Request for Approval

Request for Approval under the “Generic Clearance for the Collection of
Routine Customer Feedback” (OMB Control Number: 1535-0143)

TITLE OF INFORMATION COLLECTION: New Retirement Message and Materials
Assessment

PURPOSE: The purpose of this project is to obtain feedback on messages and materials being
developed to support the new retirement product.
DESCRIPTION OF RESPONDENTS: This research will be conducted with two types of
respondents: 1) individuals from the general public who are the financial decision makers in
their household and 2) employer decision makers for small, medium and large companies (both
those that do and do not currently offer payroll-based retirement accounts to their employees).
TYPE OF COLLECTION: (Check one)
[ ] Customer Comment Card/Complaint Form
[ ] Usability Testing (e.g., Website or Software
[X] Focus Group

[ ] Customer Satisfaction Survey
[ ] Small Discussion Group
____
[ ] Other:

CERTIFICATION:
I certify the following to be true:
1. The collection is voluntary.
2. The collection is low-burden for respondents and low-cost for the Federal Government.
3. The collection is non-controversial and does not raise issues of concern to other federal
agencies.
4. The results are not intended to be disseminated to the public.
5. Information gathered will not be used for the purpose of substantially informing influential
policy decisions.
6. The collection is targeted to the solicitation of opinions from respondents who have
experience with the program or may have experience with the program in the future.
Digitally signed by Bruce A. Sharp
DN: c=US, o=U.S. Government, ou=Department of the Treasury, ou=Bureau of
the Public Debt, ou=People, serialNumber=404211, cn=Bruce A. Sharp
Date: 2013.10.30 07:29:11 -04'00'

Name:________________________________________________
Bruce A. Sharp

To assist review, please provide answers to the following question:
Personally Identifiable Information:
1. Is personally identifiable information (PII) collected? [ ] Yes [X] No
2. If Yes, will any information that is collected be included in records that are subject to the
Privacy Act of 1974? [ ] Yes [ ] No
3. If Yes, has an up-to-date System of Records Notice (SORN) been published? [ ] Yes [ ] No
Gifts or Payments:
Is an incentive (e.g., money or reimbursement of expenses, token of appreciation) provided to
participants? [X] Yes [ ] No

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General public focus group participants will receive approximately $75 based on prevailing
rates for the location.
Business benefits decision-maker focus group participants (from small to medium-sized
companies) receive approximately $150 based on prevailing rates for the location.
Bulletin Boards with business benefits decision-makers at larger companies will receive
approximately $125 based on prevailing rates for the location.
This is a small, qualitative marketing research project the purpose of which is to provide
program managers developing the new product with guidance on what specific messages and
materials combinations most effectively appeal to and inform the target audiences. There are
two target audiences: members of the general public and business owners/managers responsible
for employee benefits. Results will not be made public. The sponsor of the project will not be
identified to respondents during the recruiting process. This is the second round of similar
research with these audiences; OMB approved incentive rates at the levels proposed here for the
first round.
The business audience is critical because the product will primarily be offered through this
group. They must be interested and willing to participate so their reactions to informative
messages and materials are very important. For purposes of this research this group is divided
in two segments based on size of organization.
•

Smaller businesses (less than 100 employees) where the key decision maker is most likely
to be the owner, CEO or other top general management.

•

Larger businesses where a human resources/benefits manager is likely to be a primary
decision influencer/maker as well as gatekeeper.

These group sessions will be conducted using commercial focus group facilities that recruit
respondents to participate in groups like this. Participation by respondents is strictly voluntary
and respondents are paid for their participation. The rate at which they are paid varies
depending on how hard the group is to find and persuade to participate. Business leaders are
significantly more elite and harder to reach than the public audience. The greater effort
required to reach them is also reflected in the incentives required to persuade them to
participate in either focus groups or personal interviews. Among the range of reasons they are
more difficult to recruit for group sessions:
•

They are higher status economically; they need to be reached through their business and
its gatekeepers; they have real and self-perceived other commitments that occupy their
time.

•

With the group participants, we are asking them to make the effort to come to a facility in
their community, so they are committing travel time as well as the two hours that they
will be participating in the group sessions. This is no different than is the case with the
public group participants but it differentiates these qualitative group participants from
telephone survey respondents.

•

Because this is strategic research, meant to provide internal guidance to the program
managers, we try not to identify the sponsor of the research beforehand in order to obtain
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objective responses. That means that the power of the federal government’s influence,
including any implied requirements to respond, cannot be used as an inducement to
participate or as a reason to accept a smaller-than-normal honorarium.
In the case of focus groups, there is an established pattern of costing based on collective
recruiting experience. The research industry does not typically conduct feasibility studies with
individual market research projects to determine optimal incentive rates. Such market research
projects typically don’t have the budget for research-on research testing. But this is a marketdriven process. Two pieces of information are offered to support this: experience of the research
team and the bid/ask experience in the marketplace.
•

Artemis Strategy Group is a mainstream research organization whose leaders each have
25 years+ experience conducting these kinds of qualitative research studies, for private
and public sector clients. The firm’s normative experience is that for qualitative research
business respondents need to be paid between 80% and 300% more in participation
incentives than general public participants. That is reflective of the increased recruiting
effort required to recruit business respondents. The incentive is just one part of that total
cost and there is always a weighing of the tradeoff between the extra effort required to
recruit respondent against the incentive offered.

•

The market provides the primary basis for pricing. In major U.S. cities there are
typically a handful of organizations that provide cost-effective recruiting services for
focus groups. They respond to specifications and bid against each other to conduct this
kind of work. They are highly competitive with each other, and we (the prime contractor)
negotiate with them to find the best deal. The attached spreadsheet shows data collected
from a cross section of the local providers within the last couple months for the prior
phase of this study. These are the incentive rates that they each proposed based on the
audience specifications provided. This includes a total of 12 bids in 4 cities from 7
different organizations. Mean, median, high, low and our proposed honorarium
compensation levels are shown at the bottom. These organizations represent the primary
entities in these cities doing this kind of work.

Referring to the incentives spreadsheet (attached as a supplementary document to this
submission), the proposed honorarium for business respondents is at the bottom of the range
submitted by all the bidders. It is $150 for the business respondents. If we are unable to offer
this level of incentive, the bidders may not accept the work, they may reduce their commitment to
fulfilling the task and they will raise their overall cost to recruit. These incentive rates are
widely accepted industry norms for this kind of work.
BURDEN HOURS
Category of Respondent
Focus Group Participants – General Public
Individuals
Focus Group Participants – Private Sector
Bulletin-Board Groups – Private Sector
Totals

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No. of
Participation
Respondents Time
20
2.5 hrs

Burden

14
14
44

25 hrs
21 hrs
96 hrs

2.5 hrs
1.5 hrs
2.2 hrs average

50 hrs

FEDERAL COST: The estimated annual cost to the Federal government is not known at this
time.
If you are conducting a focus group, survey, or plan to employ statistical methods, please
provide answers to the following questions:
The selection of your targeted respondents
1. Do you have a customer list or something similar that defines the universe of potential
respondents and do you have a sampling plan for selecting from this universe?
[ ] Yes [X] No
If the answer is yes, please provide a description of both below (or attach the sampling plan)? If
the answer is no, please provide a description of how you plan to identify your potential group of
respondents and how you will select them?
The screening protocol for consumers is designed to recruit participants who represent a crosssection of the population in terms of gender, race/ethnicity, age, income, education, employment
status, asset levels, and current retirement savings behaviors.
The screening protocol for employer decisions makers will ensure that focus group participants
are from small to medium-sized companies (10-99 employees) and that some represent
companies who currently do offer payroll-based retirement accounts to employees and others
that do not currently offer this benefit; it will also recruit employer benefits managers for large
companies for one-on-one interviews. See attached Screeners.
Administration of the Instrument
1. How will you collect the information? (Check all that apply)
[ ] Web-based or other forms of Social Media
[X] Telephone
[X] In-person
[ ] Mail
[ ] Other, Explain
2. Will interviewers or facilitators be used? [X] Yes [ ] No
Please make sure that all instruments, instructions, and scripts are submitted with the
request.

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Instructions for completing Request for Approval under the “Generic
Clearance for the Collection of Routine Customer Feedback”
TITLE OF INFORMATION COLLECTION: Provide the name of the collection that is the
subject of the request. (e.g. Comment card for soliciting feedback on xxxx)
PURPOSE: Provide a brief description of the purpose of this collection and how it will be used.
If this is part of a larger study or effort, please include this in your explanation.
DESCRIPTION OF RESPONDENTS: Provide a brief description of the targeted group or
groups for this collection of information. These groups must have experience with the program.
TYPE OF COLLECTION: Check one box. If you are requesting approval of other
instruments under the generic, you must complete a form for each instrument.
CERTIFICATION: Please read the certification carefully. If you incorrectly certify, the
collection will be returned as improperly submitted or it will be disapproved.
Personally Identifiable Information: Provide answers to the questions. Note: Agencies
should only collect PII to the extent necessary, and they should only retain PII for the period of
time that is necessary to achieve a specific objective.
Gifts or Payments: If you answer yes to the question, please describe the incentive and provide
a justification for the amount.
BURDEN HOURS:
Category of Respondents: Identify who you expect the respondents to be in terms of the
following categories: (1) Individuals or Households;(2) Private Sector; (3) State, local, or tribal
governments; or (4) Federal Government. Only one type of respondent can be selected per row.
No. of Respondents: Provide an estimate of the Number of respondents.
Participation Time: Provide an estimate of the amount of time required for a respondent to
participate (e.g. fill out a survey or participate in a focus group)
Burden: Provide the Annual burden hours: Multiply the Number of responses and the
participation time and divide by 60.
FEDERAL COST: Provide an estimate of the annual cost to the Federal government.
If you are conducting a focus group, survey, or plan to employ statistical methods, please
provide answers to the following questions:
The selection of your targeted respondents. Please provide a description of how you plan to
identify your potential group of respondents and how you will select them. If the answer is yes,
to the first question, you may provide the sampling plan in an attachment.
Administration of the Instrument: Identify how the information will be collected. More than
one box may be checked. Indicate whether there will be interviewers (e.g. for surveys) or
facilitators (e.g., for focus groups) used.
Submit all instruments, instructions, and scripts are submitted with the request.

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