Four essentials for integrated annual reports

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Today, it takes a lot more for a company to be truly sustainable than just good financials.

The need to communicate an organisation’s strategy and how implementing it affects various stakeholders has now become integral in annual reporting.

The evolution of communication is a good way to look at how to approach reporting. People no longer just accept messages and news from one particular source. We analyse, investigate and engage. This stems from a need to understand information and to understand how the information affects our lives directly or indirectly.

The annual reporting process should be approached in a similar manner and should be a global view of the overall business of an organisation. The content in the report should be an analytical view focused on all areas of the organisation, how they impact one another and ultimately its various shareholders.

A true integrated annual report will reflect the following:

# 1: Talk to all stakeholders

Gone are the days when annual reports were written in financial and technical jargon. Information contained within the report should be applicable and understood by a variety of audiences, including shareholders, consumers, employees and media.

#2: People, planet and profit

Integrated annual reporting should demonstrate the linkages between an organisation’s strategy, governance and financial performance and the social, environmental and economic context within which it operates, and how all of these link into a greater sustainability plan for the future.

#3: A driver for change

Honest and accurate reporting can mean the difference between the life and death of a business. An integrated annual report should provide an organisation with a customised metric system that is able to determine the sustainability of the business and highlight areas that require immediate or future change.

#4: Demonstrate value over the long term

Does the annual report detail all the economic, environmental and social impacts caused by its every day activities? Are sufficient plans in place to mitigate negative impacts? How effective have these plans been and what does the future roll-out look like?

Ultimately a fully integrated annual report should reflect a company’s strategy implemented across the business with a comprehensive view of the future of the organisation, the community and the environment that surround it.