Supplementary Supporting Statement - OPUBSS Feedback Survey

Request for Approval under the “DOL Departmental Generic Clearance for the Collection of Routine Customer Feedback”

(OMB Control Number: 1225-0088)

TITLE OF INFORMATION COLLECTION:

PURPOSE:

The purpose of this information collection is to obtain feedback from customers (aka visitors) to selected OPUBSS information products made available on the public BLS.gov website. The feedback will be used to better understand the customer experience with these products and whether these products meet their needs (i.e., they find what they are looking for, or the product provides informational value). The information collected will be used to inform future projects and the next OPUBSS strategic plan.

DESCRIPTION OF RESPONDENTS:

Respondents are individuals who are broadly considered customers of selected OPUBSS information products. These products are available through the public BLS.gov website and include:

• Beyond the Numbers - www.bls.gov/opub/btn/

• Spotlight on Statistics - www.bls.gov/spotlight/

• Monthly Labor Review - www.bls.gov/opub/mlr/

• BLS Reports - www.bls.gov/opub/reports/

• The Economics Daily - www.bls.gov/opub/ted/

• BLS Classroom (K12) pages - www.bls.gov/k12/

Customers of these products is defined as frequent or casual (including first time) visitors to these product websites, or those who subscribe to receive updates for these selected products. Respondents may represent individuals from other federal or state government agencies, or members of the general population that are active in (but not limited to) economic related research or industries, academia, media, educators, or parents.

TYPE OF COLLECTION: (Check one)

[ ] Customer Comment Card/Complaint Form [X] Customer Satisfaction Survey

[ ] Usability Testing (e.g., Website or Software [ ] Small Discussion Group

[ ] Focus 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.

Name: Douglas Williams

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, is the information that will be collected included in records that are subject to the Privacy Act of 1974? [ ] Yes [ ] No

3. If Applicable, has a System or Records Notice been published? [ ] Yes [ ] No

Gifts or Payments:

Is an incentive (e.g., money or reimbursement of expenses, token of appreciation) provided to participants? [ ] Yes [X] No

BURDEN HOURS

Category of Respondent	No. of Respondents	Participation Time	Burden
Customers of Beyond the Numbers	2,000	5 minutes	166.7 hours
Customers of Spotlight on Statistics	1,500	3 minutes	75.0 hours
Customers of Monthly Labor Review	2,100	5 minutes	175.0 hours
Customers of BLS Reports	1,500	5 minutes	125.0 hours
Customers of The Economics Daily	1,900	5 minutes	158.3 hours
Customers of BLS Classroom (K12) Pages	150	5 minutes	12.5 hours
Totals			712.5 hours

The number of respondents was estimated based on approximately 10% response rate to single email invitation to subscriber list. Additional response is expected from web product page visits with visitor click a banner link to complete the survey. Detail on the number of subscribers to each selected product is provided in the next section on the selection of targeted respondents.

FEDERAL COST: The estimated annual cost to the Federal government is $8,011.20 (estimated based on an average GS-14/5 salary rate of $66.76 and an estimated 20 hours to write each survey (6 total), post and submit, receive responses, and analyze and report on the responses.)

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 survey(s) will solicit responses from customers using various methods:

• Include a link to one specific product survey in email responses to customer inquiries related to a selected product.

• Include a link in a banner on the product survey homepage for each OPUBSS product under review. The availability of the surveys will also be promoted via social media (Twitter) during the survey period.

Additionally, an email frame of customers who are subscribed to receive updates for specific OPUBSS products will receive a request to complete a survey for each product subscription. Survey invitations will only be sent once for each product. A person may subscribe to more than one product and therefore receive multiple survey invitations. To minimize confusion, surveys invitations for each product will be sent on separate days and will include text explaining subsequent invitations are separate from previous invitations and that they may receive additional invitations.

Subscriber counts are provided for five of the six OPUBSS products (there is no subscriber list for the BLS Classroom K12 pages). The email invitation schedule is also included.

Product Count Invitation Schedule

Monthly Labor Review 20,834 Day 1 (Monday)

The Economics Daily 18,231 Day 3 (Wednesday)

BLS Reports 14,563 Day 4 (Thursday)

Spotlight on Statistics 14,763 Day 9 (Tuesday)

Beyond the Numbers 19,250 Day 11 (Thursday)

BLS Classroom (K12) pages N/A

Administration of the Instrument

1. How will you collect the information? (Check all that apply)

[X] Web-based or other forms of Social Media

[ ] Telephone

[ ] In-person

[ ] Mail

[ ] Other, Explain

2. Will interviewers or facilitators be used? [ ] Yes [X] No

Please make sure that all instruments, instructions, and scripts are submitted with the request.