TNAG-0790-FCO40-994-Development-of-social-policy-in-Hong-Kong-proposed-contribut-1978 — Page 87

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.