Human Capital and ESG Corporate Governance...

CHRO Survey Results

In many ways, we are still finding our collective feet after two years that saw the COVID-19 pandemic sweep across the globe, altering nearly every aspect of our personal and professional lives in its wake. For the corporate world, the pandemic economy brought to the fore a constellation of workforce-related issues, from remote work and worksite safety challenges, to succession and turnover struggles in the face of the ongoing Great Resignation. Longstanding movements for social and economic justice have also grown in strength and visibility in the last two years, applying more pressure on companies to act on critical diversity, equity and inclusion concerns. 

As public discourse surrounding these social issues has blossomed, governance conversations have followed suit. Stakeholders widely recognize human capital management as an especially important piece of corporate strategy. While some common practices have reached near ubiquity, approaches to human capital and ESG management and disclosure still vary widely. For instance, 96% of Equilar 100 companies— the 100 largest U.S. public companies by revenue— include references to diversity or inclusion in their disclosures, while 45% refer to their percentage of women employees, and only 40% refer to their percentage of ethnically diverse employees. 

Other aspects of employee relations are also frequent topics of disclosure among the Equilar 100, with 86% of companies referencing employee development, and 49% mentioning employee engagement. References to competitive compensation and employee safety or wellbeing are also seen frequently, with 66% and 75% prevalence among Equilar 100 companies, respectively. In the most recent year, 59% of companies in the group also mentioned actions in response to COVID-19. 

To help inform HR leaders of the latest developments in ESG and HCM practices, Equilar and the HR Policy Association partnered to survey chief human resources officers (CHROs) on related practices. In total, 93 responses were collected, with results from the survey offering insight into the current state of play for ESG.

Full survey results here