Hey folks, I was contacted by RAND awhile back about this survey and they asked me if I would be willing to help them out when the time came. So that time is now, and here is the survey which is described below.
Also, I asked the folks at RAND what they plan on doing with this information and who was sponsoring this, and this is is what they said:
…this is actually a RAND-sponsored study, funded with RAND’s own internal research and development funds. The goal of such studies is to build up a knowledge base on topics such as this one that may not have much existing research done on them to date, with the goal of raising awareness and potentially bringing in follow-on work from various sponsors. We will be briefing several of the participating companies on our results, as a courtesy to thank them for their assistance in distributing the survey. We will also make an attempt to brief the study’s results to any interested government parties, and will aim to distribute the report, once published, as widely as possible. Ultimately, we are not doing this for any one client, and our goal is to make the published research very widely available.
What is cool is that if you complete the survey, they will make a donation to the Wounded Warriors Foundation. When they complete this study, I will put up a post about the results and it should be interesting.
My personal view on this is that we need to get a handle on where this industry is at when it comes to our health. All of us have been participating in the war for a very long time and I have no doubt that our community has been impacted–much like the military has. Contractors from 2388 companies have had over 3,258 killed and over 89,182 wounded–so the war has definitely had an impact on our health and well-being. Check it out below and let me know if you have any issues with the survey or if you have any feedback, because I imagine the team at RAND will be checking out your comments. –Matt
Link to survey here.
If you are a private contractor with deployment experience:
The RAND Corporation, a non-partisan, non-profit institution that helps improve policy and decision making through research and analysis, is sponsoring a study on the health and well-being of private contractor personnel who deploy to conflict zones (including maritime security personnel). Private contractors continue to provide crucial support to both governmental and non-governmental entities across the globe, yet the health and well-being issues facing deployed contractors are not well understood.
To that end, RAND is conducting a short, 10-minute survey of current and former contractors with deployment experience. The reliability of the study’s results – and hence its usefulness for the contractor community – will depend upon the number of people who complete the survey.
Your participation in this study is entirely voluntary and confidential. The study is completely anonymous: no identifying information on either yourself or your employer will be collected, your answers will go directly to RAND, and your company will never see them.
This is your chance to share your experiences. If you agree to complete the survey, you can access it online at this link:
To thank you for your participation, we will make a donation to the Wounded Warrior Project for every person who responds in full to the survey. The Wounded Warrior Project is a non-profit organization that provides programs and services to meet the needs of injured service members and veterans.
We hope you will agree to participate in this study by completing the survey. Every contractor experiences deployment in a unique way and your contribution will help us get the full picture of how the deployment experience affects contractor health and well-being. If you have any questions about the study, please contact us at the following email address:
contractorsurvey@rand.org