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Last year, a large retail company, with 5,000 employees in branches around the country launched its Well At Work initiative. Well At Work provides a...

Last year, a large retail company, with 5,000 employees in branches around the country launched its Well At Work initiative. Well At Work provides a range of confidential services to improve staff morale and wellbeing. This range includes services such as free health checks, free financial advice and support to stop smoking. The company wants to find out how staff view these services, how useful they are, and if they have helped improve staff satisfaction. They have asked all employees to complete an online research questionnaire which contains the following questions.
The company would like to know which staff groups, according to grade and geographic area, are making most use of the services. The HR Director has asked to look at the completed questionnaires so she can get a feel for the results for each area and staff group. You realize she may be misled by or she may misinterpret the raw data.
a) Identify at least two issues which should be taken into account when comparing the raw data for the different groups, stating why these issues are important.
b) Describe at least two ways in which you might analyze the data in order to provide the company with the robust information they need. Giving reasons for the suggestions you make.

Answers

a)
Issues may include some/all of the following:
Sample size: Does the sample for each group represent its proportion in the population as a whole?
Absolute sample size and its statistical reliability
What is being compared? Looking at the questionnaires, the HR Director may be noticing only limited comparisons (e.g. managers in different areas/ responses to one particular service). Need to be clear about what is being compared
Missing/incomplete data: The HR Director has looked at the questionnaires but the data may not have been edited for analysis – e.g. some questionnaire responses may be incomplete
How are ’rather not say’ areas being interpreted? Does company need to know this? Or are they only counting definite yes/nos?
Data privacy and the Code of Conduct (being able to identify an individual employee by their answers on geographic area and employee grade)
Response Rates – how they may impact data interpretation (especially if it varies by geographic region)
Questions may be misunderstood by respondents. The company may be referring to its geographic regions but these may differ from standard regions therefore making it unclear which definition the respondent has used

b)
- cross- tabulation
- percentages - for each geographical and/or staff group against each WAW service weighting – so that results for disparate sizes of groups can be compared
- analyse the different combinations of training received

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Kavungya answered the question on May 13, 2021 at 12:22

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• Step Forward is a national initiative to provide support for young, unemployed people aged 16- 24. It brings together Government and voluntary sector organizations which offer...(Solved)
  

  Step Forward is a national initiative to provide support for young, unemployed people aged 16-
  24. It brings together Government and voluntary sector organizations which offer a wide range of services and support for clients, such as career coaching, skills training and work experience placements.
  Every year, the Government provides funding for a national conference which brings together representatives of the organizations working together under the Step Forward banner. The aim of the conference is to share good practice and to promote innovative ways to support the young people who use the services. The organizers hope that this will help representatives take new ideas back to their own organizations and therefore help to improve the services provided across the country. To support this aim, the organizers provide a year-round conference website which allows access to information and presentations from the past three conferences. In addition, each conference includes an exhibition of companies and organizations which provide relevant goods and services.
  This year’s conference is scheduled to take place in three months’ time. However, the organizers have been informed that there may not be Government funding beyond this year unless they can provide evidence that the event achieves its aim of helping to improve the services offered to young people to help them get into work. Therefore, they have decided to commission your agency to research the effectiveness of the conference. The results will be needed before the conference takes place.
  You are a research executive and you have been asked to prepare a proposal for the conference research project. You are about to meet your manager to discuss your ideas for a suitable proposal.
  a) Using the internet, what secondary research would you undertake to find out whether recommendations from previous conferences have been implemented by the organizations delivering the Step Forward initiative? Outline briefly how you would approach this task, giving reasons for your suggestions. You should highlight any relevant ethical issues which you would need to consider, and how you would address these when undertaking this task.
  b) Devise an outline plan for a programme of primary research to address the organizers’ need to understand how effective the conference is in helping the Step Forward organizations to improve their services. In your plan include the research design, the sampling plan and the method(s) of data collection. Give reasons for each of the choices you make.
  c) How could the conference itself be used to provide additional research? Identify at least one suitable approach which could be used to gather data at the event. Discuss the benefits and limitations of your chosen approach. You should highlight any ethical issues which you would need to consider when using your chosen approach, and how these could be addressed.

  Date posted: May 13, 2021.  Answers (1)