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Tips for the Design and Distribution of a Survey

Family needs

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

Work/family conflicts

The survey should also collect information on how policies at work impact on employees’ family responsibilities. For example, consider asking: “How often have you taken leave to care for a 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 child care emergencies, can reveal the impact of employer policies. Information also can be gathered on how employees’ supervisors handle short-term absences needed for family responsibilities.

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 child care and 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 you 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 should 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 employees have eldercare and/or child care responsibilities.

  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.

The following model survey is designed to elicit not only information on child care and eldercare but also general information about the makeup of the workforce and employees’ opinions about employer-sponsored work/family programs. This information will help the committee gauge support for work/family programs.

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