The Anchor Survey takes place once every three years. Pulse Surveys then take place monthly for at least the three years following an Anchor Survey.

The surveys aim to find out about community attitudes towards issues such as but not limited to the effectiveness of the company’s community investment programs, dust, noise, blast vibrations, employment, skills training and development initiatives. The survey also focuses on the nature of the relationship between community members and the company.

Following a brief registration process, the monthly Pulse Surveys should take just 5 minutes to complete. The Anchor Survey is a more detailed survey, taking approximately 20 minutes to complete. The results of the Anchor Survey determine the items included in the Pulse Surveys.

Yes, the surveys can be completed on any device able to access the online survey platform. The survey is rendered according to the screen size of mobile device. Most modern mobile browsers will be compatible with our mobile surveys, which includes: iPhone, iPad and Android phones and tablets, Windows Phone, BlackBerry and more.

Yes, the surveys may be provided to community members in paper format with a self-addressed return envelope to ensure that everyone who would like to participate is able to. If a community member would prefer to answer the survey on the telephone, a Voconiq team member will be happy to arrange a time to do this over the phone.

The survey can be completed on the same device more than once, by design. Our systems are designed to allow multiple entries into the survey from the same computer or device so that multiple people can complete the survey from the same public machines (for example, from the library or other public computers). This is critical to ensure equitable and inclusive access to community members who may not have their own computer or internet (or struggle using such things at home).

However, the issue of multiple survey entries from a single individual potentially skewing the data is something that we take seriously. Our data processing is sophisticated and flags every instance of an additional entry from the same device, as well as flagging similar results from multiple different devices (where, for example, the same individual has completed the survey from multiple different devices). The system alerts us to perform additional checks on these responses (which include both an inspection by a data scientist and via advanced statistical processing). Where multiple responses are deemed to be from the same individual, surplus responses are disregarded and removed from inclusion in the survey results.

In addition, we design our surveys to enable us to provide a deeper insight or understanding of complex issues – the weight of responding or proportion of responses that are supportive of an issue is only one part of the results delivered to the industry(s) that contract us. Of greater interest will often be the average ratings within different groups and how they differ.

Voconiq has a strict ethics framework that protects the rights of research participants. All data are maintained securely, and no personal information or information that would enable identification of individuals is made available to the company or any other party. Participant confidentiality and anonymity are assured. All Voconiq processes comply with or exceed the requirements of the Privacy Act 1988.

Within Voconiq, participant personal information and survey response data are kept physically separate and only accessible by a small number of senior project members. All other parties, including the company in question, receive an aggregated summary of responses by community, not the raw data.

Voconiq will analyse the survey data collected and provide the information back to the communities and to the company in a format that is accessible and useful. The company receives a summary of data collected from the community so they can track how well the operation engages with communities neighbouring their operations.

The aggregated data may be used for the following:

• to identify and understand drivers of trust and acceptance of the operations
• in community engagement activities, and in various company communication materials and reports
• to inform future decisions and activities of industry and policy makers
• to produce reports and scientific papers
• inclusion in a broader program of Voconiq research that aims to understand the relationships between industries and communities at different levels across time.

Companies are committed to use this data to achieve outcomes that matter to your community. The survey data will also inform their community engagement approach, and development within their operation’s region.

Participation is completely voluntary, and participants can stop at any time without any consequence. While retracting data is not possible once results are published, you are free to withdraw your participation at any time, without prejudice, penalty or having to provide a reason for your withdrawal.

This is ok, you can join Local Voices at any time. Voconiq will send a link to the pulse survey that is underway at that time and will continue to send invitations each month until you tell them otherwise.