully involved in, and enthusiastic about their work, and thus will act in a way that furthers their organization's interests...
and customer satisfaction
Customer satisfaction
Customer satisfaction, a term frequently used in marketing, is a measure of how products and services supplied by a company meet or surpass customer expectation...
in a local government context.Linking employee and customer data – a new way forward for local government? identified some key findings: clear associations between staff understanding the goals of the Council and satisfaction levels amongst citizens and increased employee pride in working for the Council shown to have a positive impact on citizen satisfaction.
In 2003, Nationwide Building Society
Nationwide Building Society
Nationwide Building Society is a British building society, and is the largest in the world. It has its headquarters in Swindon, England, and maintains significant administration centres in Bournemouth and Northampton...
and ORC International won the financial award in Marketing Magazine’s research awards for their work to develop a mathematical analysis tool that reveals the link between employee commitment, customer satisfaction and business performance. Working alongside the building society’s planning and development team, ORC International uncovered strong links between people management
People Management
People Management is the UK's biggest human resources publication with a fortnightly circulation of 128,904...
and its product sales, after analysing data from a mix of HR indicators, a staff attitude survey, sales figures and extensive customer research. This business model
Business model
A business model describes the rationale of how an organization creates, delivers, and captures value...
has been used to investigate how research data can be combined with management information and performance measures to gauge their relative impacts.
Recent research by ORC International identified that employees in the global financial services sector are the most engaged. The 2010 Infogroup Perspectives survey explored healthy and sustainable employee engagement on a global scale, defining engaged employees as ones who are advocates for their organisation, committed to staying there in the future and going above and beyond their usual duties to achieve their organisation’s goals. The survey results also identified the UK as the lowest performing country in the area of job security
Job security
Job security is the probability that an individual will keep his or her job; a job with a high level of job security is such that a person with the job would have a small chance of becoming unemployed.-Factors affecting job security:...
.
Workers have "optimistic illusions" about their own health, according to 2011 research published by ORC International. Figures from the UK Healthy Workplace Survey reveal that 42% of regular smokers claim to be either healthy or very healthy. Just 17% of smoking employees perceived their lifestyle as an unhealthy one.The survey also found that only 12% consider their lifestyle to be unhealthy or very unhealthy, despite the fact that just 40% engage in at least three hours of exercise per week.
Public sector
ORC International was commissioned by the Department for Business, Innovation and SkillsDepartment for Business, Innovation and Skills
The Department for Business, Innovation and Skills is a ministerial department of the United Kingdom Government created on 5 June 2009 by the merger of the Department for Innovation, Universities and Skills and the Department for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform .-Ministers:The BIS...
(BIS) in November 2009 to conduct an evaluation of the Companies Act 2006
Companies Act 2006
The Companies Act 2006 is an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom which forms the primary source of UK company law. It had the distinction of being the longest in British Parliamentary history: with 1,300 sections and covering nearly 700 pages, and containing 16 schedules but it has since...
, to assess
awareness of and compliance with or the adoption of key measures implemented. Overall, over a third of companies disagreed that Company Law had been simplified (34% NET), whilst one fifth of companies agreed indicating that time is needed for the changes to further embed themselves and for benefits to be realised.
In December 2008, the standard VAT
Vat
Vat or VAT may refer to:* A type of container such as a barrel, storage tank, or tub, often constructed of welded sheet stainless steel, and used for holding, storing, and processing liquids such as milk, wine, and beer...
rate was temporarily reduced to 15 per cent; a change that remained in place until January 2010. ORC International was commissioned by HMRC to undertake research with businesses and trade associations to explore the compliance burden and commercial impact of the VAT rate change. The research found that most businesses felt that it had no impact on either their customers (55%) or their organisation (63%).
The UK Health and Safety Executive
Health and Safety Executive
The Health and Safety Executive is a non-departmental public body in the United Kingdom. It is the body responsible for the encouragement, regulation and enforcement of workplace health, safety and welfare, and for research into occupational risks in England and Wales and Scotland...
(HSE) has contracted ORC International to gather information which will inform the UK's Impact Assessment on possible changes to the Seveso II Directive.
Charging Research conducted by ORC International for the Consumer Council for Water
Consumer Council for Water
The Consumer Council for Water is a non-departmental public body that represents water and sewerage consumers in England and Wales. The organisation provides impartial advice and/or advocacy for aggrieved consumers....
in 2007-8, found that customers believe metering is the fairest basis for charging for water services. However compulsory metering may be contentious as the research indicated 27% of customers oppose it and only 40% support it.
In 2008 the Civil Aviation Authority
Civil Aviation Authority
This is a list of national and supra-national civil aviation authorities.-See also:* Air route authority between the United States and the People's Republic of China* National Transportation Safety Board -External links:****...
, as part of a large-scale review of the passenger experience at major UK airports commissioned ORC International to interview passengers at Heathrow, Gatwick, Stansted and Manchester Airports. One area that was highlighted as performing poorly against international service standards was customer service and attitude of airport staff.
Research commissioned by St Mungo's in 2007 by ORC International found that by helping 125 homeless clients into proper and stable employment each year could save the economy as much as £5.6 million, or £45,000 per client, per year.
Financial services
ORC International conducts the annual Customer Impact Survey for all 33 participating brands of the Association of British Insurers Research conducted for the ABI in 2007 found that under halfof households in the lowest income group held home contents insurance
Contents insurance
Contents insurance is insurance that pays for damage to, or loss of, an individual’s personal possessions whilst they are located within that individual’s home...
compared to over 80 per cent of those with average income.
Research carried out in 2010 by ORC International reveals that one in five intermediaries active in the group pensions market believe they will have fewer customers and earn less as a result of the Retail Distribution Review (RDR).
ORC International was commissioned in 2008 by the Association of British Insurers and the British Bankers Association to undertake research to evaluate consumer reactions to a new 'Assisted Purchase' distribution channel. The research found that while there are clear indications that AP models will promote consumer benefit in terms of encouraging engagement with the financial services
Financial services
Financial services refer to services provided by the finance industry. The finance industry encompasses a broad range of organizations that deal with the management of money. Among these organizations are credit unions, banks, credit card companies, insurance companies, consumer finance companies,...
industry, there are challenges which still need to be addressed to reduce potential for consumer detriment.
Customer research
Premier Inn, the UK’s largest and fastest growing hotel chain ‘Guest Recommend’ customer satisfaction survey conducted by ORC International, receives an average of 35,000 responses per month and the feedback provided has revolutionised the way the hotel chain reviews and improves its offering to guests.This research was recognised by the Market Research Society as a finalist in their annual Research Excellence and Effectiveness Awards 2007. The panel commented: "The judges enjoyed this paper because it demonstrated how, with the use of event based online data collection and real time web based reporting, it is possible to take the assessment of hotel guests’ satisfaction to a new level. The judges thought that this was surely the end of the tired little self-administered questionnaires we find lying in our hotel rooms and the start of a fresh new e-approach to assessing customer satisfaction in hotels."
ORC International currently conducts customer satisfaction research in the UK and overseas for restaurant chain Yo! Sushi
Yo! Sushi
YO! Sushi is a British restaurant chain which was started in 1997 and is owned by Quilvest and the YO! Sushi Senior Management team. YO! Sushi specialises in delivering sushi to customers using the Japanese style 'kaiten' conveyor belt method...
. The survey will be fielded in all Yo! Sushi restaurants gauging customer reaction to food, drink, service and the overall restaurant experience.
Applications of IT
ORC International provides Data Management Services including Data Cleaning, Database design and development, Data warehousing and Database evaluation. They have been providing these services for over 15 years in both the public and private sectors.Arts Council England
Arts Council England
Arts Council England was formed in 1994 when the Arts Council of Great Britain was divided into three separate bodies for England, Scotland and Wales. It is a non-departmental public body of the Department of Culture, Media and Sport...
has made it faster and easier for organisations who receive funding to submit their annual figures, by launching a new online tool developed by ORC International.
Telephone data collection
ORC International's call centre in London is one of the largest single-site centres in the UK. The company combines the highest standards in data collection and analysis, in-depth market knowledge and innovation in technology-based research solutions.Quality
ORC International's quality systems are compliant to and assessed against ISO 27001ISO/IEC 27001
ISO/IEC 27001, part of the growing ISO/IEC 27000 family of standards, is an Information Security Management System standard published in October 2005 by the International Organization for Standardization and the International Electrotechnical Commission...
, ISO 9001 and ISO 20252 for all customer research activities and client application software design and support.
ORC International operates to a professional code of practice for market research: the Market Research Society (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. ORC International holds Market Research Society company partner status as well as membership of the European Society for Opinion and Marketing Research
European Society for Opinion and Marketing Research
The European Society for Opinion and Market Research is a world association for market, social and opinion researchers.Founded in 1948, ESOMAR began as a regional association within Europe...
.
ORC International has corporate membership to the Association of Survey Computing (ASC), a non-profit organisation, affiliated to the British Computer Society
British Computer Society
The British Computer Society, is a professional body and a learned society that represents those working in Information Technology in the United Kingdom and internationally...
and the International Association for Statistical Computing
International Association for Statistical Computing
The International Association for Statistical Computing was founded during the 41st Session of the International Statistical Institute in 1977, as a Section of the ISI....
. It has close working links with the Royal Statistical Society
Royal Statistical Society
The Royal Statistical Society is a learned society for statistics and a professional body for statisticians in the UK.-History:It was founded in 1834 as the Statistical Society of London , though a perhaps unrelated London Statistical Society was in existence at least as early as 1824...
, the Social Research Association
Social Research Association
The Social Research Association , founded in 1978, is a British and Irish organisation open to practitioners and researchers interested in all branches of social research. It is a Learned Society member of the UK Academy of Learned Societies for the Social Sciences...
and the Market Research Society.