News story

UK companies struggling with transparency

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UK's top companies are failing to meet stakeholder demands for transparency on their websites in investor relations, careers and ESG; but L&D performed better.

Top UK companies fulfilled only 26% of stakeholder expectations for online transparency
Top UK companies fulfilled only 26% of stakeholder expectations for online transparency 

The UK's top companies are failing to meet increased stakeholder demands for online transparency by failing to include sought-after and essential information on their websites.

New research by Comprend, which ranks the UK's top 200 companies through their corporate websites, found UK companies do not have key information desired by investors, analyst and job seekers. Edelman's 2023 Trust Barometer shows that many people assume a brand is doing nothing, or hiding something if it does not communicate its actions to address societal issues. 

Top UK companies performed particularly poorly on investor relations, fulfilling only 26% of criteria to meet stakeholder expectations, compared to 28% for European companies.

For Careers, UK companies performed slightly better fulfilling almost half (48%) of the criteria, including presenting information about learning and development which was much higher at 63% and presenting their purpose (80%). However, only a quarter present any information about work/life balance and just 36% offer any information about working from home. On ESG, UK companies fulfil just 43% of the sustainability criteria and only 25% present data on target achievements.

Top performers

Energy company, BP, topped this year's survey, scoring 61.4 out of a possible 100 points. Diageo rose to second and Shell maintained third.

Rank

Company

Sector

Score

1

BP

Energy

61.4

2

Diageo

Food, Beverage and Tobacco

60.8

3

Shell

Energy

60.3

4

Unilever

Personal Care, Drug and Grocery Stores

60

5

Centrica

Utilities

57.6

6

Rolls-Royce Holdings

Industrial Goods and Services

57

7

Coca-Cola HBC

Food, Beverage and Tobacco

56.9

8

BAE Systems

Industrial Goods and Services

56.5

9

GlaxoSmithKline

Health Care

55.9

10

British American Tobacco

Food, Beverage and Tobacco

55.5

See the complete results for the UK companies in Webranking 2023-2024.

 

More information
karen.lester@comprend.com or freja.nilsson@comprend.com