Department of Defense Focus Groups of Employers (Follow-up focus groups for the National Survey of Employers approved under 0704-0474)

Department of Defense Focus Groups of Employers

Fact Sheet

Types of questions to expect in the focus group:

In the focus groups, we will ask you about your company’s [organization’s] actual or anticipated experiences with RC employees and duty-related absences, the impact on your business [organization], USERRA, ESGR programs and support, and the Army Reserve and National Guard Employer Partnership Initiative.

Time involved:

We expect the focus group to last between 60 and 90 minutes.

Who will participate:

We expect there to be six to twelve participants at the focus group, each representing their company [organization]. We will be conducting separate focus groups for small private organizations (less than 50 employees at all establishments), larger private organizations, public first-responders and other public sector organizations. Some organizations to be included have recently employed or currently employ members of the Reserve Components; others will not have employed RC members.

Confidentiality:

Your participation in the focus group is voluntary. Your company was selected for participation on a random basis within specific categories of employers of particular interest for the purposes of our study. RAND will keep the information you provide to us during the focus group confidential. We will report on general themes that emerge from the focus groups and will use such information in our final report. RAND will not inform the Department of Defense (DoD) or anyone not on project staff of which employers have been invited or chose to participate. RAND will not attribute comments to specific organizations or individuals in any public report or report to DoD. Additionally, neither employer nor individual participant names will be recorded in focus group notes or recordings and all records linking participating organizations to the study will be destroyed by RAND after the focus group has taken place.

We also ask that each member of the focus group respects the confidentiality of other members of the group. We will not be asking focus group participants to state the name of their organization during the group. RAND cannot guarantee that everything you say during the focus group discussion will be kept confidential by all participants, so we ask you to please not say anything during the session that you do not want anyone else to know.