A study of human capital reporting in the United Kingdom

Martin McCracken, Ronan McIvor, Raymond Treacy and Tony Wall

Accounting Forum, 2018, vol. 42, issue 1, 130-141

Abstract: •Various attempts to place a value on an organisation’s human capital have been unsuccessful in most countries.•There is a now a greater emphasis on narrative disclosures relating to human capital.•A recent amendment to the UK Companies Act 2006 has placed a requirement on companies to report on their human capital.•The top 100 UK companies have generally increased their human capital reporting following this amendment.•Companies should not simply copy other organisations, but some form of standardised reporting for human capital elements is required.Recently, there have been attempts at increasing human capital (HC) reporting in the United Kingdom (UK) through the introduction of government legislation and other initiatives. This paper assesses the current state of HC reporting in the UK by analysing the annual reports of the Financial Times Stock Exchange 100 companies before and after relevant amendments to the Companies Act 2006. The findings show that most of the companies analysed have been increasing their HC reporting, going beyond their statutory duties and moving away from wider intellectual capital disclosures to focus more on HC issues. However, these changes were not universal.

Date: 2018
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:taf:accfor:v:42:y:2018:i:1:p:130-141

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DOI: 10.1016/j.accfor.2017.11.001

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