Figure 5 - available via license: Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International
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Map of greater Sydney, Australia and the surrounding area showing the distance patients travelled to participate in the study. The location of the trial site clinic is shown in green. Patient locations for those recruited by traditional methods are shown in blue, modern methods in red and unknown in yellow. Note that two patients who lived up to 100 km south of the clinic are not displayed on the map.
Source publication
Background
Clinical trial recruitment is challenging for investigators who often overestimate the pool of qualified, willing subjects. Moreover, there is a paucity of literature, particularly in dermatology, regarding recruitment and the comparative success of advertising strategies.
Methods
Both ‘traditional’ (physician referral, newspaper and ra...
Context in source publication
Context 1
... equates to only $351 (16%) more per patient recruited by modern compared with traditional methods. Figure 5 shows the distance patients travelled to take part in the study. Whilst the majority of patients travelled up to 30 km to the trial site clinic, several patients travelled much further, with two patients travelling approximately 100 km to be involved in the trial. ...
Citations
... Paid adverts on Facebook rapidly recruited participants for a total cost of £259.93 (£2.11 per participant). This cost is significantly lower than reported in previous eczema recruitment studies with a total spending of US$10,064 for an online feasibility study [25] and cost per participant of AUD$ 2494 for a single-centre RCT [26]. The latter study reported major challenges in recruitment, despite employing two recruitment agencies for running the social media advertising campaigns. ...
... recruited 123 participants (41.6%) in only 16 days of active recruitment. Enrolment yields in our study were higher in contrast with other dermatology studies that utilised social media to recruit [26,32], and our recruitment duration was relatively short. These findings are consistent with a recent recruitment study, which found that targeted social media campaigns shortened the duration of participant recruitment into an eczema RCT [34]. ...
Background
Participant recruitment into clinical trials remains challenging. The global increase in the number of social media users has accelerated the use of social media as a modality of recruitment, particularly during the COVID-19 pandemic when traditional recruitment methods were reduced. However, there is limited evidence on the performance of social media recruitment strategies into eczema clinical trials.
Methods
From September 2021 to January 2022, we recruited participants with eczema into an online randomised controlled trial using free advertising on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram and Reddit (unpaid methods), followed by paid Facebook advertisements (paid method). Unpaid methods were used periodically for 63 days, whilst the paid method for 16 days. Interested individuals who clicked on the advertisement link were directed to the study website, where they could sign up to participate. Consenting, randomisation and data collection occurred exclusively online, using a database management web platform. Evaluation of the social media recruitment methods was performed, including the number of expression of interests, enrolment yield, cost, baseline characteristics and retention.
Results
Our multi-platform based social media recruitment strategy resulted in 400 expressions of interests, leading to 296 participants. Unpaid methods accounted for 136 (45.9%) of participants, incurring no financial cost. Paid Facebook adverts reached 154,370 individuals, resulting in 123 (41.6%) trial participants for a total cost of £259.93 (£2.11 per participant) and other recruitment methods resulted in 37 (12.5%) enrolments. Paid advertisements predominantly attracted younger participants below the age of 20, whereas unpaid methods mainly drew in participants between 20–29 years of age. The social media platforms recruited an ethnically diverse participant population. Completion rate of follow-up was slightly higher for the paid method (n = 103, 83.7%) compared with the unpaid methods (n = 111, 81.6%).
Conclusions
Unpaid social media posts recruited the most participants; however, it was time consuming for the researcher. Paid Facebook adverts rapidly recruited a large number of participants for a low cost and provided flexibility to target specific audiences. Our findings indicate that social media is an efficient tool that can potentially support recruitment to clinical trials.
Trial registration
ISRCTN45167024. Registered on 29 June 2021.
Purpose
This study aims to develop a talent selection model for learning organizations capable of connecting two groups, candidates in a talent hiring process and managers of the hiring company, in a reliable process, promoting organizational learning and increasing employee satisfaction.
Design/methodology/approach
This paper integrates egalitarian principles, an artificial intelligence mechanism founded on stable matching algorithms, and evaluating critical soft skills to enhance recruitment practices within learning organizations. The authors conduct a numerical real-world application in Python to showcase the model’s effectiveness. Five candidates were evaluated for five job positions. Moreover, 26 soft skills were analyzed by the five company leaders, relating them to the requirements of each job position and by all candidates, as a self-assessment process.
Findings
The model promoted egalitarian talent management because it motivates the candidates to choose the preferred position in a company, and the employers hire the best candidate. It is satisfactory for all participants in a company’s hiring process if the parties intend to be fair and egalitarian. The benefits of the process can be considered isolated (parties’ satisfaction) or a part of a company’s effort to stimulate an egalitarian culture in organizational values.
Practical implications
The information generated by the model is used to refine its selection process and improve its understanding of the job requirements and candidate profiles of the company. The model supports this idea, using the concepts of indifference, stability, egalitarianism and the soft skills required and identified to be more effective and learn about themselves.
Social implications
This paper discusses an egalitarian point of view in the recruitment process. It is satisfactory for all participants in a company’s hiring process if the parties intend to be fair and egalitarian. The process’s benefits can be considered part of a company’s effort to stimulate an egalitarian culture in organizational values.
Originality/value
This paper brings an excellent future perspective and points to the company’s development of talent retention. The model simultaneously solves the evolution of talent management processes through new technologies and soft skills emerging in the postpandemic scenario.
