Jumpstart HR Research › Work with us › Sponsored research
Sponsored and Commissioned HR Research
Original benchmark research, fielded and written by us, published under our name with your sponsorship disclosed on it. Your buyers trust it because we are the ones who said it — which only works if you cannot change what we say.
What you can sponsor
Five formats, from a single article to a full market landscape. Larger formats can be sole-sponsored or co-sponsored across a small group of vendors, which changes the economics substantially.
Landscape guide
The widest view of a market — who is in it, how buyers segment it, where it is heading. The format for a vendor who wants to be associated with defining an entire space. Available sole-sponsored or co-sponsored across several vendors.
Category guide
A deep read on one category rather than a whole market. Same structure, tighter scope, faster. Sole or co-sponsored.
Insights report or ebook
Original survey data on a specific question that matters to your buyers, built for distribution. This is the most common starting point and the one that most reliably arms a sales team.
Insights brief
A shorter, faster read on a single finding. Good for testing whether this channel works for you before committing to a full report.
Article or blog post
The smallest way in. Analyst byline, our channels, your sponsorship disclosed.
What comes with a sponsored report
- An original survey of HR and operations leaders, sized to the question. Larger samples support cuts by industry and company size.
- Findings read through our frameworks — B.R.I.D.G.E. for how the category gets bought, the Five Workforces for where the work is heading. Buyers get a benchmark and a readiness lens, not just a chart pack.
- Publication on the research hub, co-branded for your own distribution.
- A co-hosted live webinar, submitted for SHRM recertification credit, recorded for on-demand use, gated or ungated as you prefer.
- A takeaways one-pager and clip kit your sales team can actually lead with.
- Amplification across our owned channels, led by LinkedIn, plus a featured episode of Joey’s HR Lounge.
Twelve to fourteen weeks, start to finish
Scope and survey design
We agree the question, the audience, and the instrument. You see the survey before it goes out.
Field the survey
We recruit and field. You are welcome to help distribute to your own network where the design allows.
Analysis and drafting
We read the data and write. You see findings before publication, including the ones you will not like.
Publish and amplify
Report goes live, webinar runs, clips and one-pager land with your sales team.
What sponsorship does and does not buy
It buys: the study getting made. Your name on it. Input on the question, the audience, and the timing. Co-branding and distribution rights. First look at the findings.
It does not buy: the finding. Data is reported as it comes back. Survey responses are reported in aggregate and no respondent is ever identified to you. The sponsorship is disclosed plainly on the asset, not buried. Full policy here.
Questions sponsors ask
What if the data comes back bad for us?
Then that is what publishes, and we will have told you weeks before launch. In practice this is less catastrophic than it sounds: a report that names a real problem in a category is far more credible, and far more shared, than one that flatters the sponsor. The vendors who handle an inconvenient finding well tend to get the most out of it.
Can we see the findings before publication?
Yes. You get a first look and we will walk you through it. You can correct factual errors about your own company. You cannot change what the data says.
What is the difference between sole and co-sponsorship?
A sole sponsor is the only brand on the asset. Co-sponsorship splits a landscape or category guide across a small group of vendors, which lowers each one’s cost considerably. Co-sponsors do not get to see each other’s input and none of them influence inclusion or findings.
Does sponsoring a guide get us into the guide?
No. Inclusion in a landscape or category guide is editorial and based on relevance to the category. You can sponsor a guide you would have appeared in anyway, and you can appear in one you did not sponsor.
Who owns the data and the report?
We do. You get a license to distribute the co-branded report, quote from it, and use it in sales and marketing. Redistribution or derivative works beyond that get their own license terms, spelled out in the statement of work.
How many respondents will the survey have?
It depends on scope and audience. A focused study typically runs in the low hundreds; a larger program supports a bigger sample with cuts by industry and company size. We agree the target before we field, and we tell you if we miss it.
Do you need our customer list to run the survey?
We welcome sponsors who help extend the reach of the research by sharing the survey with their own customer list. It means their customers are represented in the findings, and the sample travels further than our own panel and network alone. You control the send, and we never gain access to the list itself.
Ask the question nobody has answered yet
Every category has one — the thing everyone repeats and nobody has actually measured. Tell us yours, and we will tell you whether it is researchable and what it would take to go and find out.
Let’s go find out →
Not ready? Brief us first — free and separate.