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| Contractor | Gallup Europe (Belgium) |
| Coverage | 28 EU Member States plus Iceland, the former Yugoslavian Republic of Macedonia, Montenegro and Turkey |
| Fieldwork period | February to June 2013 |
| Type of survey | Questionnaire-based telephone interviews of management and employee representatives conducted in the national language(s) of the countries surveyed. Average duration of the interviews was 27 minutes for management and 19 minutes employee representatives. |
| Target population | Senior managers in charge of personnel and, where present, official employee representatives in establishments with 10 or more employees in all sectors except those in the NACE Rev. 2 categories A (agriculture, forestry and fishing), T (Activities of the household) and U (Activities of extraterritorial organisation and bodies). |
| Sampling | Procedures differed between countries, depending on the optimal quality sampling frame that was available. Sampling was always stratified by establishment/company size and broad sector of activity (industry vs. services). In countries with an establishment level sampling frame stratified random probability sampling was applied. In countries with a company level sampling frame stratified random probability sampling was applied and subsequently a screening procedure was used to randomly select establishments. Sampling procedures differed for NACE categories O, P and Q due to the unavailability of reliable sampling frames for these sectors of activity. |
| Sample size | The target sample size for the management interviews ranged from 300 in the smallest countries to 1650 in the largest countries. The total number of interviews achieved for the ECS in 2013 was 30,113 management interviews and 9,094 employee representative interviews. |
| Weighting | To allow for appropriate generalisations based on the survey results, the following weights have been constructed for the ECS 2013. |
| Coding | The answers to the open questions to record the establishment’s economic activity were coded according to the Statistical classification of economic activities in the European Community (NACE) Revisions 1.1 and 2.0. |
| Quality assurance and control | Strict quality assurance and control measures were applied. A quality assurance framework was established in advance which covered the survey design and implementation. Following completion of the survey, quality control and external quality assessment were each documented in a report. |
Further information is available in the Technical report.
The sample used in the ECS 2023 aims at a full representation of businesses and other organisations with 10 or more employees in each country covered by the survey. In each country, a multi-stage, stratified random sampling design was used. The sampling approach takes into account the challenges in terms of the coverage criteria and in providing a coherent approach across the countries.
Individual sampling plans were created for each country. In each country the sampling frame was selected to provide the optimal balance between the unit of the entries (which ideally is the establishment), the effective coverage rate and the frequency of updating. Samples were drawn on the national level explicitly stratifying by establishment size (10-49, 50-249 or 250+ employees) and by broad industry sector (production industries, service industries, public services). Due to the absence of information in many countries on the exact allocation of organisations to the public services, 10% of the originally assigned sample was allocated to the public services (NACE Rev 2 categories O, P and Q).
In countries where the optimal quality frame was a company-level frame, stratified multi-stage random sampling without replacement was applied, in which the companies were the Primary Sampling Units (PSUs). The establishments were the Ultimate Sampling Units (USUs) and the final stage of the sampling (establishment selection) was carried out in a screener interview. Stratified simple random sampling without replacement of establishments was adopted in countries for which the optimal quality sampling frame was at the establishment level.
The target sample size for the management interviews ranged from 300 in the smallest countries to 1,650 to the largest countries, reflecting the population of establishments with 10+ employees in the different countries. The total achieved sample was 30,113 management interviews, out of which it
A breakdown of the achieved and target sample sizes by country is available.
The final stage in sampling activity was to identify suitable respondents for the management interview and the employee representative interview.
Respondents for the management interview – the most senior persons at the establishment in charge of personnel - were identified during the screening phase.
Respondents for the employee representative interview were identified in the interview with the management respondent. The designated respondent was a chairman, secretary or spokesperson of the preferred employee representation body. To match the selection procedure with the specificities of structure of official employee representation in each of the countries, Eurofound asked its network of European correspondents to provide information on official structures of employee representation at the establishment level in their countries. Based on this information the sections on the presence of employee representation and selection of the suitable respondent in the management questionnaire were drafted to meet the country specificities and an order of preference for the selecting of a respondent whenever more than one structure was present was set up.
For more information, please see the Sampling report
To allow for appropriate generalisations based on the survey results, the following weights have been constructed for the ECS 2013:
For more information please see the Weighting report.
The ECS 2013 included open questions to record the establishment’s economic activity. The answers were coded according to the Statistical classification of economic activities in the European Community (NACE) Revisions 1.1 and 2.0. The reasons for coding based on Revision 1.1 is that it is required when making comparisons with previous editions of the ECS.
The coding process was divided into a test phase and a coding phase. Coders were tested during the test phase and the best performing coders were selected to carry out the actual coding, for which a web-based coding system was used. The coding report describes the process, systems and selection of the coding teams and the training in more detail.
Detailed information on the coding process can be found in the Coding report.
To ensure the high quality of the ECS 2013, Eurofound undertook strict quality assurance and control measures, and will benefit from an external quality assessment.
The ECS 2013 relied on a predefined quality assurance framework specifying the survey design and implementation steps and the quality control activities associated with them. The quality assurance framework of the ECS 2013 is a core element of Eurofound Surveys Management Guidelines and refers to the quality assurance framework of the European Statistical System (ESS) and the criteria of relevance, accuracy, coherence, comparability, timeliness and punctuality, and accessibility, specifically adapted to the needs of the ECS.
Every step in the ECS 2013 was subject to detailed planning, monitoring and control, and aimed at real-time and post-factum documentation and evaluation. Striving towards continuous quality improvement, the recommendations outlined in the Quality Assessment Report of the ECS 2009 and Eurofound’s experience with previous surveys were also taken into consideration.
A Quality Assurance and Control Report, providing a detailed overview of the quality assurance and control measures employed during the survey, has been developed by the contractor for the ECS 2013. These measures covered sampling, translation, pre-testing and piloting, interviewer’s selection and training, fieldwork implementation, data processing and storage. The quality assurance and control measures were outlined in the technical specification of the survey and developed and employed by the fieldwork contractor through a quality control plan, aimed to ensure the high quality of the ECS 2013 cycle.
An external Quality assessment of the third European Company Survey has evaluated the survey process and its outputs against the predefined standards; it identified the survey strengths and weaknesses, and addressed recommendations and actions for improvement.