Article And Downloadable Guidelines On Public Reporting For Your Information Provided By AMC2

BITC with CIPD helps businesses better communicate their employee wellbeing & engagement practices with launch of new Guidelines on Public Reporting

“These are excellent Guidelines that we recommend all businesses read. The link to download the Guidelines is at the end of this abridged article, and the full article by BITC can be read by following the link below”

Jenny Edwards, Director AMC2

http://www.bitc.org.uk/media_centre/bitc_news_press_releases/reporting_guidelines.html 

Developed by business for business, and in partnership with CIPD, Public Reporting Guidelines on employee wellness & engagement have now been launched (10/05/11)by Business in the Community (BITC). By using the Guidelines, organisations can better demonstrate to their key stakeholders, including investors, that the most critical business asset – the workforce – is being effectively managed to deliver sustainable business success.

Public Reporting findings

In developing the Guidelines, BITC engaged with investors, and it was clear that corporate reporting on employee wellness & engagement needed to demonstrate its connection with business strategy. For investors, an analysis to quantify the risks and benefits was important, alongside more qualitative narrative. Evidence demonstrating impact was crucial, yet this was lacking in current practices as seen by the research undertaken by Ipsos MORI for BITC in March1. This looked at the public reporting in the FTSE 100 of five key wellness and engagement themes:

• Leadership & accountability
• Better Work – (e.g. talent management)
• Better Relationships – (e.g. employee communication & voice)
• Better Physical & Psychological Health – (e.g. employee wellness & physical working environment)
• Better Specialist Support – (e.g. attendance management)

Psychological wellbeing programmes were particularly poor in terms of reporting. Only 15% of the FTSE 100 reported on proactive management of psychological health. Of all wellness reporting, only 6% demonstrate the business impact. And only four FTSE 100 companies were found to publicly report financial measures of the impact of their activities on employee wellness and engagement: British Airways, BT, Centrica and Unilever. In such high pressure times where employees may be carrying significant burdens from home or work, companies are not emphasising the benefits of responsible business management and why it makes business sense ‘to do the right thing’.

Guidelines basis

The Guidelines provide a company reporting framework aligned to the four quadrants and core segment of the BITC Workwell Model. The Model is evidence-based, widely endorsed and positions employee wellness and engagement as a strategic boardroom issue linked to securing business objectives. It reflects the realities of the workplace and the interrelatedness of the factors that influence employee wellness and engagement. The metrics selected in the Guidelines have been kept as generic as possible and have been graded according to different levels of practice. Narrative to provide context to metrics is encouraged. For example, evidence of wellness & engagement management impact could be reported as:

• Results of annual job satisfaction or engagement survey
• Proportion of women returning after maternity leave
• Sickness absence as a spot rate
• Workforce demographics marking health status
• Staff turnover as a spot rate

My-Linh Ngo, Associate Director SRI Research, Sustainable & Responsible Investment (SRI) at Henderson Global Investors, a member of the Steering Group developing the Guidelines comments:

“In this time of global recession, despite the temptation to roll back human capital management programmes to save costs, we would argue it is even more imperative that companies maintain if not step up their efforts.

“We are convinced that employee wellbeing & engagement as an issue is fast becoming a key challenge for the companies we invest in. In turn, this requires a more strategic response in terms of board commitment, integration into core business processes, along with clear communication and reporting to investors. The prize is not just to stop the waste that ill-health and low motivation represents, but to grasp the business potential of enhanced employee engagement and productivity.”

The Guidelines can be downloaded from: http://www.bitc.org.uk/workplace/health_and_wellbeing/health_and_wellbeing.html