5. Methods
5.1. Participants and procedure
The Ergonomics Climate Assessment was first piloted on 130
employees at an international manufacturer of earth moving
equipment that consisted of both office and production employees.
Employees were divided between multiple departments and multiple
buildings on the facility's campus. Employees in each
department were responsible for assembling various parts of the
final product, and each department had their own team supervisor.
Respondents were mostly Caucasian (84%) males (98%) with an
average age of 33 years (SD ¼ 11 months). One month following the
pilot survey, 1593 employees from the same manufacturing company
were invited to participate in the survey (Sample 1). We
received 1031 responses (65% response rate), of which 84% were
line employees and 16% were office employees. The majority of
those surveyed were Caucasian (86.8%) and male (91%) with an
average age of 37 years (SD ¼ 11 months). Line employees were
surveyed in person during normal work hours, and office employees
were provided with an online link to the survey.
One year later, the same manufacturing facility was surveyed
again using the same methodology. A total of 706 employees
responded, resulting in a response rate of 53% (Sample 2). Of those
that responded, 87% were line employees and 13% were office
employees. Most of those surveyed were Caucasian (85%) and male
(90.6%) with an average age of 38 years (SD ¼ 12 months). Due to
concerns about confidentiality expressed by the management and
employee representatives, we were not able to link responses at the
individual level from Survey 1 to Survey 2. Although the samples
are not independent, it is likely that they are also not completely
overlapping, and so the samples were analyzed separately to provide
additional insight.