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External consultation

The Fifth Workplace Employment Relations Survey (WERS5) 

 
Summary

  1. The sponsors of the 1998 Workplace Employee Relations Survey (WERS98) are actively considering the case for conducting a fifth WERS in 2004. This is subject to securing the appropriate funding. To inform our thinking on the overall design and scope of another WERS, the sponsors welcome and seek views on all aspects of WERS, including: its broad design; the sampling population; survey content; and survey outputs. The consultation will begin on 14 of June and will run through until 16 of September 2002.

 
Background

Background to WERS

  1. The Workplace Employment1 Relations Survey is a survey mapping the state of employment relations in workplaces across Great Britain. Data are collected from interviews with workplace managers who have day-to-day responsibility for personnel matters, interviews with worker representatives (where they are present), and from employees via a self-completion questionnaire. WERS is co-sponsored by the Advisory, Conciliation and Arbitration Service (ACAS), the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI), the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC), and the Policy Studies Institute (PSI). To our knowledge it is the largest survey of its kind conducted anywhere in the world.
     

  2. The last WERS was carried out in 19982 (WERS98). This was the fourth in a series of employee relations surveys. The previous surveys, known as the Workplace Industrial Relations Surveys (WIRS), were conducted in 1980, 1984 and 1990. The 1998 survey covered workplaces with 10 or more employees in Great Britain. Over 3,0003 managers were interviewed face to face, together with nearly 1,000 worker representatives. Nearly 30,000 employees completed and returned the self-completion questionnaire.
     

  3. Outputs from the 1998 survey included: a first findings booklet, which informed debate during the passage of the Employment Relations Act 1999; a sourcebook of findings, Britain at Work, based primarily on the cross-sectional survey; and, a companion volume, All Change at Work, which provided analyses of change over time based on the 1998 panel survey and the WIRS series.4

A fifth WERS?

  1. The sponsors of the 1998 WERS (WERS98) are actively considering the case for a fifth WERS, subject to securing the necessary funds. The sponsors wish to consult the broad user and potential user communities before a decision over the design and overall scope of a fifth WERS can be made. The broad questions that will need to be addressed as part of the consultation are discussed below. The sponsors provisionally expect that fieldwork would take place in 2004.

Purpose of another WERS 

  1. Following other surveys in the series, the main aims of WERS5 would be:

  1. to map workplace employment relations in Britain and changes over time;
     

  2. to provide a comprehensive and statistically reliable database on British workplace employment relations, which is made publicly available and easily accessible; and,
     

  3. to inform policy development and stimulate and inform debate and practice among employers and workers,  their organisations and the academic community and beyond, through the provision of a first findings booklet and full report presenting a primary analysis of the survey findings and a publicly available database.

  1. These key aims will influence decisions taken by the sponsors about the future structure and design of WERS5.

 
Maintaining consistency

  1. The design of WERS98 underwent a significant overhaul. For example, with respect to the cross-section survey there were two major innovations to the design: firstly, lowering the employment size threshold from 25 to 10 employees; and, secondly, surveying employees within workplaces by randomly distributing up to 25 self-completion questionnaires. Changes were also made to the survey content in the existing manager and worker representative questionnaires.5
      

  2. Whilst a key focus of the consultation will be to examine what improvements can be made to the survey (see paragraphs 12 and 13 below), the sponsors do not envisage that the same level of re-design for WERS5 will be necessary or desirable.
     

  3. Like other surveys in the series, a key aim of the fifth WERS will be to provide an analysis of change in the system of employment relations (see paragraph 6, above). Hence, there is a strong argument for maintaining consistency in design. Indeed, this has been a strength of the survey series to date.
     

  4. Fieldwork for WERS98 took place during October 1997 and June 1998, i.e. before the government’s programme of employment legislation reform was enacted, including the introduction of a National Minimum Wage, and the 1999 Employment Relations Act (ERA99). Hence the 1998 survey serves as a “baseline” to evaluate the impact of the legislative changes.  A survey in 2004 would yield data that could be used to measure the impact of changes up to and including those arising from the Employment Bill 2002. Consistent measures are needed to maximise the scope for evaluation.

 
Scope of the consultation

  1. The sponsors will be seeking the views of practitioners,  the academic community and other user groups. Both DTI and the ESRC will be conducting bi-lateral discussions with key organisations, and expect to hold a number of events with academic, policy and practitioner audiences between now and mid-September. Views can also be transmitted direct to the sponsors (see paragraph 18 below).
     

  2. The sponsors welcome views on any aspect of WERS to inform our thinking on the design and overall scope of the fifth WERS. In particular, we would like to hear your views on the following:

Broad design

WERS98 consisted of a management questionnaire, worker representative questionnaire, (self-completion) employee questionnaire and a panel questionnaire.

Q. Is this still the appropriate design?

Sampling population

The sample for WERS98 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 10 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.

Q. Is it still appropriate to exclude these workplaces?

Survey content

The main topic areas covered in the 1998 questionnaires included the following:

  • Management of the personnel function

  • Recruitment and training

  • Consultation and communication

  • Employee representation

  • Payment systems and pay determination

  • Grievance, disciplinary and disputes procedures

  • Equal opportunities

  • Flexibility

  • Workplace performance

  • Employee attitudes to work

Q. Given that there is no scope for increasing questionnaire length, are there major areas which are missing and/or should be limited in focus and/or should be dropped?

More detailed question issues

Q. Which questions/sets of questions worked well and/or didn’t work well?

Q. Which questions/sets of questions require minor/major improvement?

Survey outputs

The outputs from WERS98 included the datasets, the First Findings6 booklet, the main sourcebook7 and accompanying account of change over time.8

Q. Did these outputs meet your requirements?

Q. Do you have any suggestions for improvement in respect of these outputs?

  1. The sponsors are happy to accept comments relating both to the detail and to the broader objectives, coverage and architecture of WERS.
     

  2. The current consultation period is the only opportunity to feed in comments on the broad objectives, coverage and architecture of WERS. However, it is likely that the sponsors will subsequently conduct further limited consultation on specific issues, such as question content.
     

  3. Views expressed during the consultation exercise will feed directly into the initial development work for the fifth WERS. The sponsors will publish a paper outlining the intended design of the next WERS, drawing on these views, during the Autumn.

 
Timing

  1. The consultation will begin on 14 of June and will run through until 16 of September 2002.The sponsors look forward to hearing your views.

 
Where to send responses to:

  1. Any comments that you wish to make (or questions on this paper or about the consultation), should be addressed to:

Barbara Kersley

Senior Research Officer, EMAR

Department of Trade and Industry

UG100

1 Victoria Street

London

SW1H 0ET

 

Tel: 020 7215 5999

Fax: 020 7215 2641

Email: barbara.kersley@dti.gsi.gov.uk

 

 

Department of Trade and Industry

Advisory, Conciliation and Arbitration Service

Economic and Social Research Council

Policy Studies Institute

 

June 2002


[1] The 1998 survey was known as the 1998 Workplace Employee Relations Survey. Future surveys will be known as the Workplace Employment Relations Surveys. The surveys in the series were also known as the WIRS series, these will now be known as the WERS series.

[2] Fieldwork for WERS98 took place between October 1997 and June 1998.

[3] This figure comprises both the number of interviews with managers as part of the 1998 cross-section survey (2191 interviews) as well as the number of interviews as part of the 1990-98 panel survey (882 interviews).

[4] Further information on the 1998 survey can be found at the following websites: www.dti.gov.uk/er/emar/1998wers.htm; www.niesr.ac.uk/niesr/wers98/index.htm

[5] For example, new to the cross-section survey were topics such as equal opportunities, training, team working and performance monitoring. Areas such as flexible working and performance monitoring were also strengthened. Topics on areas such as union organisation, pay determination and industrial action warranted less attention. The worker representative survey also underwent some changes, including dropping questions where it was felt that the manager was better placed to answer them and a greater focus on the role and activities of the worker representative.

[6] Cully, M., et al., (1998), ‘The 1998 Workplace Employee Relations Survey: First Findings.’ Available from the DTI website pdf (260Kb).

[7] Cully M., et al., (1999), ‘Britain at Work: As Depicted by the 1998 Workplace Employee Relations Survey.’

[8] Millward., et al., (2000), ‘All Change at Work? British employment relations 1990-98, as portrayed by the Workplace Industrial Relations Survey series.’

 

 

See also: Initial review of WERS 98 pdf (103Kb)

 
 

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