Conducting hybrid engagement is essential to most consultation processes. Your community should be able to contribute in various ways, including both online and offline. This may be through your online EngagementHQ tools, in-person workshops, pop-up events, or hard copy submissions.
A problem that often arises with hybrid engagement is how to best consolidate your different data sources so you can cohesively report back to your community. There are two ways to mitigate this.
Plan Complementary Engagement Activities
Step one of the solution is to plan your engagement activities so that you end up with data for similar issues or questions. This could mean:
Use conversation prompts in workshops similar to your forum topics or survey questions.
Asking for long-form submissions using the same description as your stories tool.
Ensuring that any questions asked about the consultation during meetings or events are noted and cross-posted in your Q&A tool, and vice versa.
Print copies of your survey to hand out at libraries, service centers, or events, and ensure that both the online and offline surveys ask the same questions. Please note that you may need to include demographic questions in your hard-copy survey, as respondents may not be in the database.
Merge Your Data
Step two is to merge the data you have collected from the different sources into the same repository. You may choose to use an admin account to enter responses in EngagementHQ. We recommend doing this for hard-copy surveys and questions asked in person. You can also use your admin account to post stories if necessary, but ensure that you have consent to do so and that they stay anonymous.
Another consolidation method is to code your qualitative data for further analysis. For example, identify key themes in online submissions or results from in-person conversations and input the data into an exported text analysis report to help you analyze.
However you plan your engagement and merge your data, remember to report it to your community across all channels. People who only participated offline may not be aware of how you concluded the consultation online; find ways to disseminate your reports both online and offline.