Innovations in WERS 2004: The Collection of Objective Data on Workplace Performance (WIAS Technical Paper No. 1)

The desire to better identify the micro-foundations of improved productivity has increased demand for data that can illuminate the link between management practices and business performance. Data on the performance of individual businesses have historically been collected by national statistical agencies or published in company accounts, but these sources typically contain little ancillary information about working practices. The 2004 Workplace Employment Relations Survey was one of the first large-scale, voluntarily-administered workplace surveys in Great Britain to collect quantitative data on individual establishments' financial performance. The performance data was collected via a short, paper-based questionnaire issued at the end of the main survey interview on working practices. The paper evaluates the success of this innovation. It considers the survey procedures adopted for the financial performance module and examines the achieved response rates. It also looks at response biases and examines the quantity and quality of the resultant data.<br />

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Also published as Chapter 6 in K Whitfield and K Huxley (eds) (2007) Innovations in the 2004 Workplace Employment Relations Survey, Cardiff; Cardiff University.