Investor perspectives: people data and reporting

The CIPD, in collaboration with Warwick Business School and the University of Kansas School of Business, has explored if and how investors use people data to inform their investment decisions. We conducted a literature review and interviews with investors to understand how people data can support better corporate governance and investor stewardship.

Our report, Investor perspectives on workforce data, highlights growing recognition of the value of the workforce and importance of data, but there’s lack of consistency on how companies report the information. The key recommendations are:

Businesses should take the lead in reporting workforce information more readily to their external stakeholders.
Management quality is a key information category for investors, so businesses should define and communicate this to their stakeholders.
Standardised workforce information could increase the extent to which it is used.
Investors should look to improve their understanding of workforce issues and people data.

Investor perspectives on workforce data

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Our literature review, Do investors use people data when making investment decisions?, published in October 2017 highlights growing recognition of the value of the workforce and importance of data, but there’s lack of consistency on how companies report the information.