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IQCS benchmark standards

Our standards were designed to facilitate quality management and have been refined over the years by the operational stakeholders themselves to ensure that working to IQCS standards will most definitely help member companies structure and streamline processes – saving both time and money.

The focus of the Standards is both on ensuring staff are adequately trained, supported and appraised, as well as providing assurance to clients that consistent quality is maintained.

We survey our members annually to continually evaluate the Standards and ensure they are relevant and current. Periodically standards are reviewed to reflect any shifts in working practices, staffing requirements or the impact of new legislation and comments and requests from the membership are taken into consideration for input before draft, amended version is circulated to members for comment.

Feedback from members is that they feel that adoption of the Standards produces positive benefits for staff – facilitating their work, helping them feel more productive and appreciated and that client confidence in IQCS accredited data-collection leads to repeat business.

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Principle 1

Member companies are committed to maintaining and developing all aspects of the quality of their fieldwork.
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Principle 2

User membership is open to everyone who buys IQCS fieldwork and members build on the basic framework of the minimum mandatory standards.
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Principle 3

Standards are comprehensive, clearly defined and actionable; Independent inspections of each field-force cover administration, recruitment, training, appraisal and validation
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Principle 4

Clients can be certain that basic standards of administration and fieldwork are being maintained to an agreed minimum level across all member companies.
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Principle 5

Fieldwork membership is open to everyone in the industry who wants to belong to a scheme, which specifies benchmark fieldwork standards and is willing to be independently audited by an IQCS inspector or as part of the ISO20252 registration
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Principle 6

Scheme run by Council members representing member companies and industry organisations – MRS, MRQSAB and AQR