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Design and Distribution of a Survey

Survey design

Caregiving needs

The survey should be designed so that the committee gets enough information to make a decision about pursuing an eldercare program. Questions should elicit information about how many employees have eldercare responsibilities and what they are, how they are providing eldercare, how adequate those arrangements are, what problems they are experiencing, what services are lacking, what their eldercare needs are, and their opinions about employer-sponsored work and family programs.

If you have not surveyed employees about their child care needs, you may want to design a comprehensive survey, which would include both child care and eldercare needs. See The AFSCME Building Blocks: A Manual for Child Care for examples of child care questions.

Work/family conflicts

You also want to know how policies at work impact on employees' caregiving responsibilities. For example, consider asking: How often have you taken leave to care for an elderly family member, or had to come in late or leave early? Questions on how employees handle caregiving needs under current employment policies, such as taking an elderly relative to the doctor or handling emergencies, can reveal the impact on an employee's caregiving responsibilities. The employer's sick, personal and family leave policies, for example, will determine how employees address their eldercare emergencies. Information also can be gathered on how employees' supervisors handle short-term absences needed for family responsibilities.

General questions

The following model survey is designed to elicit not only eldercare information, but general information about the makeup of the work force and employees' opinions about employer-sponsored eldercare programs. This information will help the committee gauge support for an eldercare program.

Pretest the Survey

Use a focus group of employees to pretest the survey. First, ask them to fill out the survey. Then ask how long it took to complete the survey, whether the instructions were clear and easy to follow, which questions were confusing and whether all of their concerns were addressed in the survey. Make changes as necessary and prepare to distribute the survey.

Distribution

1. Before distributing the survey, determine which employees should be included. Should you target only those employees who have eldercare needs? How will you make that determination? By age of employee? If the target group is very large, should you survey only a sample? You may want to consult with a survey expert to help make these decisions.
   
   
2. Disseminate information about the upcoming survey at union meetings and in employee newsletters before distributing it so that most interested employees will respond. The survey can be distributed by mail to employees' homes (in which case you would include a stamped, return-addressed envelope), at the worksite either through the supervisor or through the union's steward network, or with employees' paychecks. Mail surveys are much more expensive because of the postage needed to mail and return it.
   
   We suggest that the questionnaire be distributed at work by the union and/or management. Employees should be given time to complete the survey during work hours, and then the survey can be collected or dropped at a convenient location.
   
   
3. If a labor-management committee is conducting the survey, then the cover letter should mention this and should stress that the questionnaire is simply an effort by the committee to determine whether eldercare services are a problem for employees.
   
   
4. Post appropriate follow-up notices in union and management newsletters and make announcements at meetings so that as many questionnaires as possible are returned.
   
   

Analysis of survey results

After the surveys are returned, the committee will need to analyze responses. The AFSCME Women's Rights Department can provide technical assistance on this and other aspects of the survey process.

Follow-up

The committee should prepare a report to employees. The report should summarize the results of the survey and describe the next steps. The committee also should make recommendations for specific proposals, including cost estimates, and funding mechanisms.

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