Workplace Employment Relations Study (WERS)

The Workplace Employment Relations Study (WERS) is a series of surveys that aims to provide a nationally representative account of the state of employment relations and working life inside British workplaces. The aim of each survey in the WERS series has been to provide large-scale, statistically reliable evidence about a broad range of employment relations and practices across the economy in Great Britain. The most recent survey in the series took place in 2011, jointly sponsored by the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills (BIS), the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC), the Advisory, Conciliation and Arbitration Service (Acas), the UK Commission for Employment and Skills (UKCES) and NIESR, with NIESR’s involvement made possible through funding from the Nuffield Foundation.

With funding from the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, NIESR maintain the WERS 2011 website, which provides information and advice to all those interested in the survey. The website aims to encourage and support secondary analysis of the survey data, provide a link with previous surveys in the series and further disseminate findings from work based on WERS.