How Consent Kit contributed towards psychological safety at Culture Shift

Hi Vimla, could you tell us a bit about yourself and the work you’re doing at Culture Shift?

I’m Vimla Appadoo, the Head of Experience at Culture Shift. Culture Shift is building software to make it easier for people who have experienced bullying or harassment at the workplace or as a student to report it and receive support. We’re dedicated to shifting the narrative around bullying and harassment to empower people to report it, and to help organisations better support people who have experienced it.

Our research often covers topics that might be difficult for people to experience and can sometimes be retraumatising for them. It was important for us to give users an easy way to understand their rights and consent. We wanted our research participants to know that they were in control of the process, in a really clear and simple way.

We wanted our research participants to know that they were in control of the process, in a really clear and simple way.

Plus, data security is huge for us. Our software deals with private and confidential data and so does our research. We needed to use software that we could trust to help manage our data and that uses GDPR as a foundation for trust and security for research participants.

When was the moment you realised you needed a better way to manage informed consent?

Our existing methods just weren’t cutting it. We were using free tools before that did the job but confused the conversation. Having a tool that lays out every element of consent you need to consider in a template was a life saver. As a small team, we needed a quick and easy way to get consent with the confidence that we were asking the right questions, in the right way, for the right reason.

Consent Kit was a life saver in speeding up the process and giving the team the confidence that we were ticking all the boxes we needed to, to make our participants feel safe and secure.

We didn’t want to forget to ask something or make it harder for people to take part. Consent Kit was a life saver in speeding up the process and giving the team the confidence that we were ticking all the boxes we needed to, to make our participants feel safe and secure.

How did you find getting everyone to adopt a consistent process for informed consent, with Consent Kit?

We’re a small team so it was easy. We had a single person managing the consent process. We all know that gathering consent and managing it in the right way is the right thing to do - that in itself was the selling point. Letting the team know that Consent Kit protects people and helps them understand what their signing up to in a way that works for them.

How is Consent Kit helping you today? What would you say are the main benefits?

Consent Kit has helped by giving us a single place to manage consent and any data and recordings. It’s a clear and easy way to see what’s going on and to get a lay of the land. The best feature for us has been the GDPR reminders and management - it’s meant that we can make sure we delete and manage our users data in the correct way that won’t infringe their rights.

The simple format, templates and usability have sped up our process. We saved heaps of time from having a tool to manage consent

The simple format, templates and usability have sped up our process. We saved heaps of time from having a tool to manage consent - and doing so in a way that puts the power back with the participant. It’s been great.