The Workplace Employment Relations Survey (WERS) is a national survey of the state of employment relations and working life inside British workplaces. The 1998, 2004 and 2011 surveys (WERS98, WERS 2004, WERS 2011) are the fourth, fifth and sixth in the series, respectively, earlier surveys having been carried out in 1980, 1984 and 1990. Prior to 1998, the series was known as the Workplace Industrial Relations Survey (WIRS), the name being changed in order to better reflect the content of the current survey. The UK Data Archive hold the WIRS/WERS series from 1980 onwards under GN 33176. The purpose of each survey in the WERS series has been to provide large-scale, statistically reliable evidence about a broad range of industrial relations and employment practices across almost every sector of the economy in Great Britain. This evidence is collected with several objectives in mind. It aims to provide a mapping of employment relations practices in workplaces across Great Britain, monitor changes in those practices over time, inform policy development and permit an informed assessment of the effects of public policy, and bring about a greater understanding of employment relations as well as of the labour market. To that end, the cross-section element of WERS98 and WERS 2004 collected information from managers with responsibility for employment relations or personnel matters; trade union or employee representatives; and employees themselves. Thus, the surveys included the Cross-Section Survey of Managers (MQ), the Cross-Section Survey of Employee Representatives (ERQ), and the Cross-Section Survey of Employees (SEQ). The cross-section surveys in 2004 also included a Financial Performance Questionnaire (FPQ), which examined financial performance of the establishment over the 12 months previous to the survey. (Access to the FPQ data, alongside region identifiers and industry codes for the MQ and panel data, was initially restricted until April 2007, when they were deposited as part of the second edition of End User Licence (EUL) SN 5294.) The panel element of WERS 2004 includes the Screening Questionnaire and the Survey of Managers (comprising the Basic Workforce Data Sheet and the Management Interview). The 2011 WERS sample consisted of a panel sample containing all the workplaces that had taken part in the 2004 WERS and were still in existence in 2011, and a stratified random sample of establishments drawn from the Inter-Departmental Business Register (IDBR) in August 2010 (the fresh cross-section sample). The key design innovation of the 2011 WERS was the integration of the two elements so that workplaces in the panel sample were eligible for all four components of WERS 2011. Weights were devised to enable the panel sample to be combined with the fresh sample to form a combined cross-sectionally representative sample. The WERS 2011 has four components: a Survey of Managers comprising the Employee Profile Questionnaire (EPQ) and the Management Questionnaire (MQ); a Survey of Worker Representatives (WRQ); a Survey of Employees (SEQ); and a Financial Performance Questionnaire (FPQ) which detailed the financial performance of trading sector establishments in the 12 months before the survey. Secure Access Dataset: The Secure Access version of the study includes both the cross-section and panel surveys conducted for WERS98 and WERS 2004. The panel element for 2004 forms Wave 2 of the 1998-2004 panel survey. Wave 1 comprised the cross-sectional managers' survey conducted for WERS98. The study also includes all the WERS 2011 data The Secure Access version includes additional variables not included in the EUL versions (see SNs 5294, 3955 and 7226). Extra variables that can be found in the Secure Access versions but not in the EUL versions relate to 1) Inter-Departmental Business Register reference numbers for businesses who have consented to the linking of WERS data to other data sources, 2) postcodes, and 3) in 2011 the Financial Performance Questionnaire data are available along with some other more detailed variables. Geographical references: postcodes The postcodes available in the 1998 data are pseudo-anonymised postcodes. The real postcodes were not available for this year due to the potential risk of identification of the observations. However, these replacement postcodes retain the inherent nested characteristics of real postcodes, and will allow researchers to aggregate observations to other geographic units, e.g. wards, super output areas, etc. The postcodes available in the 2004 and 2011 data are real postcodes. Linking to other business studies These data contain Inter-Departmental Business Register reference numbers. These are anonymous but unique reference numbers assigned to business organisations.