PLSA supports ShareAction Workforce Disclosure Initiative

The Pensions and Lifetime Savings Association (PLSA) has today announced its support for ShareAction’s new programme, the Workforce Disclosure Initiative (WDI). The programme will bring institutional investors together to secure comparable workforce reporting from listed companies on an annual basis.

UK pension schemes invest billions of pounds in listed companies around the world to secure pension incomes for millions of savers.

There is a growing recognition that companies committed to investing in training and development for their staff – and ensuring they feel secure, empowered and fairly treated in their jobs − perform better over the long-term. Clear, consistent and structured reporting about how companies manage their workforce is a vital component in allowing investors to understand how the asset of employees is being managed and developed.

Luke Hildyard, Policy Lead: Stewardship and Corporate Governance, Pensions and Lifetime Savings Association, said:

“This is a very welcome initiative. As our research has found, although annual reports nearly always affirm how important their employees are to corporate success, it is often very hard to find meaningful data about how employees are managed, developed and valued. For pension schemes and other institutional investors this is an important consideration, because companies that think long-term tend to perform better over the long-term.”

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NOTES TO EDITORS:

In July 2016 the PLSA published a toolkit for pension schemes to provide pension schemes and investors with guidance on what data and commentary they should request from the companies in which they invest.  The toolkit was shared with the FTSE 350 and was positively received; more information can be found here.

ABOUT THE PENSIONS AND LIFETIME SAVINGS ASSOCIATION

We’re the Pensions and Lifetime Savings Association; the national association with a ninety year history of helping pension professionals run better pension schemes. Our members include over 1,300 pension schemes with 20 million members and £1 trillion in assets, and over 400 businesses. They make us the voice for pensions and lifetime savings in Westminster, Whitehall and Brussels.

Our purpose is simple: to help everyone to achieve a better income in retirement. We work to get more money into retirement savings, to get more value out of those savings and to build the confidence and understanding of savers.

PRESS CONTACTS

Lee Blackwell, Interim Head of Media & PR, Pensions and Lifetime Savings Association
T: 020 7601 1726, M: 07713 073 023, E: [email protected]

Kathryn Mortimer, Press Officer, Pensions and Lifetime Savings Association
T: 020 7601 1748, M: 07901 007713, E: [email protected]