3.
Survey Approach
16
We have considered two possible approaches of interviewing the
employees. The first approach was to interview the employees at their
places of work through the help of their employer. The second approach
was to interview the employees individually at their homes through a
random sample of households.
In the pilot test, when enumerators interviewed a sample of
employers, an attempt was made simultaneously to solicit their co-operation
in allowing the enumerators to approach a random sample of their employees
to arrange subsequent interviews at the employees' place of residence.
No co-operation was given by the employers in response to such requests,
although the employers themselves were quite agreeable to being
interviewed. Such employer resistance pointed to the risk that such
an approach for getting at employees might result in considerable losses
in the employee samples, whilst employee opinion might be strongly
influenced by that of their employers. The Research Team therefore
decided to abandon this arrangement.
This
Instead, employees were approached through a random sample of
households provided by the Census and Statistics Department.
alternative method proved very successful, as most respondents, when
interviewed in their own homes, in a relaxed environment, were found
forthcoming and co-operative.