1. Reducing the administrative burden in official statistics – Enterprise respondents in focus SIMPLY2010 Ghent Conference 2.-3. December 2010 Hannele Orjala Director, Business Trends Department

2. Outline Finnish Action Plan for reducing administrative burden Enterprise data collection programme of Statistics Finland Comprehensive information on data collections online and enterprise data collection service Promotion of electronic data collection and direct data collection Measurement of the response burden in statistics Challenges 2011-2014 Development of respondent relations Conclusions 10.9.20151

3. Statistics Finland Government organization, founded 1865, located in Helsinki 1,020 employees, 200 statistical interviewers, 876 staff-years 65% of staff hold at least lowest level tertiary or university qualification Total funding EUR 63.5 million, revenue from external financing 19% of funds 200 statistical topics, 650 statistical releases 75 % of Finland’s official statistics comes from SF 10.9.20152

4. 3 Finnish Action Plan for the reduction of the administrative burden on businesses 2009-2012 The Ministry of Employment and the Economy (MEE) launched the project in August 2008 In March 2009 the Finnish Government approved a decision-in-principle on the Action Plan for 2009-2012 The aim is to reduce burden by 25 per cent from the 2006 level by the end of 2012 Contains eight priority areas + one horizontal priority 1. Taxation 2. Employers’ reporting obligations 3. Financial reporting 4. Public procurement 5. Environmental permit procedures 6. Food safety and quality 7. Statistics 8. Agricultural subsidization procedures Development of electronic communication for businesses is the horizontal priority. eGovernment is a key measure to reduce administrative burden in Finland

5. EU legislation – what can a Member State do? Heavy use of administrative and commercial data (Finland 40-50 different sources, 95% of input data comes from them) Methodological solutions (editing, imputing, mix-mode sources) Utilization of European Sample Scheme, thresholds, simplications of legislation Influence the legislation in advance, example Statistics on tourism (Council: Working Party on Statistics) 10.9.20154 EU legal acts in force relating to Statistics Finland

6. Enterprise data collection programme 2007-2011 - Tasks and aims Coordinate statistics and development projects Identify and evaluate development needs Share information and good practises Measure response burden of statistics in Finland Participate in the Finnish Action Plan for reducing administrative burden 2012 decline in response burden business register used as a sample frame sample coordination and optimization standard solutions for data collection 10.9.20155

7. 6 Production process of statistics Suppliers and sources of data Keepers of administrative data files Enterprises and corporations Individuals Households Data users Public administration Enterprises and corporations Research Media Ordinary people Metadata: Interperetation of contents, process steering, data management, statistical methods, concepts and classifications Acquiring data Direct data collection Exploitation of administra- tive data files Data processing AnalysisPublication and dissemination Web services Publications Production process of statistics Feedback and continuous, systematic improvement

8. The main projects of the programme are: Comprehensive information on data collections online and enterprise data collection service Quality assurance and automatic editing for VAT and employer payments data Processing of data on large enterprises and development of procedures to handle respondent relations with large enterprises Measurement of the response burden Improvement of the usability of electronic (web-based) data collection forms Direct data collection from the information systems of enterprises Development of the co-ordination of samples for statistics on enterprises Making the Business Register the core element for data on enterprises Development of the system for receiving administrative data Sample coordination, editing etc. 10.9.20157

9. 8 Developing direct data collection - cases ActionBackground/information 1. Comprehensive information on data collections online and enterprise data collection service http://www.stat.fi/keruu/yritys_en.html http://www.stat.fi/keruu/tiedonkeruupalvelu_yrityksille_ en.html 2. Promotion of electronic data collection and direct data collection from the information systems of enterprises Electronic response alternative - Xcola in all data collections (2007-) Automated data collection in accommodation statistics (2006-) Paperless data collection (19 out of 70 economic statistics-) 76-100 % web response rate Improvement of the usability of electronic (web- based) data collection forms 3. Measurement of the response burden Modification of standard cost model

10. Comprehensive information on data collections online and enterprise data collection service 10.9.20159

11. Enterprise data collection service – an example Contains information about the inquiries 60-70 independent data collection processes Data collection pages, an enterprise can ; find basic information about the inquiries seek guidance for answering inquiries log in to the inquiry / answer via web find links to inquiry results find contact information of statistics check which Statistics Finland’s data collections concern them 10.9.2015Statistics Finland

12. Data collection service 10.9.2015Statistics Finland Data collections

13. 16 June 200812Hannele Orjala http://www.tilastokeskus.fi/keruu/yritys_en.html

14. 10.9.2015Statistics Finland Data collection service

15. 10.9.2015 Enterprise data collection service -content Statistics Finland Enterprise data collection service

16. Promotion of electronic data collection and direct data collection from the information systems of enterprises 10.9.201515

17. 16 Direct collection vs. utilization of administrative data in statistics on enterprises Business statistics Number of enterprises, direct data collection Administrative data Structural Business Statistics 8,000 (3%)270,000 Business Register25,000 (5%)over 550,000 Short Term Business Statistics Turnover2,000 (1%) 250,000 Wages and salaries 61(<0.001%) 110,000

18. Quarterly and monthly statistics, only/mainly web inquiry More info The quarterly inquiry on international trade in services On request an exell form, few excel-respondents The sales inquiry, monthlyPossibility to download paper form from Internet, over 90% response rate by web The sales inquiry/Fixed assets data, monthly-”- Labour cost index in the private sector, quarterlyPossibility to download paper form from Internet Price inquiry on producer price indices for manufactured products, monthly 30 % gets the form via e-mail, also possibility to download paper form from Internet (only few) 10/09/201517

19. 10/09/201518 Annual statistics, only web inquiryMore info The annual inquiry on foreign trade in servicesOn request an exell form, few excel-respondents Periodical regional survey of tradePossibility to download paper form from Internet, 25-30 % answer by paper Periodic survey of motor vehicle trade-”- Periodical survey of retail trade-”- Periodical survey of wholesale trade-”- Finnish affiliates abroadOnly electronic web-form Business Services Statistics-”- Financial statements inquiry for enterprisesPossibility to download paper form from Internet, 10 % answer by paper Inquiry for industrial establishments-”- Inquiry on manufacturing commoditiesAutomatically only web-form for previous web-respondent, for other respondents also paper form Business Register inquiry for small single-establishment enterprises Possibility to download paper form from Internet or get on request a paper form, 1 % answer by paper Business Register inquiry for single-establishment enterprises -”- Business Register inquiry for new enterprises-”- Inquiry on private sector wages and salariesPossibility to download paper form from Internet

20. 19 Data direct from hotel management system – XML Web Service – an example Choose month and send the report Choose report to Statistics Finland October

21. 20 Experiences in Finland Trade Magazine for Hotels and Restaurants: “Data reporting is now extremely easy.” Data quality is good Data is coming faster than before, just a few days after the reference period Response burden is almost zero, previously 1-2 hours per month Costs have fallen in terms of working hours, mailing and printing expenses Cooperation with Eurostat (MEETS ESSnet project) and IT enterprises continues, results for all Member States

22. Measurement of the response burden 10.9.201521

23. 10.9.201522 Response burden (2009) 21% of enterprises received at least one data collection 68% received only one inquiry Burden measurement: Questionnaires in 41 surveys 2008-2009 Over 13,500 responses Modification of Standard Cost Model Table. Direct data collections according to size of enterprise *Active enterprise= liable to pay VAT on business operations, and/or employer enterprise or included in the withholding tax register Size category of personnel Number of data collections Percentage of active enterprises* 12-45-910-Total Under 10 persons45,0598,3212671053,65716% 10-49 persons3,2557,9252,85312214,15591% 50-249 persons946461,2467522,738100% Over 249 persons1247127496682100% Total48,42016,9394,4931,38071,23221% %68%24%6%2%100%

24. The response burden inquiry 1) How many persons participated in preparing and filling in the answers to the questions included in the inquiry? Within your enterprise ___ persons, outside your enterprise ___ persons. 2) How much time did you spend on acquiring and processing the inquired data prior to their actual entry onto the questionnaire? (total time for all participants) ____ hours and ____ minutes. 3) How long did it take you to actually fill in the questionnaire? ____ hours and ____ minutes. 4) Have any changes been made to your information systems in the past three years to make it easier for you to answer to this inquiry?  None  Minor changes  Some changes  Extensive changes  Don’t know 10.9.2015Statistics Finland

25. 5) Did you find that answering to the inquiry was?  Very easy  Fairly easy  Neither easy nor burdensome  Fairly burdensome  Very burdensome 6) How did you find the inquiry you just answered? There were too many questions  Yes  No The questions were complicated  Yes  No The inquired data were available at the time of answering  Yes  No The answering required lengthy calculations  Yes  No The data had to be gathered from two or more sources  Yes  No Help was needed from other persons  Yes  No The inquired data were available at your enterprise  Yes  No It was difficult to decide which answer would be correct  Yes  No The definitions and instruction were not very clear  Yes  No The layout made the questionnaire difficult to read  Yes  No There were technical problems with the web-based questionnaire  Yes  No Other reasons that increased the burden of answering? ______________________________________________________________ 7) Feedback and suggestions for improvement concerning the questionnaires, instructions, customer service, data collection application or other matters related to the inquiry: 10.9.2015Statistics Finland

26. Statistics Finland total: Did you find that answering to the inquiry was? – an example of results 10.9.2015Statistics Finland

27. Statistics Finland total : Sources of response burden - an example of results 10.9.2015Statistics Finland

28. The most burdensome inquiries: Total time spent on acquiring and processing the inquired data and filling in the inquiry top 12, year 2009 10.9.2015Statistics Finland

29. Direct business data collections, response burden 2008 Staff-years (Source: Confederation of Finnish Industries (EK) estimation about employees’ average working hours per annum (year 2008), staff-year = total of working hours / 1717.5) Statistics Finland 190 staff-years National Board of Customs: Intrastat210 staff-years Costs (Source: Private sector monthly salaries average, year 2008, in Classification of Occupations: Clerks) Statistics Finland’s direct data collectionsEUR 8.3 million National Board of Customs: Intrastat EUR 9.2 million 10.9.2015Statistics Finland

30. Direct business data collections response burden 2006-2010* 10.9.201529

31. Project on usability testing of web questionnaires The aim of the project is to do usability testing with data collections during 2009-2010 Business Register inquiry for multi-establishment enterprises, Finnish affiliates abroad, Inquiry on service commodity, Information technology and electronic commerce in enterprises, Inquiry on private sector wages and salaries, Financial statements inquiry for enterprises and Finance of housing corporations The screen capture software DreamScreen brought the experience of respondents into the video clips are in the server behind password and could be seen in Internet just clicking the hyperlink of a recording As a broader goal is to develop a model of usability testing process in Statistics Finland and develop design guidelines in web questionnaires A long term goal is to launch user-centered design methods culture 30

32. Challenges of the programme 2011-2014 The Business Register in a consistent enterprise data system 2,1 million Euro finance 2011-2014 30+ staff-years FIA – fully integrated accounting system Partners with enterprises, Tax Authorities and many other organisations Data directly from enterprise accounting systems via common report codes Common web identification ”Katso” One common system with the authorities 10.9.201531

33. The Business Register in a consistent enterprise data system ”Enterprise production database” (1) - Production system of the Business Register -Production systems of other /selected statistics Free unit information service on web Charged batch service Data collection Administrative files, their metadata and their basic checking Direct data collection (XCOLA, FIA etc.?) Processing of data into production database Estimation, imputation Data checking, utilisation of data from other statistics, prompt verification of structural changes Data processing Data dissemination Updating once a day Annual statistics on Finnish enterprises Statistics X on enterprises Inquiries to enterprises jointly with other statistics Warehouse of data on enterprises (2) Data on each item only once. E.g. industry, turnover, personnel National Accounts Information service Updating once a day Co-ordination of samples Register of data providers Archiving of data

34. 33 Production process of statistics – co-operation Suppliers and sources of data Keepers of administrative data files Enterprises and corporations Individuals Households Data users Public administration Enterprises and corporations Research Media Ordinary people Metadata: Interperetation of contents, process steering, data management, statistical methods, concepts and classifications Acquiring data Direct data collection Exploitation of administra- tive data files Data processing AnalysisPublication and dissemination Web services Publications Production process of statistics Feedback and continuous, systematic improvement

35. 34 Structure of cooperation with data providers and enterprises Suppliers and sources of data Keepers of administrative data files Enterprises and corporations Government data administration (JUHTA), sub-division for register providers Appointed coordinator at Statistics Finland for each administrative data provider Regular bilateral meetings at different levels of organizations Liaison group between business sector and Statistics Finland since early 1990s Coordinator and working group for large enterprises Data collection service – feedback, web service Agenda 19.10.2010 -SNA and ESA -ROAD TRAFFIC TRANSPORT STATISTICS -EGR - STS Sales inquiry

36. Administrative burden per country (Source: European Commission 2006) 10.9.201535

37. 36 Conclusions The aim is to achieve high-quality and coherent economic statistics for users and reduce response burden (Strategy of Statistics Finland 2007) Development focus on Direct data collections / automated direct data collecting Services to data providers and (large) enterprises Methodological exploitation of administrative data Reshaping of statistical production process Consistent systems / processes within public sector International cooperation with other statistical offices Tools Programme for the development of data collections from enterprises 2007- 2011 and the Finnish Action Plan for reduction of administrative burden 2009-2012 Cooperation with data providers and respondents

38. 37 Thank you for your attention! Hannele Orjala Director, Business Trends Department Statistics Finland hannele.orjala@stat.fi www.stat.fi/index_en.html