1 Response and cooperation rates for employee Response and - PDF document

nd European Company Survey 2 nd European Company Survey 2 Reduce burden, increase motivation. Reduce burden, increase motivation. • Information on flexibility and social dialogue across EU Main findings of the quality Main findings of the quality Member States and three Candidate Countries (Croatia, nd European assessment of the 2 nd European assessment of the 2 FYROM, Turkey) Company Survey Company Survey • CATI interviews with managers and employee representatives of establishments with 10 or more BLUE-ETS Conference employees (27 160 establishments) Netherlands, 22nd March 2011 • Fieldwork carried out in early 2009 by TNS Infratest Maija Lyly-Yrjänäinen, Gijs van Houten Quality assessment of the survey Quality assessment of the survey The survey does well in relation to many of the criteria The survey does well in relation to many of the criteria • Independent quality assessment carried by Agilis S.A. in Relevance: Survey caters well for stakeholders needs • 2010 Timeliness: First results published only seven months after • finalising the fieldwork • Reviewing the survey processes and output data quality Accessibility and clarity: Aggregate level data is available on the • • Survey output is assessed following the European web, dataset is freely available from UK data archive since Statistical System (ESS) quality standards: September 2010 and publications and datasets are accompanied by methodological information � Relevance Comparability and coherence: Same questions are asked in the • � Accuracy surveyed countries and methodologies are harmonised to the extent � Timeliness and punctuality possible, so far ECS has not been designed to measure trends; � Accessibility and clarity evidence of coherence (or lack of coherence) is not available as � Comparability and coherence Agilis was not able to retrieve comparable data from other sources Aiming at the highest possible accuracy… Aiming at the highest possible accuracy… Response and cooperation rates for managers Response and cooperation rates for managers Sampling errors • � The statistical unit is establishment but registers of establishments are only available in 13 of the 30 countries � In 17 countries sampling was based on company registers and screening interviews had to be carried out to select the establishments Non-sampling errors (coverage, measurement, processing and non- • response) � Rather low response rates for management interviews � Employee representatives are contacted only after interviewing the manager and this results in inherently low response rates for employee representative interviews 1

Response and cooperation rates for employee Response and cooperation rates for employee Measures to support survey response Measures to support survey response representatives representatives • Questionnaire integrates the concerns of European governments, employers and employee representatives and the length of the interview is limited (20 minutes for management and 15 minutes for employee representative interviews) • Introductory letter was used to support participation • Interviewers were well trained to explain the survey’s aims and to arrange the interviews in flexible manner • Fieldwork period was extended as much as possible Were the measures successful? Non- -response bias (1) response bias (1) Were the measures successful? Non • Subjective comparisons of the response rates to survey • Exploratory analysis of structure of weights response in other recent business or company surveys • Binary logistic regression analysis of likelihood for MM � Higher rates than usual in AT, BE, CZ, EL, IE, LV – attributed to provide ER contact details and likelihood of ER to recommendation letter, topic of the survey or specific efforts interview taking place in the fieldwork management � Lower rates than usual in NL and TR – attributed to interaction • Some evidence for overrepresentation of ‘Wholesale and between the topic and economic crisis in the Netherlands and to general distrust in surveys and ambivalent attitude towards the retail’, ‘Real estate’, ‘Transport and Communication’, EU in Turkey ‘Hotels and restaurants’ and ‘Education’ in the sample Non Non- -response bias (2) response bias (2) Some conclusions Some conclusions Improve response rates and data quality by: • • Significant factors contributing to allowing/declining the � Providing explicit methodological guidelines to future contractors, employee representative interview paying specific attention to securing satisfactory response rates. � Advance notification of enterprises by post or by e-mail informing � Economic situation, structural change at the workplace, one or them about the forthcoming survey and highlighting its scope. more types of employee representation, public/private sector, Other less direct avenues: • sector of economic activity, establishment size � To collect more data on non respondents (possibly in the contact • Significant factors contributing to having the employee sheets), allowing for more in-depth and more systematic non-response analysis. representative interview � Exploring the possibilities to reduce respondent burden, by moving to a multi- or mixed mode approach. � One or more types of employee representation, headquarters or � Looking into ways of increasing respondent motivation by providing not, public/private sector, establishment size, sector of economic customised, individual reports on survey findings, showing results for activity, work climate comparable establishments. 2

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