CIRCUMSTANCES MAKING COLLECTION OF INFORMATION NECESSARY
On September 11, 1993, President Clinton issued Executive Order 12862, “Setting Customer Service Standards,” which clearly defined his vision that the Federal agencies will put the public first. To accomplish this, President Clinton called for a “revolution within the Federal government to change the way it does business.” He expected this process to require continual reform of government practices and operations to the end that, “when dealing with the Federal agencies, all people receive service that matches or exceeds the best service available in the private sector.”
Section 1(b) of this E.O. requires agencies to “survey customers to determine the kind and quality of services they want and their level of satisfaction with existing services” and Section 1(a) requires agencies to “survey front-line employees on barriers to, and ideas for, matching the best in business.” These Presidential requirements established an ongoing need for the National Science Foundation (NSF) to engage in an interactive process of collecting information and using it to improve program services and processes.
The information that has been collected and that will be collected in these surveys represents the minimum necessary to evaluate customer satisfaction with NSF programs. It is expected that survey instruments will continue to be designed to take less than thirty minutes of any one respondent’s time. The service of customer surveys will continue to be coordinated to ensure that most individual respondents will not be asked to respond to more than one survey instrument. The “frequency” for individual respondents is essentially once. The total number of surveys and the schedule for those surveys continues to be monitored and approved by the Office of the Director.
HOW, BY WHOM, AND PURPOSE FOR WHICH INFORMATION IS TO BE USED
The purpose of this generic clearance was and continues to be to measure customer service satisfaction. The series of customer satisfaction surveys that NSF has conducted and plans to continue to conduct is intended to assess customer needs and to help develop proposals to try to meet those needs at a level that matches or exceeds the best service available in the private sector.
Over the course of the past approvals of this collection, NSF has obtained valuable survey data from sponsored research offices at academic institutions, applicants and reviewers for NSF research and education grants, and users of NSF-published information.
Results from these and future surveys and focus groups will be used to establish customer-defined goals and standards for measuring NSF progress toward those goals. Later surveys and focus groups will clarify those standards and evaluate NSF performance. This will be a continuous process of measuring customer satisfaction and then using that information to refine or redefine NSF programs and processes. Without this institutionalized process, NSF managers have no basis for planning and implementing program improvements and other customer satisfaction initiatives. This process also will enhance NSF’s strategic planning, performance planning, and performance reporting efforts as required by the Government Performance and Results Act of 1993.
USE OF AUTOMATION
There are no legal or technical obstacles to the use of technology in these information collection activities. The determination to use technology, and which technology to use, will be based on the type of information collected and the utility and the availability of specific technology to each respondent in a proposed customer satisfaction survey.
EFFORTS TO IDENTIFY DUPLICATION
The information to be supplied on these surveys will not be duplicated on any other information collection. An internal panel of program representatives will review the proposed NSF surveys to verify that the information sought is not already available and that the survey is part of a coordinated agency-wide customer satisfaction program.
SMALL BUSINESS CONSIDERATIONS
Not applicable.
CONSEQUENCES OF LESS FREQUENT COLLECTION
Without a regular program of customer satisfaction surveys, NSF cannot attain the E.O.’s commitment to “best in the business” practices because there is no way to get reliable feedback on NSF practices.
SPECIAL CIRCUMSTANCES FOR COLLECTION
These surveys will be consistent with all the guidelines in 5 CFR 1320.6, especially those provisions in subsection (g) which require that a statistical survey be designed to produce results that can be generalized to the universe of study.
FEDERAL REGISTER NOTICE.
The agency’s notice, as required by 5 CFR 1320.8(d), was published in the Federal Register on April 20, 2020 at 85 FR 21897, and no comments were received.
OUTSIDE CONSULTATION
Consultations will be conducted on a case-by-case basis with outside experts and representatives of those from whom information is to be obtained.
9. GIFTS OR REMUNERATION
Not applicable.
10. CONFIDENTIALITY PROVIDED TO RESPONDENTS
If a confidentiality pledge is deemed useful and feasible, NSF will only include a pledge of confidentiality that is supported by authority established in statute or regulation that is supported by disclosure and data security policies that are consistent with the pledge, and that does not unnecessarily impede sharing of data with other agencies for compatible confidential use. If NSF includes a pledge of confidentiality, it will include a citation for the statute or regulation supporting the pledge.
11. QUESTIONS OF A SENSITIVE NATURE
NSF does not expect to include any questions of a sensitive nature in these customer satisfaction surveys. If any are used, NSF will submit a specific justification for each question used as part of the completed package submitted to OMB.
12. ESTIMATE OF BURDEN
The average amount of time for each survey will vary, most with estimates of ten to thirty minutes (based on past collections). Each respondent will submit only one response per survey, which will take an average of twenty minutes. NSF estimates the number of annual responses to be 31,500 for an annual burden of 10,500 hours.
ANNUALIZED COST TO RESPONDENTS
The cost to respondents will vary by survey. As each survey is submitted for review and approval, a cost analysis will be included.
13. CAPITAL/STARTUP COSTS
There are no capital or startup costs associated with these collections.
14. ANNUALIZED COST TO THE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT
The costs to the federal government will vary by survey. Most will be written as a routine part of a program, and their cost will be outlined in each survey submission. The prior justification statements show NSF’s commitment and costs associated with individual surveys to average $10,000 per year.
15. CHANGES IN BURDEN
There is no change in burden.
16. PUBLICATION OF COLLECTION
Not applicable.
17. SEEKING APPROVAL TO NOT DISPLAY OMB EXPIRATION DATE
Not applicable.
18. EXCEPTION(S) TO THE CERTIFICATION STATEMENT (19) ON OMB 83-I
None.
| File Type | application/vnd.openxmlformats-officedocument.wordprocessingml.document |
| File Title | SUPPORTING STATEMENT |
| Author | JFELDMAN |
| File Modified | 0000-00-00 |
| File Created | 2021-01-16 |