Gauging What Employers Think: Lessons Learned from Fielding the 2022 Department of Defense National Survey of Employers

Abstract

urveys are widely used in policy research to gather information about individuals and institutions, gain perspectives on timely topics and trends, and inform policy development and implementation. As part of a research project designed to shed light on the state of the relationship between members of the U.S. reserve component (RC) and their civilian employers, researchers at the RAND Corporation developed and administered the 2022 Department of Defense (DoD) National Survey of Employers (the 2022 employer survey). This survey, a modified version of the 2011 DoD National Survey of Employers (the 2011 employer survey), was sent to private-sector employers of varying sizes, DoD and non-DoD federal agencies, and state and local governments.The survey asked about employer experiences with RC employees-both rewards and challengeswith an emphasis on the implications of military duty-related absences.The process of developing and administering the survey yielded lessons learned beyond the substantive findings presented in our main research report (Werber et al., 2024). These lessons could inform future efforts to survey employers of RC personnel. Some lessons could apply in other contexts as well. In this companion report, we catalog survey lessons learned related to (1) selecting a sample, (2) developing survey content, (3) obtaining required approvals, and (4) encouraging survey response. For each set of lessons, we describe the implications of the lessons and make recommendations for researchers and research sponsors. The primary audience for this report is DoD and other federal agencies that have an interest in RC member civilian employment, although portions of this report might be of interest to researchers more broadly.