The 1997 Survey of Human Resources Policies
In 1997, we conducted telephone interviews with managers at 389 U.S. work
establishments that had 50 or more employees at that time.
Design
The survey is unique because it was designed to trace the spread of family
policies over the past 35 years, rather than to provide a "snapshot" of
family policies at one point in time. For each family benefit, respondents
were asked if the establishment had ever had the policy or offered the
program. They were then asked when the services were initiated and when,
if ever, they were discontinued. These data allow us to study the
diffusion of various family policies - when they became more popular, what
types of organizations adopted them early on and what types of
organizations still do not have them.
The questionnaire was developed by Frank Dobbin and Erin Kelly with the
help of survey experts at the Princeton University Survey Research Center
and the University of Maryland Survey Research Center. The University of
Maryland Survey Research Center conducted the telephone interviews in the
summer of 1997.
Respondents were sent an introductory letter describing the project as "a
study of human resources policies" that employers might have added in
response to "enormous changes in the global economy, in employment law,
and in the composition of the work force in the United States." There was
no specific mention of family policies because we did not want to
discourage managers whose organizations had few family policies from
completing the study.
The contact person was forewarned that the survey asked them about when
policies and practices were first adopted and that "the interviewers would
be willing to speak with another manager if there is someone else who is
more familiar with the history of your human resources policies." In some
organizations, the contact person suggested a more knowledgeable
respondent. During the telephone interviews, respondents often turned to
organizational records and occasionally asked a colleague for their input
on when a policy or program was adopted. Some respondents made a list of
policies and programs for which dates of adoption were needed and then
faxed that information to the staff at the University of Maryland Survey
Research Center. Using these strategies, we were able to collect this
information about the history of employers' family policies.
Sample
The population for this study is establishments (i.e. physical
workplaces) in the United States with fifty or more workers. The threshold
of fifty workers was set for two reasons. First, organizations with fewer
than fifty workers are less likely to have any formalized human resources
policies or written descriptions of benefits. These small organizations
may, in fact, feel "family-friendly," but the accommodations that managers
and owners make for workers will probably be negotiated on a case-by-case
basis rather than formalized for all workers. Second, the Family and
Medical Leave Act covers employees working at establishments with fifty or
more workers on site or within a seventy-five mile radius. With a
threshold of fifty workers at the establishment, we could be sure that all
of the responding organizations were subject to the federal leave law at
the time of the interview.
The sampling frame for the study was the Dun and Bradstreet Market
Identifier database. In April 1997, Dun and Bradstreet provided the
research team with 1,714 records drawn from the Dun's Market Identifier
file. The 1,714 records were screened to confirm the establishment had at
least 50 employees and to obtain the name of an appropriate
respondent. Undergraduate research assistants called each establishment
and 1,478 establishments were declared eligible for the survey.
This list of 1,478 establishments was stratified by size and industry. The
size strata were 50 to 249 employees and 250 employees or more. The
following industries were included: food manufacturing, chemicals
manufacturing, transportation equipment manufacturing, computer equipment
manufacturing, trucking and transport services, wholesale trade, banking,
business services, non-profit social services, and government
agencies. We chose to over-sample non-profit social service organizations
and government agencies in order to facilitate comparisons across sectors.
Response Rate
The University of Maryland Survey Research Center then randomly
sampled 695 eligible establishments from the stratified list of 1,478
screened establishments. Letters were sent to respondents at these
establishments and then telephone interviews began.
The response rate for the survey is 56%. In other words, we
completed interviews with respondents at 56% of the sampled
establishments. 20% of the contacted managers refused to complete an
interview and 24% could not be contacted for a telephone interview. The
cooperation rate (calculated as the percentage of contacted managers who
completed interviews) is 74%.
Both the response rate and the cooperation rate compare favorably to other
studies of employers' policies, including studies of family policies like
the 1998 Business Work-Life Study conducted by the Families and Work
Institute.
The characteristics of the 389 respondent organizations are
described below.
INSERT TABLE A.1 DESCRIPTION OF SURVEY RESPONDENTS
Sample Weights
The respondents to the 1997 survey may not perfectly represent all
U.S. establishments with 50+ employees. We chose to over-sample
organizations in the public and non-profit sectors in order to be able to
analyze and compare across sector. We also over-sampled larger
organizations in order to be able to make generalizations about companies
of all sizes.
We weight the data to adjust for this sampling strategy. The
weights are based on the Dun and Bradstreet Market Identifiers database
(which served as the population list for sampling) and they reflect the
inverse of the probability that establishments are sampled. The smallest
establishments in the private sector receive large weights.
The weighted data provide our best estimate of the prevalence of
employers' family policies in the universe of U.S. establishments with 50+
employees. As the table below shows, our survey respondents may be more
likely to have family policies in place than the general population of
employers.