Workplace Employment Relations Study (WERS)
This series brings together all documents relating to the Workplace Employment Relations Study (WERS).
The Workplace Employment Relations Study (WERS) is a national survey of people at work in Britain. It is the flagship survey of employment relations in Britain. It collects data from employers, employee representatives and employees in a representative sample of workplaces. WERS has been undertaken 6 times: 1980, 1984, 1990, 1998, 2004 and 2011. Fieldwork for the 2011 WERS (the sixth study) was completed in June 2012. Further information on the survey series is available from the .
The 2011 WERS is co-sponsored by the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills (BIS), , the , the and the . NIESR鈥檚 involvement is made possible through funding from the Nuffield Foundation.
The book of the 2011 WERS is available to buy for 拢24.99.
The main objectives of WERS are to:
- map workplace employment relations in Britain and changes over time
- inform policy development and practice, and stimulate debate
- provide a comprehensive and statistically reliable datataset on British workplace employment relations, which is made publicly available and easily accessible
The information collected in WERS comes from 3 distinct sources:
- a random probability sample of workplaces in which face-to-face structured interviews are conducted with the most senior manager responsible for employment relations and personnel issues - in each workplace a self-completion questionnaire is distributed before the interview to collate information on the basic characteristics of the workforce, and a second questionnaire is left at the end of the interview to assess the financial performance of the workplace
- survey interviews are undertaken in the same workplaces, with 1 trade union employee representative and 1 non-trade union representative where present
- a self-completion survey with a representative group of up to 25 employees, randomly selected from each workplace participating in the survey
Some of the information that has been produced by the survey includes:
- how workplaces are managed and organised
- individual and collective representation at work
- trade union recognition and membership
- dispute resolution
- fair treatment at work
- family-friendly policies
- employment equality, selection and recruitment
- how learning and training activities are undertaken
- adoption of high involvement management practices
Older information on WERS can be found on the .