Methodology

:: Universe and unit of analysis
:: Respondents
:: Sampling strategy
:: Questionnaire development
:: Translation
:: Analysis and reporting
:: Sampling and questionnaire language versions

Universe and unit of analysis

The statistical population comprises all establishments that have ten or more employees in the 31 participating countries, covering all sectors of economic activity except for agriculture, forestry and fishing (NACE A), households (NACE T) and extraterritorial organisations (NACE U). The relevant statistical unit of analysis is the establishment, defined as comprising the activities of a single employer at a single set of premises (e.g. a single branch of a bank, a car factory or a school).

The 31 participating countries comprise all 27 European Member States, as well as two Candidate Countries (Croatia and Turkey), and two EFTA countries (Norway and Switzerland).

Respondents

In each establishment surveyed, the highest-ranking manager responsible for health and safety at work is interviewed. Additionally, an interview with the workers' health and safety representative is carried out in those establishments where a management interview has been completed; there exists a formally designated representative with specific responsibility for the safety and health of workers; and permission for the interview has been granted by the management respondent.

Sampling strategy

In order to ensure that the survey results are cross-nationally comparable, it is essential that the sampling strategy result in the same type of units being surveyed in each country. The quality of the available address registers varies across the participating countries in terms of coverage (especially the sectors of activity included) and in terms of the availability and accuracy of the necessary background information (such as the sector of activity and number of employees). Existing address registers are not cross-nationally comparable, therefore considerable efforts have been made to build samples that provide the necessary quality and ensure cross-national comparability. This work has been carried out in collaboration with the European Foundation for the Improvement of Living and Working Conditions (Eurofound).

Stratification of the sample is based on a matrix of two groups of sectors ("Producing Industries" and "Service Sector") and five size classes (10-19 employees, 20-49, 50-199, 200-499, and 500+ employees) and follows the sampling strategy used by Eurofound in its establishment surveys.

Questionnaire development

Two English language master versions (management representative questionnaire and worker representative questionnaire) were developed by a team comprising experts in survey design and in occupational safety and health (particularly psychosocial risks), together with EU-OSHA staff. In addition, a tripartite Advisory Group comprising members of EU-OSHA's Governing Board and Bureau played an important role in identifying useful questions from the perspective of the Agency's stakeholders. 

As part of the development process, draft questionnaires were translated for a qualitative pilot in UK, Netherlands and Germany. Subsequently, an extensive quantitative pilot was carried out, involving management interviews and employee representative interviews in each of eight countries (Germany, Greece, Spain, France, Italy, Poland, Finland and United Kingdom).

Translation

Different national versions of the questionnaire have been developed for each of the countries covered by the survey (access the questionnaires in this table). These take account not only of the languages spoken in each country, but also of work-related practices such as worker representation or labour inspection, which require different questions and terminology.

An optimal translation strategy is essential to ensure that each national version of the questionnaire comprises high-quality questions that can be directed plausibly at all types of enterprise within the country concerned and generates information that can be compared cross-nationally.

The basic steps included in the translation strategy adopted by ESENER are:

1. A first high-quality translation of the English language master questionnaire into each destination language by translators who are native speakers of the target language

2. Checking of the translations by the national fieldwork institutes and adaptation to specific country versions where the language is used by several countries (e.g. Austrian, German, Luxembourgish and Swiss versions of the German language questionnaire)

3. Checking of the national versions by native-language occupational safety and health experts

4. Back-translation of national language versions into English by different translators and independent cross-checking with the English language master version.

Additionally, the national versions are checked by EU-OSHA's Focal Points and the Survey Expert Group to ensure that the terminology and questions are appropriate for that country's work-related practices.

Analysis and reporting

First results from the analysis of the survey data will be presented on EU-OSHA's website in October 2009 and a descriptive overview report of the results will be published by the end of the year.

Towards the end of 2009, the Agency will also tender contracts to carry out secondary analyses of the data in 2010.

Sampling and questionnaire language versions