Supervision
The data collection team consisted of two teams with a total of 42 interviewers and regional supervisors. The regional supervisors were responsible for reporting to the Fieldwork Manager. Each interviewer reported to a regional supervisor.
Regional Supervisors’ responsibilities include:
- Coordinating fieldwork in the assigned region
- Full-time work with the interviewers and on-going monitoring of interviewers’ work
- Checking non-response, activation of reserves, problems encountered, and communicating regularly with the Field Manager
- Submitting questionnaires and fieldwork tracking forms to Headquarters
For quality control, Regional Supervisors were responsible for:
- At least one meeting per week with each interviewer to discuss progress and/or problems.
- Random spot visits during interviewers’ work to observe interviews. For each interview observed, provide a 1-page evaluation report
- Follow-up of non-response cases and document all relevant information
- Check each accepted questionnaire for completeness and accuracy before submitting to Headquarters
Interviewer visit verification:
- The Regional Supervisor will revisit 15% of each interviewer’s assigned firms. (Telephone calls are permitted for up to 1/3 of the revisits). The firms to revisit will be selected randomly by the Field Manager or Headquarters.
Field Supervision details are laid out in point 2.2 of the Fieldwork section 2.4 (p18) of the ESDPR provided as Related Material.
Data Collection Notes
Because STEP program requires all surveys to be implemented in a standardized way, particular attention was provided to implementation processes:
1) Each participating country (survey firm) wrote Employer Survey Design Planning Report (ESDPR) detailing how it intended to implement the STEP survey while complying with the STEP Technical Standards. The ESDPRs were submitted to the World Bank (WB) STEP team for approval.
2) The WB STEP team provided training to all survey firms. The 2-day training provided via video conference aimed at presenting the STEP Technical Standards and Train the Trainers. The training course aimed at project managers from each survey firm focused on the survey instruments, as well as on implementation and data management procedures.
3) Based on the STEP Technical Standards, the survey firms adapted and translated the STEP Employer survey instruments, the Interviewer Manual, and all training materials.
4) Once the instruments had been adapted and translated, survey firms carried out a pre-test, usually including 8-10 interviews. Findings from the pre-test were discussed with the WB STEP team to finalize the adaptation and translation of the STEP survey instruments.
5) Each survey firm provided a 4-day training course to its enumerators, using training materials developed by the WB STEP team (after translation and adaptation). The WB STEP team's Survey Consultant helped organize the training. In addition, the WB STEP team in Washington, D.C. provided just-in-time technical assistance, answering questions sent by the survey firm during the training. The training included in-field mock interviews in addition to in-class courses. At the end of the training, survey firms only retained enumerators having demonstrated a good understanding of the instruments.
6) As per STEP technical standards, data collection started within a few days of the end of the enumerators' training course. The composition of each country's fieldwork teams is described in the ESDPR, as well as reporting procedures and quality control processes. Weekly reports were sent to the WB STEP team, which provided just-in-time technical assistance during fieldwork to answer questions or concerns. Regular calls or VCs were also held between survey firms and the WB STEP team to discuss progress. Matters discussed usually involved questions on how to deal with specific situations, strategies to reduce non-response, the activation of reserve firms, and general pace of progress.
Non-response rates were high in BIH in part due to refusals because the relevant respondents were not available to schedule the interviews.
7) Interviews lasted between 60 and 70 minutes.