Small and Medium-Sized Enterprises: Findings from the 2004 Workplace Employment Relations Survey

There is little quantitative data on the employment practices of small and medium-sized firms (SMEs), despite the fact that 94 per cent of all private sector firms in the UK have less than 250 employees. This study uses the nationally representative 2004Workplace Employment Relations Survey (WERS 2004) to describe employment practices in private sector workplaces belonging to SMEs. As both managers and employees were surveyed within workplaces, this report is able to compare employees' views of the employment relationship with those of their managers. It also makes comparisons between the practices of SMEs and those of larger firms.