Kick-off Meeting of the Advisory Group for the OECD Guidelines for Measuring the Quality of Working Environment, OECD HQ, Paris, 8-9 December 2015

1. POINTS FOR DISCUSSION
& KEY CHALLENGES
IN MEASURING THE QWE

2. 2
Memo- Lack of internationally comparable data on QWE and need to
systematize the available information
• OECD guidelines on the measurement of the QWE aim to develop a set of
model questionnaires on the QWE; they will provide international
recommendations and best practices in existing surveys to NSOs and other
data producers on how QWE could be best measured and used.
– Follows a similar approach as for the Guidelines on the Measurement of
Subjective Well-Being
– Include a prototype question modules that could be piloted in a few countries
and then implemented as ad hoc module in their Labour Force Survey?
– In close collaboration with other international organisations, leading experts, with
NSOs (including Eurostat) involvement
– Under the guidance of an Advisory group
Scope of the Guidelines

3. • Chapter 1: Introduction.
• Chapter 2: Conceptual framework.
• Chapter 3: Components of QWE.
• Chapter 4: Methodological issues.
• Chapter 5: Analytical issues.
• Chapter 6: Recommendations
• Appendix: Question modules.
Scope of the Guidelines
3

4. • An extended survey module, covering many of the sub-dimensions of the quality of
the working environment identified in the inventory exercise, with up to three
questions on each. This extended survey module could be used as a dashboard and
inform about the overall quality of the working environment as well as problematic
areas.
A working conditions survey like the EWCS capturing job characteristic that effect well-
being?
• A condensed survey module will restrict the questions to a sub-set of key sub-
dimensions (from the extended survey module) of the quality of the working
environment (e.g. work intensity, physical health risk factors, physical demands, work
autonomy, learning opportunities and social support at workplace). This subset could
be used to construct a synthetic index of Job Strain and to identify the most
vulnerable groups.
A survey module that helps measure Job Strain?
• A core survey module will contain only few key questions when questionnaire space
does not allow inserting the extended or the condensed survey modules.
???
3 survey modules for measuring
QWE

5. WHY AND WHAT TO
MEASURE?

6. • Job satisfaction approach?
• Job preferences approach?
• Job characteristics approach?
Theoretical Approach

7. • Whose quality of working environment?
– Employees
– Self employees/Own account workers
– Formal workers
– Informal workers
• Quality of which work?
– Paid/unpaid work?
– Main job, second job, all jobs?
Operationalisation of the Quality of
the Working Environment

8. HOW TO MEASURE?

9. • Objective vs subjective approach?
• Self-reported measures or observed measures?
• Drivers or outcomes?
• Worker level or job level?
• Single indicator, multiple indicators, synthetic index?
Analytical approach

10. Unit of analysis:
• Workers as respondents?
• Employers as respondents?
• Employer-employee matched data?
• Workplace as a unit?
• Indirect data: number of accidents, legalised
work hours etc?
Survey mode (1)

11. • General Household Surveys
• Labour Force Surveys
• Work and employment surveys (only employed individuals)
• Compulsory or voluntary?
• At workplace or at home?
• Face-to-face interview
• Self administered interview
• Internet surveys
• Phone interviews
• Length of survey
• Proxy respondents (what to do with them?)
Survey mode (2)

12. • Adaptation? (workers adjusting to poor working
environment and reporting positively)
• Survival/self-selection? (those whose working
environment is the poorest leave their jobs)
• Desirability bias? (over-reporting work
stressors, under-reporting work resources)
• Inter-personal and intra-personal comparisons
Potential sources of bias

13. • When should QWE be measured?
• How often it should be measured?
Timing and Periodicity