Supporting Statement B_0702_2018-07-12

Supporting Statement B

Army Marketing and Research Group- “Marketing Army Civilian Employment Survey”

B. COLLECTIONS OF INFORMATION EMPLOYING STATISTICAL METHODS

1. Description of the Activity

The goal of the study is to inform how the Army can more effectively market to support the recruiting of Department of the Army (DA) civilian critical occupations. This study is important to the Army as attracting a high-quality talent pool in mission-critical occupations such as Engineering, Information Technology and Cyber Security is vital to the Army’s ability to prevail in complex environments and remain adaptable in a difficult recruiting environment. This study focuses on high profile, difficult to fill DA civilian fields, but, where appropriate, the results will be used in marketing for all DA civilian occupations.

An Army civilian is an employee of the United States Army who fills Department of Defense roles in more than 500 careers, including contracting, engineering, medicine and information technology. Army Civilian Service provides mission-essential support to Soldiers by providing a workforce of talented, qualified people to fill critical non-combat mission-critical positions.

Information gathered from the survey will be analyzed using summary statistics (e.g., frequencies, means) as well as several multivariate techniques including Latent Class Modeling (to group respondents into relatively homogeneous segments), Factor Analysis (to summarize data), Multiple Regression (to identify relationships between key variables).

The study will to gather insights on non-federal employees’ awareness of and attitudes toward civilian career opportunities within the Army. The insights gathered will inform a civilian brand campaign for the FY 2019 Annual Marketing Plan (AMP). The survey needs to begin in early 2018 in order for results from both phases to be used to develop a marketing campaign for the FY2019.

Survey participants will be prospective candidates for Army civilian employment who are either:

• College juniors, seniors or graduate students currently pursuing a major that aligns with one of the following careers, or:

• Professionals currently employed at different career stages (junior and mid-level) in one of the mission-critical careers below:

- Civil Engineering, up to 55 years old, and not working for the military

- Electronics Engineering, up to 55 years old, and not working for the military

- Contracting, up to 55 years old, and not working for the military

- Information Technology Management, up to 55 years old, and not working for the military

The number of respondents in the respondent universe is not known. Participants will be recruited for the survey and be comprised of specific careers and career stages. Response rates are anticipated to be 40% as participants are members of a survey panel.

The project will use data collected from surveys of 5,000 participants (lasting about 20 minutes each).

2. Procedures for the Collection of Information

Survey invitations will be assigned by participant type (student, early career professional, mid-career professional, late-career professional) and by specific field. Additionally, respondents will be recruited in rough proportion to their representation in their particular occupation, ensuring that minorities and veterans (if applicable) are represented. 

3. Maximization of Response Rates, Non-response, and Reliability

Only the survey will be used to collect information. We will take steps to maximize response rates and minimize non-response rates for the survey including:

• Keeping the survey field open for a minimum of 14 days, with invitations issued over the first 7 days. This will allow participants an opportunity to take the survey when it is convenient for them.

• Providing reassurance of the legitimacy of the study as well as of the confidentiality of participants’ information.

• A demographic summary of respondents will be reviewed on a daily basis, with invitations adjusted to ensure that the final sample is representative

We will also address different aspects of the survey that impact validity and reliability:

• The sample will accurately represent the target population (within a margin of error). This is addressed in section 2 above.

• The questions will be framed in the research instrument to produce consistent, unbiased results.

• Questionnaire order will be reviewed to minimize sequential bias.

• The senior researchers and the Government research project manager will draw on their decades of experience in the survey research field.

For the Sample Frame, Potential respondents for each population will be drawn from an online consumer panel. The panel has over 11 million members who are recruited from many sources to increase representativeness. Representativeness is further ensured because potential respondents for a given study are drawn from the panel to reflect the characteristics of the study population. For example, in a study of the general population of the U.S., potential respondents would be selected so their demographics match that of the U.S. census.

The total sample size is 5,000 participants and the sample design calls for an equal number of respondents across all careers (1,250 each) and an equal number of respondents who are pre-career, early-career and late-career (1,667 each) evenly divided across each career group. Pre-career respondents will be students (college juniors, seniors or graduate students). Early-and mid-career respondents will be professionals, classified based on their age.

Respondent Selection and Data Collections:

Step 1. The consumer panel contains data on respondents’ occupation and/or current educational status, so only those employed or in college studying one of the four specified occupations will be included in the sample pool.

Step 2. Potential respondents based on Step 1 will be selected randomly and invited to participate in the study.

Step 3. Those who agree to participate will answer a set of initial screening questions:

• Professionals: confirm they are employed in a relevant occupation, meet the age criteria and are not employed by the military.

• Students: confirm they are in the appropriate year of study, are interested in pursuing a career in one of the appropriate four fields and are not employed by the military.

Step 4. Potential respondents will receive an initial request to participate and at least two reminder communications.

For weighting procedures, e will profile all respondents invited to participate in the study on key demographic criteria (the online panel maintains this data on all members). If the final sample departs from the profile of all invited respondents, we will correct this via weighting.

4. Test of Procedures

Identification and screening of potential participants will be conducted by on an online survey panel. The survey instrument (questionnaire) covering all topics of interest will be prepared and reviewed extensively. Furthermore, before the start of full fielding, a limited number of participants will be recruited and their responses closely reviewed to ensure that questions are being understood and response categories are appropriate.

5. Statistical Consultation and Information Analysis

Information gathered from the survey will be analyzed using summary statistics (e.g., frequencies, means) as well as several multivariate techniques including Latent Class Modeling (to group respondents into relatively homogeneous segments), Factor Analysis (to summarize data), Multivariate Regression (to identify relationships between key variables).

Statistical analyses will be carried out by Echo Cove Research & Consulting and the RAND Corporation. The principal investigators have more than 30 years of experience in marketing and recruiting research.

Overseeing the research is Richard Schreuer, Echo Cove Research & Consulting, 978-578-4028, and Bruce R. Orvis, PhD, RAND Corporation, 310-393-0411.