Pretesting of special module on ICT at work, working conditions & learning digital skills (English Version)

English version:

e) Enter data into business software or databases (e.g. for customer relations management)

German version:

e) Eingabe von Daten in Unternehmens-Software oder Datenbanken (z.B. für Kundenmanagement)

No changes recommended.

The first answer category of item 5e) (“Daily”) was selected by 45.90 percent of the English speaking respondents and 39.66 percent of the German speaking respondents. The second answer category (“Less than daily”) was chosen by 24.59 of the English speaking respondents and 31.03 percent of the German speaking respondents. Finally, 29.51 percent of the British respondents and 29.31 percent of the German respondents indicated that they have never entered data into business software or databases in their main paid job in the last 12 months.

Only respondents that indicated at item e) of question 5 that they enter data into business software or databases in their main job “daily” or “less than daily” received Probe 5. That is, respondents that indicated at this item that they never enter data into business software or databases in their main job were not asked this probe. Therefore, 43 British and 41 German respondents received Probe 5 that asked the respondents whether they could explain their tasks in this context a bit further. The intention of Probe 5 was to evaluate whether the respondents’ perception of the level of complexity of this task is in line with the questionnaire designers’ perception of the level of complexity of this task. From the perspective of the questionnaire designers, entering data should be perceived by the respondents as a relatively basic skill.

The respondents that further explained their tasks in the context of entering data mentioned a variety of specific tasks. These tasks can be subsumed under the broader categories of “accounting & sales management,” “updating databases & creating spreadsheets,” “customer related tasks,” “staff related tasks,” and “gathering, processing, & archiving information.” In addition, some respondents also mentioned specific software which they use in this context (e.g., Access Data Base, Excel, or SQL). Respondents in both countries that referred to specific tasks that fell in the category “accounting & sales management” mentioned that their tasks are related to accounting records (British respondents: 11.63 percent, German respondents: 4.88 percent), invoicing (British respondents: 4.65 percent, German respondents: 7.32 percent), and inventory (British respondents: 2.33 percent, German respondents: 7.32 percent). However, British respondents additionally referred to tasks related to sales management (6.98 percent), budget (2.33 percent), payment of suppliers (2.33 percent), and VAT remittance (2.33 percent). When respondents referred to specific tasks that fell in the broader category of “updating databases & creating spreadsheets,” they either specified that they enter data into databases (British respondents: 9.30 percent, German respondents: 17.07 percent) or spreadsheets (British respondents: 6.98 percent). Most of the respondents in both countries mentioned specific tasks that belong in the broader category of “customer related tasks.” In this context, 30.23 percent of the British and 31.71 percent of the German respondents wrote that they conduct tasks that are related to the customer relationship management of their company. A few respondents also mentioned that they enter data for the analysis of customers’ waiting time (British respondent: 2.33 percent) and for online mailing lists and profiles (British respondents: 4.65 percent, German respondents: 2.44 percent). Respondents referred less frequently to tasks related to the broader category “staff related tasks.” In this context, British respondents specified that they enter staff information into human resource databases (4.65 percent), that they enter data related to the payment of staff (2.33 percent), or daily information on the progress of work (2.33 percent). One German respondent mentioned in this context that he is responsible for the record of working hours.

Depending on the questionnaire designers’ perception of what type of task might be classified as a simple task, tasks that fell into the broader category of “gathering, processing, & archiving information” may have the greatest potential to constitute tasks that are “out of scope” of the questionnaire designers’ definition. In this broader category, most of the tasks require a more elevated skill set compared to the tasks in the other broader categories. In this category, a few respondents in both countries reported that they research and gather information (British respondents: 4.65 percent, German respondents: 4.88 percent) and run data analyses (British respondents: 4.65 percent, German respondents: 4.88 percent). In addition, British respondents also mentioned the tasks of creating surveys (2.33 percent), of entering data into a library management system (2.33 percent), and of creating electronic medical records (2.33 percent).

Besides tasks that can be summarized in the broader categories, some respondents wrote specific software programs. That is, respondents did not describe their tasks more precisely. Instead, these respondents described how they enter the data into the datasets and spreadsheets. Only British respondents mentioned specific software programs. Respondents reported the following software programs in this context: Access data base (4.65 percent), Mango db (2.33 percent), Cisco (2.33 percent), Excel (4.65 percent), Phocas (2.33 percent), SPSS (2.33 percent), and SQL (4.65 percent).

Finally, some respondents refused to answer this probe (British respondents: 11.63 percent (n=5), German respondents: 17.07 percent (n=7)). Nearly none of the respondents indicated that they don’t know how to respond to this question (one British and one German respondent).

For a more detailed breakdown of the respondents‘ answers please refer to the tables in the attached PDF document.

Digitalization/ Use of digital systems

Frequency of performing ICT activities at work