Scottish Employer Perspectives Survey 2021

Methodology

The 2021 survey is the second EPS survey after the Scottish EPS 2019^[17] to be published as Official Statistics. Figures referred to in this report from EPS 2014^[18] and 2016^[19] were published in research reports by the former non-departmental government body (NDPB) the UK Commission for Employment and Skills (UKCES).

The population from which the Scottish EPS sample was taken is all 'establishments' in Scotland that had at least two people working there (including working proprietors). The starting sample was drawn from the commercial data supplier, Market Location. This approach matches previous iterations of the survey and has been taken as it tends to be much easier for survey respondents to think in terms of the overall 'headcount' for their site – including both working proprietors and employees – than to separate out these two groups. The survey also excluded the self-employed (with no employees). The question approach for this group would need to be different, since they are by definition not 'employers'. There is also an absence of robust population figures for the self-employed group, meaning robust and representative sampling and weighting is difficult to achieve.

Telephone interviews were conducted with establishments between 29^th November and 24^th December 2021.

A total of 1,000 interviews were achieved. A target of 1,000 was decided to ensure that the margin of error would be below +/- 5%; the final margin of error for the overall sample was +/- 3.1%. Further detail on the margin of error can be found in the technical note accompanying this report.

As the survey was conducted during the COVID-19 pandemic, results (including comparisons over time) should be considered within this context. Further detail is provided in the following section.

Further detailed information on methodology is available in the accompanying technical report, published on the Scottish Government website.