Board diversity: The reversal reaches the largest companies Two reports this week documented a reversal in board diversity across the Russell 3000. Equilar found that people of color received just 15.7% of new director appointments in 2025, down from 21.0% … Read More
Articles
What Happened to the Best Companies Effect?
For years, one of the best-known findings in sustainable investing was that companies on Fortune’s 100 Best Companies to Work For list delivered unusually strong stock returns. Alex Edmans documented the result in a 2011 study, and later research with … Read More
When Disclosure Disappears, Where Do You Look?
Our clients are increasingly running into the same problem: it’s getting harder to see what’s happening inside the workforces of America’s public companies. Companies are publishing less quantitative workforce data. Some standardized sources have disappeared or become less accessible, while … Read More
When “Act Like an Owner” Comes With Shares
Companies have spent decades asking employees to “think like owners.” Mark Cuban has a fairly literal interpretation of that advice. Earlier this summer, Cuban argued that companies should give equity to every employee: “Every company I’ve ever sold, I’ve given money to … Read More
The Quiet Withdrawal
Merck has published a sustainability report every year for 13 years. Its website still states that the company was among the first in the U.S. to disclose its EEO-1 data and that it continues to do so annually. The report … Read More
The Fight Over EEO-1 Isn’t Really About Paperwork
The public comment period on the EEOC’s proposal to eliminate EEO-1 reporting closed on August 24. The docket contains 2,580 comments. The overwhelming majority oppose rescission. That headline number isn’t worth much on its own: more than 1,800 submissions came through three … Read More
A First Look at Our 2026 Human Capital Reporting Trends Report + Data Pack
Two Companies, One Day, Two Very Different Results Merck published its annual sustainability report this week. The company’s website still states that Merck was among the first U.S. companies to disclose Equal Employment Opportunity data and that it will “continue to do so annually.” … Read More
Boards, Burns and a 2,382% Return
The Policies Are Nearly Gone. The Boards Aren’t. Yet. Bloomberg reported this week that 61 S&P 100 companies have eliminated explicit diversity criteria for director searches since 2023. We land in the same place. We’re just far pickier about what counted as … Read More
Work-Life Harmony and Amazon’s Safety Math
Accenture Discovers a New Employee Benefit Accenture has a new employee benefit: not taking vacation. The company told employees they may roll over unused vacation days this year as it pushes to maximize sales before the end of its fiscal year. … Read More
The Dataset That Built PeopleReturn
On July 21, the EEOC voted 2-1 to publish a proposed rule rescinding the EEO-1 report, along with the EEO-2 through EEO-6 collections and the recordkeeping requirements attached to them. The proposal now sits in a 30-day comment period that … Read More