The Pensions and Lifetime Savings Association (PLSA) has written to the Chair of every FTSE350 company asking them to share fuller information with investors about the culture and working practices of their workforce. The letter includes a copy of our recent stewardship toolkit for PLSA members, outlining the type of information that pension funds should request from the companies they invest in about their workforce.

The toolkit highlights the importance of a company’s workforce to its long-term success. It recommends that annual reports should contain more detailed information about the composition, stability, skill levels and engagement levels of their workers, and how their major employment models relate to the company’s underlying purpose and strategy. The toolkit encourages narrative disclosures, but also recognises that this needs to be underpinned by concrete data on – for example – staff turnover; pay ratios; employee diversity; or investment in training and development, in order to be meaningful. We hope that this letter and the toolkit can encourage a more long-term focus on culture and working practices and ultimately lead to better outcomes for investors, companies and workers alike.

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