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The Workplace Employment Relations Survey

Background

The Workplace Employment Relations Survey (WERS) is a national survey of people at work in Britain. The sixth WERS will be jointly sponsored by the Department of Business, Innovation & Skills (BIS), the Advisory Conciliation and Arbitration Service (Acas), the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC), the UK Commission for Employment and Skills (UKCES) and the National Institute for Economic and Social Research (NIESR). NIESR’s involvement has been funded through a grant from the Nuffield Foundation. Sponsors will identify a fieldwork partner in March when work will begin on finalising questionnaire content.

There have been five sweeps of the survey dating back to 1980 (then in 1984, 1990, 1998 and 2004). WERS is widely recognised as the benchmark survey for employment relations in Britain. Some of the key 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, parental leave and employment equality, selection and recruitment, how learning and training activities are undertaken and the adoption of high involvement management practices. The survey aims are:

• to provide a mapping of employment relations practices in workplaces across Great Britain;
• to monitor changes in those practices over time;
• to both inform policy development and permit an informed assessment of the effects of public policy, and,
• to bring about a greater understanding of employment relations as well as the labour market and make the data publicly available through the UK Data Archive.

Collecting feedback from WERS users

The structure and overall design of the survey is well established, so the focus of the consultation is primarily on questionnaire content. Background papers have been prepared by members of the Research Team for each of the major data collection instruments (Management Questionnaire, Survey of Employees and Worker Representative Questionnaire) and these can be found as attachments below.

Given resource constraints and the desire to maintain high quality data, the Sponsors have determined that it is necessary to reduce the length of the Management Questionnaire (MQ) and Worker Representative Questionnaire (WRQ). The associated documents contain proposals for questions that will not be fielded in 2011.

Users should note that we are expecting to field the cross sectional instruments among a sample of workplaces first interviewed in 2004 to produce a two wave panel of continuing workplaces. As the same questionnaires will be used there is no separate consultation document covering the panel.

The sponsors would appreciate the views of users on these proposals. This consultation will run from 1 February until 17 March. A form has been created to help users supply feedback. This form can be returned by e-mail or post. You can access the reply form here :

WERS6 consultation: feedback form (43KB)

We request the views of users to comment on two main areas:

Proposals for changes to the data collection instruments, in particular -

(i) questions that are being considered for deletion that users consider vital in terms of mapping trends in employment relations over time or which are used as inputs for the construction of employment relations indicators or in analysis;

(ii) feedback on questions which are being retained and if any of these are recommended for amendment;

(iii) views on new and emerging topic areas that should be considered for inclusion in the next survey and draft candidate questions that could be put forward for further testing and evaluation.

Sample coverage in terms of workplace size and coverage.

Background papers containing proposals for changes

It is expected that the next survey will continue to collect information in a number of broad areas including:

• Establishment and organisational characteristics
• Management of employment relations
• Recruitment and training
• Information, consultation and communication
• Employee representation
• Payment systems and pay determination
• Collective disputes and procedures
• Redundancies, grievance and discipline
• Equal opportunities
• Work-life balance and well-being
• Health and safety
• Flexibility and performance
• Business strategy and workplace change
• Job satisfaction and work satisfaction

Members of the Research Team have prepared a series of consultation papers which give an overview of plans for change to each of the instruments and which users should refer to. Each of the documents takes as a basis the instruments used in the 2004 WERS. Links to these can be found below. Users are advised to refer to the questionnaire instruments used in the 2004 WERS survey which are also linked below.

• Consultation on the Management Questionnaire for 2011 –
  
  Review of the workplace employment relations survey: management questionnaire (MQ) (157KB)
  
  
• Consultation on the Survey of Employees –
  
  Review of the workplace employment relations survey (WERS) 2004: survey of employees questionnaire (189KB)
  
  
• Consultation on the Worker Representative Questionnaire –
  
  Review of the WERS 2004 (WERS5): worker representative questionnaire (WRQ) (189KB)
  
  
• Annotated Manager Questionnaire (with changes flagged) –
  
  Workplace employment relations survey (WERS) 2004: cross-section management questionnaire (MQ) (2087KB)

Copies of the questionnaires used in 2004 can be found here

• The workplace employment relations survey 2004. Employee profile questionnaire (560KB)
• The workplace employment relations survey 2004. Cross-section management questionnaire (1695KB)
• The workplace employment relations survey 2004. Financial performance questionnaire. (565KB)
• The workplace employment relations survey 2004 [survey of employees questionnaire] (742KB)
• Workplace Employment Relations Survey 2004 - Cross section worker representative questionnaire (848KB)

Structure of WERS

The purpose of each survey in the series has been to provide large-scale, statistically reliable evidence about a broad range of employment relations practices across almost every sector of the economy in Great Britain. To that end, the survey collects information from: managers with responsibility for employment relations or personnel matters; trade union and other employee representatives where present; and employees themselves. This provides a 3-way linked dataset which can be used to look at consistency of response across the main actors as well as areas of perceived difference. In addition the survey incorporates a two wave panel, so that all workplaces that were part of the previous survey will be traced to assess their survival in the intervening period. A sample of these ‘continuing workplaces’ will be interviewed again as a way of assessing changes in employment relations practices within organisations. These are essential components of the survey which will be retained and will form the backbone of the contract with the fieldwork organisation. The main instruments used for data collection are as follows:

- Management Questionnaire - where the respondent is the senior human resource or personnel manager, or the person with overall responsibility for the workforce. In each workplace a short self completion paper 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 establishment. Approximately 2,500 interviews are anticipated in 2011, 1,600 newly sampled workplaces and 900 interviewed again from the 2004 sample.

- Worker Representative Questionnaire - where the respondent is the senior representative from the largest recognised trade union, or where no union is recognised from the union with the largest number of members at the workplace. Interviews are also undertaken with the most senior non-union employee representative where present. Approximately 1,000 interviews are anticipated in 2011.

- Survey of Employees - a confidential self completion survey with a representative group of up to 25 employees, randomly selected from complete employee lists in each establishment participating in the survey. Approximately 25,000 self completion forms are expected in 2011.

Sample population

In line with earlier WERS surveys it is planned to draw the sample from the Inter-departmental Business Register (IDBR) which is maintained by the Office for National Statistics (ONS). This is the highest quality sample frame of organisations and establishments in Britain. ONS have confirmed access to the IDBR for the 2011 survey.

The sampling unit is the ‘local unit’ which in most instances correspond with the definition of an establishment. The sample in 2004 was drawn from the population of local units with five or more employees, operating in Sections ‘D’ – ‘O’ of the Standard Industrial Classification (2003) and located within Great Britain. This represents 89% of all employees and 33% of all workplaces. The sample for WERS excluded workplaces in SIC92 Section ‘A’ (Agriculture, Hunting and Forestry), Section ‘B’ (Fishing), Division 10 (Coal mining), Section ‘P’ (Private Households with Employed Persons) and Section ‘Q’ (Extra-Territorial Organisations and Bodies) as well as workplaces with less than 5 employees. The main reason for excluding these sectors was primarily due to low sample numbers. Smaller workplaces were excluded because it was considered that these workplaces were less likely to have formal employment practices in place.

Outputs and dissemination

The information that is provided by respondents to the survey is analysed and published in a report that informs policy-makers and practitioners who work in the field of employment relations. Anonymised data is deposited at the UK Data Archive with previous sweeps in the series.

Further information

Should you require further information about WERS 2011 please contact:
Mark McConaghy
WERS 2011 Project Leader
Employment Relations Directorate (Zone 4100)
Department for Business, Innovation & Skills
1 Victoria Street
London SW1H 0ET
Tel: 020 7215 6351
email: mark.mcconaghy@bis.gsi.gov.uk

External Links

Acas: www.acas.org.uk
Economic and Social Research Council:  www.esrc.ac.uk/ESRCInfoCentre
National Institute for Economic and Social Research: www.niesr.ac.uk
UK Commission for Employment and Skills:  www.ukces.org.uk
WERS 2004 Information and Advice Service:  www.wers2004.info/index.php
UK Data Archive: www.data-archive.ac.uk