People
The People pillar covers research roles, capability, community practice, mentoring, wellbeing, collaboration and professional standards.
PEOP-COMM 1.0.0
People operating model
How research roles, accountabilities and community support are designed as part of the research operating system.
PEOP-COMM 1.1.1
Research is a team practice with accountable roles
Research may involve many disciplines, but accountability for method quality, ethics and participant safety must be explicit.
PEOP-COMM 1.1.2
Define research roles and accountabilities
The practice must define the responsibilities, decision rights and escalation routes for researchers, ResearchOps, research leaders, observers, coaches and non-researchers involved in research.
PEOP-COMM 1.1.3
Design support around real operating load
People support should reflect the volume, complexity and risk of research work rather than assuming informal goodwill can absorb coordination, review, coaching and community labour.
PEOP-COMM 1.1.4
Respect invisible operations work
Teams must recognise research coordination, review, coaching, knowledge sharing and participant-care work as real labour that needs time, ownership and credit.
PEOP-COMM 2.0.0
Capability, competence and permission
How people are assessed, supported and authorised to conduct different kinds of research activity.
PEOP-COMM 2.1.1
Match research tasks to competence
People must only lead research activities that are appropriate to their assessed competence, supervision and the risk level of the study.
PEOP-COMM 2.1.2
Record permission for non-researcher activity
Non-researchers may only run research or research-adjacent activity within approved scope, method, participant and data-handling boundaries.
PEOP-COMM 2.1.3
Use capability levels to target support
Capability frameworks should guide coaching, review and supervision needs rather than become a performance label detached from practical research risk.
PEOP-COMM 3.0.0
Community of practice and professional standards
How the research community learns, shares standards and improves practice without relying on performative visibility.
PEOP-COMM 3.1.1
Maintain a community charter
A research community of practice must have a visible charter that defines purpose, membership, contribution norms, decision rights and how standards are updated.
PEOP-COMM 3.1.2
Make research work visible without making people performative
Community activity should share learning, support practice and create trust without rewarding visible performance over careful research work.
PEOP-COMM 3.1.3
Standards should travel through practice
Research standards should be reinforced through critique, examples, coaching, peer review and reusable artefacts, not only stored in documents.
PEOP-COMM 4.0.0
Coaching, mentoring and supervision
How people receive the right level of support before, during and after research work.
PEOP-COMM 4.1.1
Assign supervision for higher-risk research
Researchers or non-researchers leading higher-risk or unfamiliar methods must have a named supervisor, mentor or reviewer before research starts.
PEOP-COMM 4.1.2
Separate coaching from approval
Where possible, distinguish coaching that helps people improve from formal approval decisions, so learners can expose uncertainty without hiding risk.
PEOP-COMM 4.1.3
Give feedback that improves the work
Feedback on research practice must be specific, evidence-based and oriented towards better research decisions, participant care and professional growth.
PEOP-COMM 5.0.0
Research wellbeing and psychological safety
How the operating system protects people doing research from avoidable harm, overload and unsupported exposure to difficult work.
PEOP-COMM 5.1.1
Researcher wellbeing is part of research quality
Research quality depends on people having enough support, time, psychological safety and recovery space to make careful ethical judgements.
PEOP-COMM 5.1.2
Assess researcher risk for difficult work
Research involving trauma, distressing topics, safeguarding, hostility, field risk or intense emotional labour must include a researcher wellbeing and support plan.
PEOP-COMM 5.1.3
Do not normalise overload as commitment
Teams must not treat unsustainable research load, repeated emotional exposure or unpaid community labour as evidence of professionalism.
PEOP-COMM 6.0.0
Collaboration, observers and communication
How people outside the research role engage with research responsibly.
PEOP-COMM 6.1.1
Brief observers before research sessions
Observers must be briefed on participant respect, confidentiality, note-taking boundaries, communication rules and how to raise concerns before attending research.
PEOP-COMM 6.1.2
Use sharebacks to connect learning to decisions
Research communication should help teams understand evidence, limitations and decisions, not only broadcast interesting findings.
PEOP-COMM 6.1.3
Keep participant respect visible to the whole team
Everyone who observes, discusses or uses research must protect participant dignity, confidentiality and context when turning evidence into decisions.
PEOP-COMM 7.0.0
Practice learning and capability planning
How the profession learns from delivery, plans capability and improves the operating system over time.
PEOP-COMM 7.1.1
Review capability gaps on a fixed cycle
Research leadership must review capability gaps, supervision needs, community health and operating load on a fixed cycle and record improvement actions.
PEOP-COMM 7.1.2
Turn repeated support requests into system improvements
Repeated coaching needs, unclear roles, observer issues or community questions should trigger improvements to templates, training, guidance or operating policy.
PEOP-COMM 7.1.3
Good people systems increase research quality and resilience
A mature people system should help research practice stay ethical, skilled, inclusive and sustainable as demand, risk and organisational change increase.
Glossary
- Capability
- The practical ability to plan, run, support, review or use research at a level appropriate to risk and context.
- Community of practice
- A group that helps people share research standards, learning, examples and support across teams.
- Supervision
- Named support and oversight for people doing research work that is unfamiliar, higher risk or beyond their current independent competence.
- Researcher wellbeing
- The conditions, support and workload controls that help people doing research make careful judgements without avoidable harm.
Change history
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2026-07-02
Expanded PEOP-COMM into an end-to-end people lifecycle covering operating model, competence, community, coaching, wellbeing, collaboration and capability planning.