National Institute of Economic and Social Research WERS 2004 Second User Group Meeting WERS 2004 Information & Advice Service

Outline Rationale for WIAS About WIAS Ongoing activities Other activities carried out so far Future plans

Rationale Funded by the ESRC Aims to encourage use of WERS data in research and teaching WIAS to promote and support use of WERS 2004 through provision of information and advice

Aims of WIAS Promote wider access to, and use of, the publicly-available data Maintain the integrity of the publicly- available data Provide direct support for users Support the user community Augment the publicly-available data

General guidance for users General guidance on analysis of WERS Answers to approximately 30 FAQs are provided on our website, covering: - obtaining documentation and data - finding your way around the files - manipulating the data files - derived variables - weighting and statistical inference - publishing your research

Answering further questions Helpline (via or telephone) Telephone: +44 (0) Over 220 queries in past 12 months Aim to respond within 3 working days (although often sooner)

Developing the user community Open discussion list (moderated) Currently circa 120 members WIAS use to announce news and events To post to the list: To view the archive: For full details on joining please see:

Other activities carried out so far… Frequency tabulations (and custom tabulations) Syntax used in First Findings Slides from First Findings

Other activities carried out so far… Key derived variables added to the data file for the FPQ at the ONS Virtual Microdata Lab in September 2006 WIAS Technical Paper 1: Forth and McNabb (2006) “Innovations in WERS 2004: the collection of objective data on workplace performance”

Other activities carried out so far… Equivalence tables for cross-section survey of managers and employees Variable notes and primary analysis errata – periodically updated ‘Useful Links’ section added to website - includes links to the WERS sponsors, also to other establishment-level surveys both in the UK and other countries

WERS research database Online database for WERS 2004-based research Downloadable spreadsheet for existing bibliography Full bibliography to be available through online database in the summer Please add details of your research to the database (or us if preferred)

Additional data and revisions Additional data to be available from UK Data Archive in April. This includes: - Regional and industry identifiers for cross-section manager and panel datasets - Data from the FPQ - Revised weight for SEQ (please see handout) - Plus some small additional revisions

Future plans (1) Further technical papers - New and innovative data items (March 2007) - Analysis of linked data (September 2007) - Plus fourth topic to be confirmed WERS 2004 to be available through Nesstar (UK Data Archive)

Future plans (2) Matching of additional data items Investigating potential links to other datasets Adding a time-point to the WERS time series dataset Suggestions welcome!

Further information WERS Information and Advice Service URL: Telephone: +44(0)