Qualitative post-test evaluation of ESENER: Substantive findings

European Risk Observatory

The European Survey of Enterprises on New and Emerging Risks (ESENER) is a pan-European survey of management and worker representatives in enterprises with more than ten employees on how health, safety and well-being are managed at work.

This project involved in-depth cognitive interviews with ESENER respondents in five EU countries aimed at exploring the reasons and thinking behind the answers given by respondents to the survey, both to enhance understanding of what respondents mean by their answers and as a means for developing and improving the quality of future versions of the survey.

The Institute for Employment Studies (IES), in partnership with Kooperationsstelle Hamburg, were commissioned by the European Agency for Safety and Health at Work (EU-OSHA) to conduct a qualitative post-test evaluation of ESENER.

The work aimed to build an in-depth understanding of results from the survey and understand more about how health and safety is managed in the workplace. The work was intended to feed into the design and development of a new round of ESENER planned for 2014, and to further improve the quality of the survey instrument.

As part of the research, a series of cognitive interviews were conducted with both management and (where possible) employee respondents to the 2009 ESENER survey in 90 establishments in five countries: Bulgaria, Finland, Germany, Italy and the UK. The interviews explored both how respondents understood and interpreted a number of the survey questions and also the interviewees

The findings across all five countries on the technical aspects of the survey (covering issues with the form and content of the questions and possible response options) are also available in separate country reports through the link below.