Step 2: Field Operations

The term "survey field operations" refers to all day-to-day activities required to implement a survey as well as the management of these activities. While simple, survey field operations are important and should be carried out in a careful and methodical manner. A typical survey day can be broken down many ways. We use a simple division that bundles the various activities which will be carried out in a typical day. This division has five parts:

Before the Morning Meeting with Enumerators

Before the morning meeting with the enumerator team, the survey manager should

ensure that all questionnaires from the previous day have been reviewed and logged,
review all enumerator location assignments,
review plans for the morning enumerator meeting.

It is critical that the survey manager is thoroughly prepared for the morning enumerator meeting. Being fully prepared will help ensure that enumerators are deployed properly, that they have the information they need to carry out their assignments, and that they have confidence in the survey manager. A sense of confidence in the survey manager is critical. When enumerators are not confident in the survey manager, they will not see the benefit of asking the manager questions they might have, they will be less likely to correctly implement the sampling plan, they will be much less likely to share interesting (and important) information which they learn in the field, and they will not treat the survey as a serious undertaking.

Morning Meeting with Enumerators

The morning meeting is designed to accomplish several important goals. The main focus is discussing planned activities for the current day. It is also important, however, to discuss any relevant issues related to the preceding survey day(s). As with all meetings, enumerators should be encouraged to ask questions and make suggestions at any point. The following plan is a good starting point for organizing a typical morning meeting.

First, questionnaires not received during the previous evening’s meeting must be collected, reviewed, and logged. This activity, carried out prior to the planned discussion with enumerators, will allow the survey manager to make any final revisions to the current day’s enumerator location assignments.

Second, it is important to briefly review the previous days’ activities. In particular, the survey manager should describe progress in implementing the overall sampling plan. This will allow enumerators to understand the role of planned activities for the coming day in fulfilling the overall objectives of the survey.

Third, the survey manager should review any issues or problems which arose during the preceding survey day and will affect, or are likely to affect, the current day’s activities. Specifically, the survey manager should discuss strategies that have been designed and/or adjustments that have been made to handle these problems.

Fourth, daily enumerator location assignments should be given and reviewed. Enumerators should be clearly instructed where they are to conduct interviews as well as how many questionnaires of each type they are expected to administer in each area. We recommend the use of daily, enumerator-specific maps for these assignments.

After enumerator location assignments have been reviewed, the survey manager should lead a question and answer session. Questions concerning the day’s sampling plan should be given particular attention.

Finally, the survey manager should announce (1) which enumerator(s) he or she will accompany to the field during the current day and (2) which questionnaires from the previous day(s) will be followed up with calls and/or visits from survey management.

Intraday Monitoring and Support of Enumerators

Support

The survey manager should be available to the enumerators at all times during the survey day. If the survey manager does not have a mobile phone, one should be provided for his or her use during the survey period. Enumerators should be given this number and encouraged to call with any questions, regardless of how small.

Monitoring

The survey manager should accompany at least one enumerator into the field each day. This enumerator should be selected at random at the conclusion of each morning enumerator meeting. Actually drawing names out of a hat can be a useful way to ensure that enumerators (1) understand that they can be selected on any given day and (2) do not feel that selection is determined by manager favoritism. If it is possible to use additional staff, multiple enumerators can be monitored on certain days. A heavier-than-announced level of monitoring is ideal early in the survey process.

Evening Meeting with Enumerators

A set time should be established for an evening meeting of the survey team. As with the morning meeting, the evening session is designed to accomplish several goals. These goals center primarily on receiving and checking questionnaires, but issues that arise during the day should be discussed. The following outline describes a full evening enumerator meeting.

First, the survey manager should receive the day’s completed questionnaires from enumerators. The process of receiving includes review of questionnaires, particularly the respondent identification number for each; making corrections as necessary to identification numbers; logging of questionnaires; and payment for properly completed questionnaires.

Second, the survey manager should lead a group discussion of other issues or problems which arise. As with the morning meeting, the survey manager should encourage all enumerators to discuss any issues which they feel are interesting and/or important. Problems for which the survey manager does not have an immediate solution can be revisited during the following morning’s meeting.

All enumerators should be instructed to attend each morning’s team meeting. For enumerators who absolutely cannot attend the following morning’s meeting, location assignments for the following day can be given. They should be instructed, however, to contact the survey manager the following morning before proceeding to the field to learn if adjustments have been made to their assignment.

Post-Evening Meeting Activities

The survey manager’s day does not end with the conclusion of the evening meeting with enumerators. Following completion of the evening, the survey manager has several activities which must be carried out.

First, the manager must store completed questionnaires. Lost questionnaires are costly to replace and can result in serious problems with implementation of the sampling plan. A systematic filing scheme should be used so that all individual questionnaires can be easily accessed and located by identification number. In the evening, the survey manager must make a full enumerator deployment plan for the following day. After the number of completed questionnaires for each survey area has been tabulated, the survey manager should calculate the number that must be completed the following day. This calculation will be based on the number of available enumerators, assignments made during the evening enumerator meeting, the total required sample for each area, and the number of completed questionnaires for each area.

To the extent that time is available and to the extent that the survey manager also has a data entry/analysis role, evenings can be used for data entry, data cleaning, and preliminary analysis.

Back to Step 1: Questionnaire Design

Proceed to Step 3: Enumerators

Back to Evidence Gathering page