News Release

Lancaster University supports global initiative to calculate 'value' of employees

A Lancaster academic has played a central role in a major initiative designed to improve corporate reporting, due to be launched by leading global companies at an event in New York today

Business Announcement

Lancaster University

Dr. Anthony Hesketh, Lancaster University Management School

image: This is Dr. Anthony Hesketh, Lancaster University Management School. view more 

Credit: Lancaster University

Lancaster University supports global initiative to calculate 'value' of employees in major step towards more responsible capitalism

A Lancaster academic has played a central role in a major initiative designed to improve corporate reporting, due to be launched by leading global companies at an event in New York today.

With the collective power and diversity of the entire investment chain, the Embankment Project for Inclusive Capitalism (EPIC) involves companies that represent $30 trillion of assets under management and almost 2 million employees right around the world. EPIC and the 'big four' global accounting firm EY was set up with the intention of making corporate reporting more useful by developing a framework and metrics to better articulate the long-term value created by businesses.

Dr Anthony Hesketh of Lancaster University Management School was invited by EPIC to work side-by-side with the leading global corporations for eighteen months to develop a new framework for understanding and reporting the contribution made by employees - or 'human capital' - to the success of their organisations.

Building on a framework developed by previously funded academic research, Dr Hesketh and his team examined the human capital reporting practices of the globe's top 700 firms by revenue with results now endorsed by leaders of the global financial community.

In addition to a number of prominent CEOs, speakers at today's launch in New York will include Governor of the Bank of England Mark Carney, SEC Chairman Jay Clayton, Governor John Kasich and Senators Rob Portman and Mark Warner. This follows a dinner held last night for Embankment Project participants, attended by former President Bill Clinton.

Dr Hesketh's research established a clear economic case for businesses to engage in deeper and more transparent reporting of their human capital practices. Findings demonstrated:

  • Human capital disclosers perform better. Those firms with higher levels of disclosure about their human capital are disproportionately represented in the highest performing firms.
  • The deeper the disclosure, the greater the economic returns. Using a human capital disclosure index developed by Hesketh and endorsed by EPIC participants, analysis established how firm financial performance increases in step with human capital reporting intensity.
  • Human capital disclosers focus on value creation over the long term. Firms with higher levels of human capital disclosure on average secure higher levels of operating margin and retain higher levels of earnings to reinvest in the future returns of their businesses.
  • Establishing the return on investment (ROI) from human capital. Dr Hesketh has also developed a financial equation endorsed by EPIC participants to enable firms to calculate the returns generated from their investment in human capital. This demonstrated the return on invested talent (or ROIT) for those firms with deeper and wider levels of human capital reporting (£3.17 for every £1 invested) were nearly three times those with those lowest levels of human capital disclosure (£1.17).
  • Human capital reporters let their numbers do their talking. Evaluating recent developments in corporate narrative reporting, Dr Hesketh's research also revealed how those firms with greater levels of human capital disclosure use three times less words in their narratives than other firms.

EPIC has endorsed Dr Hesketh's findings and human capital reporting indicators.

Lancaster University's Dr Anthony Hesketh said: "The accounting profession has failed to properly appreciate the value of employees for half a millennium.

"Changes in the way society values our largest firms, and the role people play in this value creation, demands a higher level of transparency from firms about how they enable their employees to thrive at work. People are less motivated to work for firms whose levels of human capital disclosure fall beneath the standards of their peers.

"Reporting standards are currently running behind the demands of workers and wider society, but EPIC has opened the conversation to address this anomaly and we are looking forward to taking the EPIC framework on to the next level as firms deepen their understanding about their intangible value."

Mark Weinberger, EY Global Chairman and CEO, said: "There has been a lot of focus recently on short-term pressure in our capital markets and a lively discussion around quarterly reporting, but what we report is as important as how often we report it. It is time to update how we value companies and measure their impact on all stakeholders, not just shareholders. EPIC brought together companies and investors to help define how firms create long-term value and offer potential ways to measure and report on that."

The health of corporations and financial markets - and public trust in both - is critical to economic growth. Our collective future strongly depends on vibrant and sustainable capital markets. Market participants have a role to ensure long-term value creation that benefits all.

Today, a company's value is increasingly reflected not just in its short-term financial performance, but also by intangible assets such as intellectual property, talent, brand and innovation, as well as impacts on society and the environment that are not fully captured by traditional financial statements. To understand this value, participants in EPIC believe it is essential to focus on and measure:

  • Talent: the way companies manage their human capital when it comes to compensation and benefits; recruitment; training and development; diversity and inclusion; well-being and creating a purpose-driven culture of engagement.
  • Innovation: fulfilling unmet needs and maintaining focus on the end user during the innovation process and fostering trust in the organization.
  • Society and environment: the impact on external stakeholders and communities by contributing to business-relevant social and environmental goals.
  • Governance: the effectiveness of the board in providing appropriate oversight, governance mechanisms to ensure board quality and independence, and the ability of leadership, in conjunction with the board, to develop and assess long-term strategy.

The report released today, which is available at http://www.eEPIC-value.com, outlines several of these intangible assets and possible metrics for helping companies communicate their ability to generate long-term value to both investors and society as a whole. The group believes that these findings serve as a contribution to ongoing discussions around long-term value creation and, at the same time, serve as an impetus for discussions that have yet to begin.

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Notes to Editors

Embankment Project participants:

ASSET OWNERS

Allianz
The Allstate Corporation
ATP
CalSTRS
CalPERS
Canada Pension PLan Investment Board
The Guardian Life Insurance Company of America
MetLife
Washington State Investment Board

ASSET MANAGERS

Amundi Asset Management Aetna
Barings
BlackRock
Investec
J.P. Morgan Asset & Wealth Management
Neuberger Berman
Nuveen
Schroders
State Street Global Advisors
Vanguard

COMPANIES


Aetna
BASF
DowDuPont
Ecolab
Johnson & Johnson
Nestle
Novartis
PepsiCo
Unilever

About the Embankment Project

The 18-month, evidence-led project, sought to demonstrate that through collaboration across the investment chain, a new reporting mechanism is a valuable tool for corporations to drive long-term shareholder value through the credible measurement and comparisons of activities affecting all material stakeholders.

About Dr Anthony Hesketh

Anthony is Senior Lecturer in the Management School in the Department of Work and Technology at Lancaster University Management School. Ant's research focuses on exploring how we understand, develop and articulate value in organizations. Dr Hesketh was a participant in the EPIC Human Capital Disclosure Working Group. He is a Critical Eye Global Thought Leader.

He is available for interview and can be contacted through Lancaster University's press office - 01524 510998


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