Table of Contents

Inside the Workplace:
Findings from the 2004 Workplace Employment Relations Survey
(WERS 2004)

List of figures
List of tables
Acknowledgements

Chapter 1: Introduction
About the survey
Survey development
Survey design and sample coverage
Questionnaire design
Conduct of the survey
The political, economic and labour market context since the 1997/8
Approach and outline of the book
Nature of the analyses

Chapter 2: A profile of workplaces and employees
Introduction
Workplace and organization characteristics
Workforce composition
Conclusions

Chapter 3: The management of employment relations
Introduction
Who manages employment relations?
The changing role of managers responsible for employment relations matters
From 'personnel management' to 'human resource management'?
The integration of employment relations in the business strategy
Auditing the employment relations function
Conclusions 112

Chapter 4: Recruiting, training and work organisation
Introduction
Recruitment and selection
Working patterns
Contractual Status
Off-the-job training
Performance appraisals
Work organization
Job influence and autonomy
Work intensity
Employee well-being
The non-employed workforce
Conclusions

Chapter 5: Representation, consultation and communication
Introduction
Trade union membership density
Trade union recognition
Trade union representatives
Stand-alone non-union representatives
Joint consultative committees
Direct communication methods
Summary of arrangements for employee representation
Employees' perceptions of arrangements for information-sharing and representation
Conclusions

Chapter 6: Employee representatives
Introduction
Characteristics of representatives
What do representatives do?
Representatives' access to facilities and training
The nature of representatives' constituencies
Contact with constituents and management
Contact with other representatives
Relationship with management
Conclusions

Chapter 7: The determination of pay and other terms and conditions
Introduction
Methods of pay determination
Variable pay schemes
Determination of employees' terms and conditions
The distribution of pay, fringe benefits and pay satisfaction
Consultation over redundancies
Consultation over health and safety matters
Conclusions

Chapter 8: Workplace conflict
Introduction
Collective conflict
Collective disputes procedures
Individual disputes procedures
The incidence of individual disputes
Other potential indicators of discontent
Associations between indicators of conflict
Conclusions

Chapter 9: Equality, diversity and work-life balance
Introduction
Promoting equality of opportunity
Work-life balance
Conclusions

Chapter 10: Workplace climate and performance
Introduction
Management-employee relations
Labour productivity and workplace performance in the private sector
Labour productivity
Financial performance
Comparing measures of labour productivity from the management interview and
the Financial Performance Questionnaire
Summary and conclusions

Chapter 11: Summary and conclusions
Introduction
Overview of main findings
Overarching themes
Design issues for a possible sixth WERS

Further information

Accessing data

Technical appendix
Introduction
The sampling frame and the sample
Piloting and development work
Fieldwork
Coding and editing
Weighting
Sampling errors

Bibliography