How corporate reporting and the role of IR have evolved
Of the stakeholder concerns identified in this report, resource management, socio-economic development and employee relations are the issues most commonly reported on, with more than six in 10 companies reporting on these issues in the past 12 months. Almost half (49 percent) of companies include employee relations in their annual report, making it the most commonly featured stakeholder issue in that report.
Most stakeholder issues identified have been reported on by a majority of companies. Less than a third of companies included carbon-neutrality goals or public relations in their annual report last year, while the majority of companies do not report on PR & corporate reputation or customer relations.
Over the past five years there has been a notable increase in company focus on all stakeholder issues identified in this report. Of these, more than three quarters of companies have increased their focus on carbon-neutrality goals, public health measures and employee relations, with more than a third saying that focus on carbon-neutrality and public health has strongly increased.
Every issue identified has seen a net majority of companies increase their focus. The only areas where fewer than two thirds of companies have increased their focus are socio-economic development and supply-chain relations.
The number of companies that have decreased their focus on stakeholder issues in the past five years is negligible. Most stakeholder concerns identified have seen just 2 percent of companies lose focus over this time, with the highest for any individual issue being a 4 percent drop in focus for employee relations.
When asked about what these changes in company focus have meant for investor relations, a large majority of IROs mention an increased focus on ESG in their work. Many IR teams are now fundamentally involved in ESG and sustainability responsibilities at their company. The increase in stakeholder issues has led to IR teams seeking out ESG/CSR investors and one respondent points out that who you have investing in your company is in itself a matter of corporate reputation.
A slim majority of IROs say their company’s focus on stakeholder issues has changed as a result of the Covid-19 pandemic. Larger companies are slightly more likely to have changed their focus, with 54 percent of large and mega-cap companies having done so, compared with 49 percent of small and mid-cap companies.
But there is a notable difference according to region: just 44 percent of European IROs say their company’s focus on stakeholder issues has changed as a result of Covid-19, compared with more than six in 10 Asian IROs.
Covid-19 has contributed to a rise in focus on public health as a stakeholder issue. Among those who say their company focus on stakeholder issues in general has changed as a result of the pandemic, 89 percent have also seen a rise in focus on public health issues, with 45 percent registering a strong increase in focus.
When IROs were asked to what extent they agreed with the statement ‘Publicly traded companies should be accountable to all stakeholders equally, instead of prioritizing just shareholders’, approaching two thirds agree with the statement to some extent while one fifth disagree. Just 6 percent of IROs strongly disagree with this statement, compared with 43 percent who strongly agree.
Nearly half of IROs at smaller companies strongly agree that companies should be equally accountable to all stakeholders, compared with just over a third of those at larger companies. North American IROs are least likely to agree with the statement. No Asian IROs disagree at all, while 53 percent strongly agree that all stakeholders should be treated equally.
