In the last 25 years, the use of technology in the workplace has become more prominent across many industries. Workers increasingly depend on the Internet for communicating, researching, conferencing, and training. These trends in the workplace are also shaping the future of public opinion research as an increasing number of surveys provide respondents with the option to complete questionnaires via the Internet.

The purpose of this presentation is to explore the rates with which employees in specific industries have used an available Internet option for questionnaire completion on a long term national study. This study, begun in 2001, is designed to provide information on over 800 occupations in the United States. Employing a two-tiered random sampling method, phone representatives work with contacts at establishments across the country to identify and select a random sample of eligible employees within target occupations. The establishment contact then distributes survey packets that include both paper questionnaires and Web login information to those sampled employees. The employees are asked to complete the questionnaires during non-work times, using either the paper or Web option.

Our presentation will examine the rates with which employees across varying industries opt to complete an occupational questionnaire via the Internet rather than using the traditional paper and pencil version. We will present descriptive data exploring the correlations between the rates of Internet questionnaire completion and respondent education level, establishment size, and the use of technology in the workplace. By investigating metrics such as missing data, speed of questionnaire return, item level

inconsistencies and outliers, we will also examine whether the mode of questionnaire completion has an effect on the quality of the data submitted. Based on our findings, we will make recommendations regarding the advantages and disadvantages of providing an Internet questionnaire option to respondents in an establishment survey.