BTOS WFH Question BTOS WFH Question

Attachment A

• Question tested in round 1:

Does this business currently have any full-time employees working from home (6 or more hours in a day)?

• Yes

• No

• Question tested in Round 2:

Between MMM DD – MMM DD, did this business have any paid employees who worked from home the majority of at least one workday?

• Yes

• No

• Final Question wording:

Between MM DD - MM DD, did this business have any paid employees who worked from home for at least one workday? (A workday is 6 or more hours.)

• Yes

• No

Background

Based on feedback from 20 cognitive interviews in BTOS WFH round 1 and 23 cognitive interviews in BTOS WFH Round 2, we make the following findings and recommendation regarding the proposed question below:

Between MM DD - MM DD , did this business have any paid employees who worked from home for the majority of at least one workday?

·       Yes

·       No

Findings

Some respondents initially reacted to the wording of the question and noted they were confused by what was meant by “the majority of at least one workday”.  When the cognitive testing group probed on this phrase to those who had not initially referenced it, more than half of the Round 2 respondents indicated some confusion with the wording.  The wording “the majority of” did not seem to help any respondents understand the intent of the question.

The most prevalent point of confusion was when respondents thought “majority of” applied to the workweek, not the workday. Respondents who interpret the question in this way may be inclined to incorrectly report No to this question, since they have employees who only work from home 1-2 days per week, which is not the majority of the workweek. One respondent’s reaction was: “I have to read that again!  What does that mean? "The majority of at least one workday"? Majority of the week is not one workday. Doesn't make sense to me.” Another said, “I was thinking of majority of the week.”

Some respondents also thought majority applied to employees, and not the workday. They may be inclined to report No to this question if only 40% of their employees worked from home. One respondent noted: “This is confusing because majority is employees -- majority of employees not workday.”

Lastly, some respondents also interpreted majority of the workday as much more than half of a full workday–such as 7 or 8 hours or 80%. This threshold is over the intended 6 hours or more time frame.

Recommendation

The cognitive testing team recommends removing the phrase “the majority of” from the question. To clarify what a workday is, we recommend adding a brief definition in parentheses after the question.

Between MM DD - MM DD , did this business have any paid employees who worked from home for at least one workday? (A workday is 6 or more hours.)

·       Yes

·       No