Workforce reporting describes the process that organisations take to show: 

• The value and impact of its workforce. 
• The effectiveness of its management.
• How its people practice adds value. 

The value of a workforce’s knowledge, skills and abilities is also known as an organisation’s ‘human capital’. An organisation’s people, like its brand and reputation, are intangible assets that can increase or diminish an organisation’s value.

A workforce report has measures about an organisation’s people and may include charts and narrative. It may exist as a document or interactive dashboard. 

Workforce reporting:

• Provides information on the types of people management practices that drive an organisation’s performance, and highlights associated risks and opportunities.
• Makes workforce matters more transparent and can help build trust in an organisation. It is a responsible business practice. 
• Supports evidence-based practice, a core knowledge in the CIPD Profession Map for people professionals. 
• Is a regulatory expectation for quoted companies with requirements in company law, corporate governance and financial reporting guidance issued by the Financial Reporting Council, and new D&I rules from the Financial Conduct Authority for the financial sector (other sectors may also develop their own rules).

Different stakeholders are interested in different types of information, so do consider customising a workforce report according the audience.

Internal stakeholders

• Employees want to know their jobs are secure and how they can develop themselves and their skills. They want to know how senior management views the workforce, whether the company is a good place to work, and how it compares with other employers. 
• Managers need the same information as employees, plus context that they can use to improve the performance of their business units.
• Leaders are interested in understanding how workforce matters and decisions create value for the organisation and whether it is sustainable over the long term. They may also be interested in the ‘bigger picture’, for example organisation culture.

External stakeholders

• Investors need information to help them make better investment decisions. Our research finds that investors are interested in human capital and productivity, culture, investment in training and development, executive pay, the quality of leadership and management, how the workforce delivers short-term and long-term value, and employee satisfaction. They are also interested in the diversity of senior teams, an indicator of whether an organisation supports inclusion and diversity. They want both quantitative and qualitative reporting; both narrative discussion and metrics.   
• Customers want to know if they will get good service and after-sales support and are increasingly interested in how organisations treat their workforce. Prospective employees would like to know whether an organisation is a good fit for them. NGOs want to know whether the company is flouting the law or has low standards.
• Regulators and policy makers are interested in understanding organisation culture and how organisations are operating, in mandating disclosures to investors who will then conduct more detailed analyses across sectors, on individual companies and in reporting, which gives them a better understanding of regulated companies for which they have responsibility. 

Valuing your Talent, a project led by the CIPD, provides a framework on the types of data that can be collected to measure the workforce. For a full description, see figures on p53-54 and appendix 1 on p68-69 of this report. 

In summary, the framework organises the measures into subcategories within four broad categories:

• Inputs: Fundamental data about the workforce such as workforce composition. Measures within workforce composition may include average number of employees, ratio between full-time to part-time employees, and gender diversity figures.
• Activities: People management activities such as recruitment and retention. Measures within recruitment and retention may include employee turnover, time to hire and replacement costs.
• Outputs: What adds value to an organisation, for example, leadership capability. Measures with leadership capability may include, appraisal results, engagement scores and training outcomes.
• Outcomes: The quality of outputs and resulting impact, for example, organisational performance. Measures for organisational performance may include market share increase, profit and service quality improvements

There are standards that organisations can voluntarily follow for internal or external workforce reporting:

• BS76000 valuing people in organisations. This is the first national standard to recognise the importance of valuing people in organisations. It was issued by the British Standards Institution in 2015. 
• ISO30414 human capital reporting. This standard provides guidelines for transparent human capital reporting for internal and external reporting. Deutsche Bank was the first company on the German stock market DAX30 index to adopt ISO 30414 in its HR report. 

To learn more about standards, visit our HR and standards factsheet.

There are also international sustainability reporting frameworks; the UK has signed up to the International Sustainability Standards Board, which took over SASB, the Sustainability Accounting Standards Board. There are many other voluntary international frameworks such as the UN Women Empowerment Principles, the UN Global Reporting Initiative and Sustainable Development Goals, etc. 

In the UK, the Financial Reporting Council (FRC) has included guidance on the workforce in its Corporate Governance Code and supporting Board Effectiveness Guidance. The Code states that: “The board should ensure that workforce policies and practices are consistent with the company’s values and support its long-term sustainable success. The workforce should be able to raise any matters of concern.”

While the Board Effectiveness Guidance sets out a series of questions for boards to ask themselves, including guidance on relations with the workforce, covering purpose, values, culture, behaviours, remuneration, workforce pay, employee voice, treatment of people, gender pay gap, skills, and challenge.  

Examples cited by the FRC as regards workforce engagement activities include:

• Hosting talent breakfast/lunches, town halls and open-door days
• Listening groups for frontline workers and supervisors
• Focus or consultative groups
• Meeting groups of elected workforce representatives
• Meeting future leaders without senior management present
• Social media updates
• Visiting regional and overseas sites
• Inviting colleagues from different business functions to board meetings
• Employee AGMs
• Involvement in training and development activities
• Surveys
• Digital sharing platforms
• Establishing mentoring between non-executive directors and middle manager

There are also detailed reporting requirements in company law for reporting on specific elements of the workforce; for example, executive pay, the gender pay gap, and diversity and inclusion on boards. 

Contacts

FRC Corporate Governance Code

FRC Board Effectiveness Guidance

ShareAction Workforce Disclosure Initiative - a voluntary movement by investors and corporates to improve reporting standards on workforce and supply chain issues

Investor Association Long-Term Reporting Guidance - guidance from UK investors on what they expect to see in annual reports 

ISSB / SASB Human Capital Reporting 

World Economic Forum Stakeholder Capitalism Metrics 

EU sustainability reporting standards 

Books and reports

FERRAR, J. and GREEN, D. (2021) Excellence in people analytics: how to use workforce data to create business value. London: Kogan Page.

KHAN, N. and MILLNER, D. (2020) Introduction to people analytics. London: Kogan Page.

MARR, B. (2018) Data-driven HR: how to use analytics and metrics to drive performance. London: Kogan Page.

Visit the CIPD and Kogan Page Bookshop to see all our priced publications currently in print.

Journal articles

CAMPBELL, B.A., COFF, R., and KRYSCYNSKI, D. (2012) Rethinking sustained competitive advantage from human capital. Academy of Management Review. Vol 37, No 3. pp376-395.

PHILLIPS, J.J. and PHILLIPS, P. (2014) Developing a human capital strategy in today's changing environment: eight forces shaping HC strategy. Strategic HR Review. Vol 13, No 3. pp130-134.

WRIGHT, P.M. and MCMAHAN, G.C. (2011) Exploring human capital: putting human back into strategic human resource management. Human Resource Management Journal. Vol 21, No 2. April. pp93-104.

CIPD members can use our online journals to find articles from over 300 journal titles relevant to HR.

Members and People Management subscribers can see articles on the People Management website.