About us - our services

The Information and Advice Service has been established to encourage use of the survey data from the 2004 Workplace Employment Relations Survey (WERS 2004).

The primary aim is to provide a single point of access for information about the survey and the associated datasets, together with expert advice for analysts. The main activities involve:

Providing direct support to users

Users can seek expert advice from the project team on any aspect of the survey or its analysis. Help is available by phone or email - Contact us.

Additionally, answers to Frequently Asked Questions are available elsewhere on this web-site; these are periodically updated and extended. A series of five technical papers on specific issues such as the financial performance data (available for the first time in the 2004 survey) have also been prepared by the project team.

Co-ordinating a User Group

An electronic mailing list has been established to advertise data developments, new initiatives from the project team and any other WERS-related news. Sign up here.

Six-monthly meetings of users will also be convened, at which analysts can discuss their research, exchange ideas and confer over analytical issues. More details.

Maintaining the integrity of the survey data

This involves alerting users to specific problems or issues that have been spotted in the survey data (e.g. question-routing errors, defective text-fills, ambiguous question wording, items with high degrees of non-response). View variable notes.

Broadening access to the survey data

Elsewhere on this web-site you will find guidance on how to obtain the survey data files. Frequency tabulations of each data item in the Cross-Section Survey of Managers and Cross-Section Survey of Employees are also available. The WERS 2004 data are now also available via Nesstar, the on-line analysis tool provided by the Economic and Social Data Service. Powerpoint presentations containing the figures and tables that appear in the First Findings booklet are also available to download.

Adding value to the survey data files

This has involved making available the SPSS syntax used in the primary analysis of WERS 2004; matching additional data items to the deposited datasets; and extending the WERS Time-Series dataset to include the 2004 survey.

Collating a database of WERS-based research

Users are encouraged to contribute to our database of WERS-based research, which provides a valuable reference tool for those seeking to identify existing research or, indeed, research gaps: Submit publication reference.

The database is searchable online and also available to download in pdf format. More details.

About WIAS

The WERS 2004 Information and Advice Service was established in February 2006 and was funded by the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC) for a two-year period. The funding has now come to an end, and so has all major activity from WIAS. This web-site will continue to remain live for the benefit of WERS 2004 users and those interested in WERS 2004.

The Service is hosted at the National Institute of Economic and Social Research (NIESR) and staffed by John Forth, Helen Bewley, Simon Kirby and Lucy Stokes.

A similar service was provided in respect of the 1998 WERS over the period October 1999 � September 2001. View web-site.


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The Information and Advice Service is compiling a mailing list for anyone wishing to be kept informed about its activities and developments with WERS more generally. Sign up here