The integrated report: A fitting proposal for information about human capital El informe integrado: una propuesta de encaje para la información sobre capital humano

Abstract

The way that companies prepare reports presents some problems (Lizcano, 2011), not only in terms of the quantity and complexity of standards, but also in terms of the quality of the corporative information that each company discloses. In short, in companies’ annual reports, the obligatory information about personnel in each jurisdiction is generally limited. But in the society of current knowledge, verbal explanations about human capital acquire greater importance (Knauer, 2010; Gamerschlag and Moeller, 2011). In this context, the Integrated Reportinginitiative intends to create a framework of information to satisfy the needs of a more sustainable world that includes social aspects as well as information about finance, environment and corporative governance. As principals of integrated reports it is specified that the information should be relevant, interconnected, homogenous, comparable, manageable, balanced, strategic in the short, medium and long term and verifiable (IIRC, 2012).

According to the settings posed by the International Integrated Reporting Council (IIRC), the Spanish Accounting and Business Administration Association (Asociación Española de Contabilidad y Administración de Empresas, AECA) suggests that the ideal mechanism to introduce the integrated information is in the management report (AECA, 2012) or the equivalent Management Commentary, following the terminology of the International Standards Board (IASB, 2010). In this paper the literature about narrative disclosure is reviewed, especially in relation to human resources, and once the current standard initiatives are analyzed, a proposal is elaborated about the possible exchange of human resource information within the integrated report.