Death to the online survey? Community engagement through online chat

The internet has the potential to remove barriers between policy makers and citizens. However social media can also polarise opinions and drive people further apart.

How do we use online to reach a more diverse set of people while also encouraging a civil debate?

How Victoria listens to citizens

Since 2016, the Victorian government’s Engage Victoria has received over one and a half million visits and 150,000 contributions across 300 consultations.

Though the platform, Victorians have provided input into all sorts of policies. These have ranged from apartment design standards through to helping government better plan for managing bushfires.

The listening tools haven’t changed significantly from traditional models however. About 92% of online consultations on Engage Victoria use a traditional online survey or invite people to upload a formal submission.

The other 8% of consultations have used our interactive mapping tool.

A new way to listen

A recent consultation on Engage Victoria tested a new method of engagement — real time web chats. These are also known as a live conversation.

The Inquiry into the Victorian On-Demand Workforce wanted to hear from people involved in the on-demand sector or ‘gig economy’. They wanted to find out what works in this type of employment arrangement — and what doesn’t.

So Engage Victoria set up a live web chat to invite interested people to speak directly with Natalie James, Chair of the Inquiry.

How this helped us listen

The Inquiry has been talking to people to try to understand:

· are workers in the ‘gig economy’ being paid enough?

· is this work safe?

· are there adequate protections for workers?

The web chat helped people share their stories about working in the gig economy. We may not have heard those voices if we had only invited them to take part via the formal submission process or a roundtable.

Hosting a real time web chat meant that Natalie James could respond directly to people in real time and ask them for more information on particular points.

The live conversation was promoted on the Inquiry’s Engage Victoria page in the week before the event. People were able to sign up to receive an email reminder before the chat opened. It was also promoted across several Victorian government social media accounts.

What happened during the web chat?

This was the first time that Engage Victoria has used the live conversation feature.

At first, we assumed a handful of people might take part but as soon as the conversation opened, the comments came in thick and fast.

To help people feel it was a real time conversation, we decided to use post-moderation. This meant we reviewed comments after they were posted to the forum.

In the end, the conversation was highly civil, and we didn’t need to moderate any comments. Our analysis was that having the conversation on Engage Victoria instead of traditional social media platforms created a space where respectful dialogue could take place. There were close to 100 posts, giving the Inquiry valuable insights into workers’ experiences of the gig economy.

Natalie James said the experience was positive ‘Our On-Demand Workers Conversation achieved some great engagement, with rich information and stories coming through.’

The mix of workers, union and industry participation in the live conversation will help to inform the Inquiry’s final submission to the Minister for Industrial Relations.

Already other government departments and agencies are looking to use the live conversation method more to speak directly with citizens.

Could the traditional online survey finally have met its match?