Abstract: The Survey of Employment, Payrolls and Hours (SEPH) is a monthly business
survey conducted by Statistics Canada that produces estimates of levels for
variables such as employment, earnings and hours at detailed industrial
levels for Canada, the provinces and territories. To improve the efficiency
of collection activities for this survey, an electronic questionnaire (EQ)
was introduced in the fall of 2012. Given the timeframe allowed for this
transition and the production calendar of the survey, a conversion strategy
of units from paper questionnaires to EQ was developed. The goal of the
strategy was to ensure a good adaptation of the collection environment and
also to allow the implementation of a plan of analysis that would evaluate
the impact of this change on the results of the survey. This paper will give
an overview of the conversion strategy implemented as well as the results of
various evaluations that were conducted. For example, the impact of the
integration of the EQ on the collection process, the response rate and the
failed edit follow-up rate will be presented. In addition, the results of a
randomized experiment that was conducted in order to determine the presence
of a mode effect will be discussed.
Keywords: Electronic questionnaire, mode effect, collection strategies, business survey, mode of collection
