Domain B · Area B-CA3 · Social and governance reporting literacy and cross-topic integration
B.6Apply workforce, human rights, affected communities, consumers and wider social reporting literacy
Working Draft version 1.1
Purpose and scope
This unit covers the capability to apply sufficient reporting literacy across own workforce, value-chain workers, affected communities, consumers and end-users, human rights, due diligence, stakeholder and rights-holder engagement, grievance and remedy. It includes sensitive qualitative information, disaggregation, vulnerable or marginalised groups, incidents and outcome evidence, while preserving confidentiality and specialist boundaries.
Applied competency statement
Can apply sufficient workforce, human-rights and social reporting literacy to identify relevant affected groups, due-diligence and evidence questions, challenge social information and communicate outcomes, incidents and limitations accurately and responsibly.
Boundary and escalation
This unit does not qualify the practitioner to conduct human-rights investigations, legal determinations, safeguarding assessments, clinical or social research, remedy design or representation of rights-holders. Sensitive matters require qualified human-rights, legal, HR, safeguarding, community, consumer or other relevant specialists.
Key quality risks
Treating stakeholder engagement as consent or proof of absence of impact; using survey averages to obscure severe or uneven outcomes; reporting activities rather than effectiveness or remedy; assuming no grievance means no impact; misclassifying worker groups; disclosing sensitive information without protection; and making legal or investigative conclusions from incomplete reporting evidence.
B.6-K01
Understands the distinctions among employees, non-employee workers, value-chain workers, affected communities, consumers and end-users and the relevance of vulnerable or marginalised groups.
Knowledge Type: Affected groups · Normative Weight: Core
B.6-K02
Understands basic human-rights concepts, internationally recognised rights, adverse impacts, due diligence, prevention, mitigation, cessation, remediation and the role of business relationships.
Knowledge Type: Human rights · Normative Weight: Core
B.6-K03
Understands stakeholder and rights-holder engagement, social dialogue, worker representation, grievance mechanisms, complaints, remedy and the limitations of engagement data.
Knowledge Type: Engagement and grievance · Normative Weight: Core
B.6-K04
Understands qualitative and quantitative social information, disaggregation, confidentiality, consent, retaliation risk, under-reporting, incident data and the distinction between activities, outputs, outcomes and impacts.
Knowledge Type: Social evidence · Normative Weight: Core
B.6-K05
Understands common workforce, community, consumer, equality, health and safety, training, security, product and service impact concepts at a level sufficient for reporting work.
Knowledge Type: Workforce and social topics · Normative Weight: Core
B.6-K06
Understands common social-reporting, legal, confidentiality and evidence risks and when human-rights, legal, HR, safeguarding, medical, community or other specialist input is required.
Knowledge Type: Reporting and specialist boundary · Normative Weight: Core
B.6-S01
Map relevant workforce groups, value-chain workers, communities, consumers and other affected parties in relation to the business model and value chain.
Skill Type: Core applied capability · Observable Output or Result: Workforce, human-rights and social context map
B.6-S02
Review due-diligence, engagement, grievance, incident, outcome and remedy information for relevance, completeness, disaggregation, sensitivity and limitations.
Skill Type: Evidence review · Observable Output or Result: Due-diligence, grievance and evidence review
B.6-S03
Challenge assumptions, averages, activity-only reporting, absence-of-complaint claims and inconsistent classifications of affected groups.
Skill Type: Concept and quality challenge · Observable Output or Result: Social evidence challenge log
B.6-S04
Integrate social and human-rights information into balanced, respectful and appropriately protected disclosures that distinguish fact, allegation, finding, action and outcome.
Skill Type: Disclosure translation · Observable Output or Result: Social disclosure and specialist challenge memorandum
B.6-S05
Identify legal, safeguarding, confidentiality, retaliation, consent and specialist issues and use appropriate protected escalation and review routes.
Skill Type: Escalation and protection · Observable Output or Result: Sensitive-matter escalation and protection record
B.6-B01
Handles information about affected people with dignity, cultural sensitivity, confidentiality and attention to possible harm or retaliation.
Behaviour Type: Respect and do-no-harm · Non-compensable Requirement: No
B.6-B02
Does not treat management or stakeholder consultation as a substitute for affected-person evidence, due diligence or remedy.
Behaviour Type: Rights-holder awareness · Non-compensable Requirement: No
B.6-B03
Distinguishes allegation, complaint, investigation, finding, action and outcome and does not make unsupported legal or human-rights conclusions.
Behaviour Type: Evidence and legal discipline · Non-compensable Requirement: No
Typical tasks · 4
B.6-T01
Identify relevant workforce groups, value-chain workers, communities, consumers and other affected parties from the business model and value chain.
Primary Output Link: B.6-O01
B.6-T02
Review policies, due-diligence processes, engagement, grievance, incident, remedy and outcome evidence and assess gaps and sensitivity.
Primary Output Link: B.6-O02
B.6-T03
Test disaggregation, affected-group classification, activity-versus-outcome claims, confidentiality and consistency across sources.
Primary Output Link: B.6-O03
B.6-T04
Prepare or review disclosures, retain specialist caveats and obtain legal, HR, human-rights or safeguarding review as required.
Primary Output Link: B.6-O03
Level 1 · Foundation
B.6-L1-01
Can use an established method to identify relevant affected groups and review basic workforce, engagement, grievance and incident information for completeness and sensitivity.
Indicator Dimension: Task execution
B.6-L1-02
Can identify obvious classification, disaggregation, confidentiality or activity-versus-outcome issues and escalate sensitive or specialist matters.
Indicator Dimension: Quality, judgement and accountability
Level 2 · Practitioner
B.6-L2-01
Can independently review a moderately complex workforce, human-rights or social reporting package, assess due-diligence and grievance evidence and prepare a balanced specialist-challenge memorandum.
Indicator Dimension: Task execution
B.6-L2-02
Can reconcile routine inconsistencies, protect sensitive information, distinguish allegations from findings and explain limitations and specialist dependencies to management and contributors.
Indicator Dimension: Quality, judgement and accountability
Level 3 · Advanced Practitioner
B.6-L3-01
Can design or critically review social-reporting-quality methods for complex value chains, vulnerable groups, serious incidents or multi-jurisdictional contexts.
Indicator Dimension: Method design and review
B.6-L3-02
Can challenge misleading averages or activity claims, establish protected evidence and review expectations and advise governance bodies on the quality and limits of social and human-rights reporting without conducting investigations.
Indicator Dimension: Leadership and governance
Illustrative evidence · 6
B.6-E01
Workforce, human-rights and social context map linked to activities, relationships and affected groups.
Evidence Type: Work product
B.6-E02
Due-diligence, grievance and evidence review showing disaggregation, sensitivity, limitations and follow-up questions.
Evidence Type: Work product
B.6-E03
Social disclosure and specialist challenge memorandum distinguishing allegations, findings, actions, remedy and outcomes.
Evidence Type: Work product
B.6-E04
Confidential source, consent, classification and escalation trail supporting the review.
Evidence Type: Process evidence
B.6-E05
Documented HR, human-rights, legal, safeguarding, community or assurance-readiness review and the practitioner's response.
Evidence Type: Review evidence
B.6-E06
Observed handling and explanation of a sensitive social-reporting case within professional boundaries.
Evidence Type: Observed performance
Assessment · 3
B.6-A-L1
Knowledge examination, affected-group mapping and situational judgement
Correct concepts and group distinctions; treatment of sensitive evidence; recognition of activity-versus-outcome and escalation risks.
B.6-A-L2
Integrated social-reporting case and written professional memorandum
Social and human-rights literacy; evidence quality; disaggregation and confidentiality; distinction between allegation and finding; balanced reporting and specialist control.
B.6-A-L3
Complex sensitive case, portfolio and oral defence
Method design; do-no-harm safeguards; evidence and legal discipline; governance challenge; specialist integration and oral defence.
| From | To | Type | Rationale |
|---|---|---|---|
| B.6 | B.3 | Method, data and analytical linkage | Workforce, human-rights and social matters should be classified and connected without conflating impacts and organisational risks. |
| B.6 | C.4 | Feeds into | Affected-group and rights-holder analysis informs stakeholder and due-diligence inputs to reporting. |
| B.6 | C.5 | Feeds into | Social impacts and evidence become inputs to impact-materiality assessment and require appropriate severity analysis. |
| B.6 | G.6 | Strong linkage | Social disclosure must be balanced, respectful, disaggregated and transparent about allegations, findings and outcomes. |
| B.6 | H.4 | Risk and control linkage | Sensitive social evidence requires confidentiality, privacy, consent and protected handling. |
| B.8 | B.6 | Method, data and analytical linkage | Workforce, human-rights and social reporting may require protected specialist evidence and sensitive review. |
| C.4 | B.6 | Method, data and analytical linkage | Rights-holder, grievance and sensitive social evidence requires the literacy and safeguards established in B.6. |
| Role | Target level | Relevance | Evidence expectation |
|---|---|---|---|
| Corporate Sustainability Reporting Practitioner | Foundation | Supporting? | A supervised or defined work sample showing correct application, traceability and recognition of specialist or escalation needs. |
| Sustainability Reporting Manager or Lead | Practitioner | Required? | A case or work sample demonstrating independent performance, documented judgement and a reviewable professional output. |
| Sustainability Reporting Adviser or Consultant | Practitioner | Required? | A case or work sample demonstrating independent performance, documented judgement and a reviewable professional output. |
| Sustainability Data, Systems and Controls Specialist | Foundation | Supporting? | A supervised or defined work sample showing correct application, traceability and recognition of specialist or escalation needs. |
| Assurance Readiness and Reporting Quality Specialist | Practitioner | Required? | A case or work sample demonstrating independent performance, documented judgement and a reviewable professional output. |
| Investor, Capital Markets and Ratings Disclosure Specialist | Practitioner | Required? | A case or work sample demonstrating independent performance, documented judgement and a reviewable professional output. |