Survey

[Canopus]

Asperger Technical is commissioning an online survey for organisations to gather information about how they support people with AS. Are there any particular questions you think should be included on the form?

[Mumble]

Are you aiming for an open-response (informants write answers to questions in their own words) or closed-response (informants select an answer, tick a box or make a choice on a 1-5 scale) survey?

[Canopus]

Are you aiming for an open-response (informants write answers to questions in their own words) or closed-response (informants select an answer, tick a box or make a choice on a 1-5 scale) survey?

 

Both. At the moment most of the questions are of the tick the box type, but some will take descriptive answers.

[pearl]

Recruitment & selection, is it AS friendly, can standard practice be adapted, work trials instead of or in addition to interviews, extra time for tests, separate room etc.

 

Induction, extra input on this

 

Support at work, mentoring, buddying etc. Finding the right niche.

 

Just realised these are statements rather than questions. But you get the idea.

 

Im really tired right now but will keep thinking.

[Canopus]

Recruitment & selection, is it AS friendly, can standard practice be adapted, work trials instead of or in addition to interviews, extra time for tests, separate room etc.

 

There is a question asking how the organisation tends to recruit staff such as direct advertising, agencies, Job Centre, personal contacts etc. Another question asks about interview practices such as concern over body language or asking sneaky questions requiring diplomatic answers. There is also a set of questions about opinions on the so called skills shortage.

[pearl]

[Mumble]

1. Approximately what proportion of your workforce are registered disabled?
2. Approximately what proportion of your workforce are you aware to have a dignosis of HFA/AS?
3. If you have or do employ AS/HFA individuals were you aware of their diagnosis before you employed them?
4. If not, would you still have employed these individuals? Why/why not?
5. What adaptations to induction strategies do you make for employees with additional needs? How are these tailored specifically for HFA/AS individuals?
6. What processes do you have in place to support AS/HFA employees in disclosing their dignosis and support needs to other employees?
7. Do you use any mentoring scheme to support AS/HFA employees in moving to higher positions if they desire this?
8. Do you currently or have you in the past had any contact with outside agencies to support you in employing an AS/HFA individual?
9. To what extent do you make use of probationary periods?
10. To what extent do you seek these characteristics in future employees: [Then copy in a selection of items like those in the personality test (making sure there's a fair selection related to AS traits) and give a 4 or 5 point answering scale]

[Canopus]

Here's some questions from the section about skills shortage.

 

Difficulty finding people for senior positions (more than 7 years work experience) with plenty of management experience

 

Too many applicants have a poor standard of everyday basic skills such as spelling, grammar, arithmetic, and common sense

 

The education system is not teaching the technical skills my organisation requires

 

Too many applicants know the theory but lack the practical skills required in a workshop or laboratory environment

 

Young people (under 25) can overwhelmingly relate to people of their own age group and work with them as a team, but have difficulty relating to and working with older people

 

Difficulty finding people who understand the cultures and languages of particular countries our organisation works with

 

Too many applicants appear to be reliant on institutionalised education and unable or unwilling to acquire new skills through self education

 

The education system primarily focuses on rote learning and passing exams. It doesn't teach the skills and practices required for the workplace

 

People with the skills and qualifications my organisation requires exist, but rising house prices have made it difficult to recruit people from beyond reasonable commuting distance

 

A high proportion of applicants with technical skills lack business skills such as leadership credential, negotiating, diplomacy, assertiveness, and the ability to recognise social cues

 

A high proportion of applicants with technical skills are too nerdy or come across as geeks. Our organisation prefers more rounded people who take an interest in sports and popular culture.

 

My organisation wants people with work experience in very specific areas (such as specialist machinery or software packages) that are not available to study at a college or university.

 

My organisation wants people with work experience in a diverse range of technologies and disciplines. It can find people who have experience in a few of the disciplines but not all of them.

[Canopus]

The story so far

 

http://www.aspergertechnical.org.uk/employersurvey.html

 

Tell me what you think of it. Are there any other questions you think should be included, or anything changed?

[Mumble]

The story so far

 

http://www.aspergertechnical.org.uk/employersurvey.html

 

Tell me what you think of it. Are there any other questions you think should be included, or anything changed?

 

It seems very well structured and comprehensive. I have two concerns:

1. The length - there needs to be a balance between getting the information required and preventing boredom - this is quite long and people may not complete it or may not complete it carefully.
2. Who completes it within the company - The survey refers to 'you' as in the informant but the person completing it may not be the most knowledgeable - it may be worthwhile having a question at the beginning asking the infirmants job position/responsibilities

Do companies really ask 'what animal would you be?' questions??!! What's the 'expected' answer?

[pearl]

Wow you've put a lot of work into this Canopus.

 

I think its v good, my only reservation is that some of the answers, ie. if someone disclosed AS they probably wouldnt be invited for interview, that box would never be ticked even if that was the case, as they would know they were on dodgy ground admitting to it.

 

And as Mumble said, maybe some of the sections could be amalgamated to make it a little shorter.

[Canopus]

The form is a prototype and I didn't come up with all the questions. My task is developing the behind the scenes software to process and analyse the data.

 

I will admit that the form is quite verbose which could deter some people from filling it in. Do you have any recommendations on which sections to cut out? The issue of who fills in the form has crossed my mind.

[Mumble]

I will admit that the form is quite verbose which could deter some people from filling it in. Do you have any recommendations on which sections to cut out? The issue of who fills in the form has crossed my mind.

How rigorous are you intending this survey and the data from it to be? If you want something with high validity and reliability I would suggest doing a 'test run' with a smaller sample and through statistical analysis looking at which questions are essentially answering the same construct (factor analysis) and hence which could be combined/removed. This will give far more statistically useful data than unrelated questions. Or course it is useful to have some overlap for reliability checks.

[Canopus]

How rigorous are you intending this survey and the data from it to be? If you want something with high validity and reliability I would suggest doing a 'test run' with a smaller sample and through statistical analysis looking at which questions are essentially answering the same construct (factor analysis) and hence which could be combined/removed. This will give far more statistically useful data than unrelated questions. Or course it is useful to have some overlap for reliability checks.

 

The form has been updated and some less important questions removed. Fewer questions will also mean less work on the processing and analysis software. I can't really give it a good test run with high quality data, although people on this forum are more than welcome to enter in 'random' data to check that the processing software is working before revealing the survey to the real world.

 

Tell me what you think of the updated form. Do you think anything needs changing?

[pearl]

A definite improvement Canopus, much more concise & therefore much more likely people will complete it. Well done.