Case Studies

Challenge

Although Housing regularly canvassed tenants’ views, it was mainly done through paper-based or phone surveys and residents meetings. However, the problem the council faced was that people were not filling the questionnaires in and sending them back, resulting in a poor response rate. When gathering views at public meetings, some people were not confident in speaking up, especially if expressing a negative viewpoint about the council as their landlord. Other individuals tended to be overconfident when expressing their concerns and would dominate the discussions and it could become very difficult to get a balanced overall opinion from all residents at the meeting.

Solution

By inviting tenants to open meetings, at which the electronic voting system from Eurosis was used, opinions were gathered instantaneously, thus facilitating the recording of relevant data on important issues. Giving residents a handset each meant that everybody had an equal vote. Should there be any misunderstandings with the questions, the chairperson could resolve these immediately and give further information in real time. Especially useful was the anonymity that the interactive voting system provided. “Tenants were able to vote, in confidence, without fear of sticking their neck out” says Michael Farleigh, Tenant Participation Officer “which obviously meant that the responses were more truthful. It is also really useful getting the results shown on screen immediately which can invoke some interesting discussion, particularly when the results are not what we expected”. Having looked at other systems, the council liked the fact that Turning Point was a simple PowerPoint plug-in with the software sitting on the PowerPoint toolbar, allowing interactive slides to be inserted easily. It meant that training was minimal and more employees could use it as it could be installed on multiple machines. The portability of the audience response system also appealed to the department, as the open meetings were often held in different places across the city. “Especially useful is the “merge session” facility” says Michael, “allowing me to canvass different groups of tenants at different times and then combine the different sessions to give an overall view of the borough.” Michael says, “It has given the tenants greater confidence to speak out, and no one person can dominate the meeting, which occurred previously, before we had the electronic voting system.”

Conclusion

The interactive voting system from Eurosis has “improved the engagement between the council and tenants for the better,” says Michael Farleigh, “While we do not use the electronic voting system at every meeting, residents look forward to using the wireless keypads and it creates a fun atmosphere at meetings. People also like the fact that the results are instantaneous and transparent.” As well as using the audience response system for opinion gathering, the council also run work related quizzes with employees. By using the wireless keypads in this fashion, the council is able to impart information and add a fun element to training. “People always learn better when they don’t realise that they are learning!” says Michael. The reporting function has also made decision-making easier as not only is it straight forward to use, it is also easy to choose reports based on different criteria, such as demographic or team results. In conclusion, Michael says “Since purchasing the TurningPoint system, I have seen some other systems in action, and I know we picked the right one!”

Comment

“[electronic voting is] a great way to gather views of residents and staff in an anonymous and fun way, where no one person can dominate the meeting” Michael Farleigh, Tenant Participation Officer, Southampton City Council