EWCS 2015 - Questionnaire

A high quality questionnaire is a key element of a successful survey: therefore, Eurofound invests heavily in development and translation. Each time the European Working Conditions Survey (EWCS) is run, the questionnaire is revised with the support of experts and policy actors, and the guidance of Eurofound’s stakeholders.

The sixth EWCS questionnaire includes questions from previous surveys to enable analysis over time. It also contains new questions that address emerging challenges and policy issues of interest. In developing the questionnaire – and in its analysis – gender mainstreaming has been a guiding principle.

The EWCS aims to capture workers' concrete experience. It includes the following topics:

• physical and psychosocial risk factors
• working time: duration, organisation, predictability and flexibility; work–life balance
• place of work
• speed of work, pace determinants
• employee participation, human resource policies and work organisation  (such as task rotation); employee representation
• skills use, cognitive dimensions of work, decision-making authority, and learning in work
• employment conditions: job security and insecurity
• social relations at work: support, trust, cooperation, discrimination, violence
• gender issues: segregation, household composition, unpaid’ work, extent of women in supervisory positions
• well-being and health, earnings and financial security.

Language versions used in each country covered by the EWCS are available.

Our data visualisation tool provides information on selected important variables.