How do companies report on their ‘most important asset’?

This report, produced in partnership by the CIPD, the PLSA and Railpen, analyses the quality of disclosures in the 2021 annual reports of FTSE 100 companies against seven key themes: Workforce cost and composition; employee relations and wellbeing; reward; voice; skills, capabilities and recruitment; and response to COVID-19.

Key findings include:

• Inclusion/make-up of the workforce: While 93% of companies provide evidence of investment in inclusion and diversity, only one in five (22%) FTSE 100 employers reported the ethnic breakdown of their workforce, up from just 10% in 2019. 
• Skills and training: Almost all companies (97%) mention investment in skills or training, but only a few provided concrete evidence of this. 
• Reward: Overall, there is a lack of reporting on pay and reward beyond gender and ethnicity pay gap reporting.
• Wellbeing: Only 13% of annual reports discussed mental wellbeing in relation to health and safety or risk assessments.