Employment Agencies

Employment agencies can be a good source of some types of participants.

There are temporary and employment agencies for almost every position in the work force, from file clerk to programmers to system analysts.

If you would like to conduct international usability tests but are unable to travel to other countries, employment agencies might be able to assist you in finding people who have been in your country for a very short tune and have not completely assimilated yet. While having them in your study is not the same as testing in their home country, you can get some useful data by using foreign nationals from the target country. (For a d.scuss.on abou whether geography matters, see the section "Testing in Multiple Geograph.c

Locations" in Chapter 6.)

Pricing varies by location in the country and of course, by the s i the person you require. Expect to Pay for end users at an hourly "'^f includes the agency fee and the person minimum of time, usually 4 hours. Once you establish a relationship agency and use them on an ongoing basis, you can negotiate both the hourly

rate and the minimum time required for people.

Because agencies are used to placing people in jobs, some training may be necessary to help the person or agency you are working with to understand what you need. Be clear about what you are doing and what your needs are. 

Do not expect the agency to understand the discipline of usability testing. Having explained usability testing to a number of different agencies, we have had mixed results. We try to keep it very simple. Simplicity and brevity are also important, so that the agency cannot inadvertently describe the testing procedure to potential candidates. In short, tell agencies only as much as they need to know to acquire the right participants and no more.

Ln addition to the screening questionnaire that you give the agencies to use, give them a written description of the exact way in which you would like your study described to potential candidates. Ask them to read your description verbatim. Keep it simple, keep it short, and, if necessary, keep it vague, such as, "We're conducting research." Personally, we do not even like to use terms such as "We'll be looking at ease of use." We prefer to fill in the participant about the exact nature of the research once he or she arrives.

One last point. It may be necessary (and advantageous) for you to go through vour own human resources department in working with temporary agencies. Some companies prohibit their employees from contacting agencies directly. If that is the case, spend some time to educate the HR person who will work the agencies on all the potential pitfalls mentioned previously.