As of the filing date of this shareholder proposal, Bright Horizons has not shared sufficient workforce metrics to enable investors to assess its workforce trends or efficacy of workplace culture and talent management programs.
For example, Bright Horizons does not release its EEO-1 report. Market standards and stakeholder expectations, however, have significantly changed around such disclosures. As of April 2024, over 80 percent of the S&P 500 and nearly 50 percent of the Russell 1000 companies disclose EEO-1 data, establishing this as a best practice in workforce data reporting.
The company’s existing disclosures only cover static figures that cannot be used to generate comprehensive insights. Specifically, its reporting lacks sufficient data on racial and ethnic representation, trend analyses, and the various areas of talent management, including hiring, retention, and promotion.
Workplace culture and human capital management programs are critical to a company’s talent attraction and retention pipeline, which may affect both social equality and financial performance. As You Sow and Whistle Stop Capital reviewed the workforce diversity of 1,641 companies between 2016-2021, finding statistically significant positive correlations between manager diversity and return on equity, return on invested capital, and 10-year revenue growth, among other indicators.
Implementing more robust workforce data collection, measurement, and reporting would provide transparency and insight to investors, employees, and stakeholders. Further, benchmarking talent management performance to internal and external standards may enhance talent management, workplace culture strategy, and promote employee retention. Subsequent disclosure would enable investors to better understand and assess Bright Horizons’ human capital management trends and performance.