Workforce Inclusion and Voice: The Workforce Engagement Coalition

Originally established as the Workforce Directors Coalition, the group was renamed in 2026 to better reflect its longstanding focus on strengthening engagement between company boards and the workforce overall, and to support more effective engagement with companies on this material issue.

Workforce engagement and long-term value

A company’s workforce is fundamental to its long-term success. Including workforce perspectives in strategic decision-making and governance is key to building resilient, high-performing businesses.

Effective workforce engagement can strengthen trust, support productivity and reduce risk.

A growing body of evidence shows that a motivated and engaged workforce supports sustainable financial performance. For example, a Gallup backed meta analysis covering 339 studies and ~1.9 million employees found that higher employee satisfaction is linked to improved business performance, with productivity approximately 10% higher.

The Coalition’s approach

Through collaboration, the Coalition seeks to share practical insights, engage constructively with companies and build evidence on the effectiveness of different engagement models.

The WEC seeks constructive dialogue with three groups of companies:

• Those who already have a well-developed workforce engagement programme – to aid our understanding and express our support where we deem it effective

• Those who are interested in improving their workforce engagement practices – to help them understand what institutional investors consider to be good practice and feed through practical examples from other companies

• Those where workforce is a material issue and we deem current employee engagement mechanisms to be insufficient

We also engage with policymakers to help create a supportive environment for workforce engagement.

There is no single ‘right’ approach to workforce engagement. We encourage companies to consider mechanisms such as workforce directors, designated NEDs, advisory panels or other models suited to their context.

Workforce directors

We think that more companies in the UK and US could, for example, consider appointing a workforce director – a director of a company board drawn from the company's workforce - to achieve benefits over and above (and ideally in combination with) other workforce engagement mechanisms.

Four key reasons to appoint a workforce director

Here are four key reasons why we think more companies should at least consider appointing one or more workforce directors to their boards:

1. Improved decision-making: The executive board can draw on workforce directors’ new perspectives, ideas, and experiences to aid decision-making, leading to the kind of well-rounded and effective decisions provided by cognitively diverse boards.

2. Improved employee morale: The appointment of a workforce director can demonstrate to employees that their opinions and perspectives are valued and can contribute to a more positive workplace culture and increased employee morale.

3. Increased understanding of the workforce: Providing insight into the daily experiences and challenges employees face can help the executive board make informed decisions that align with the needs and concerns of the workforce.

4. Improved communication: Where part of their role involves acting as a liaison between the executive board and the rest of the workforce, workforce directors can improve communication and help to build trust and understanding between both groups.

Practical guidance for companies

Workforce Inclusion and Voice: Investor Guidance on Workforce Directors explains how companies can take a meaningful approach to including the worker voice at board level.  

This guidance has been created following discussions with companies, regulators and workforce representatives and is intended to help companies think about the workforce engagement approach that will work best for them. This includes circumstances in which it might be useful to consider appointing workforce directors to company boards. 

This guidance on workforce directors is split into four areas: 

The Coalition's members

Members include the following asset owners and asset managers: 

• Border to Coast

• Brunel Pension Partnership

• Church of England Pension Board

• Federated Hermes

• Merseyside Pension Fund

• New York City Comptroller

• Northern Local Government Pension Scheme

• Rathbone Greenbank Investments

• Royal London Asset Management

• Universities Superannuation Scheme

Become a member of the Coalition

WEC membership is available to the following:

• Long-term institutional investors, including asset owners and asset managers

• Investor-governed, non-profit organisations

Founding members signed up to the Coalition’s Investor Statement, which sets out our shared commitments. While we encourage new members to review and sign the Investor Statement, it is not essential to becoming a member.  

Interested in joining? Email SO@railpen.com 

Antitrust disclaimer

The responsibility lies with each of the individual WEC members to understand and adhere to all laws and regulations applicable to them. This includes, but is not limited to, relevant antitrust and competition laws. WEC members explicitly avoid coordinating on company-specific investment decisions, meeting-specific proxy voting decisions or any other business-related decisions. WEC members are responsible for their own investment, voting and business decisions and must always act completely independently to set their own strategies, policies and practices based on their own best interests. The WEC facilitates the exchange of public information, but members must avoid the exchange (including one-way disclosure) of non-public, competitively sensitive information, including with other members and participants in engagements. 

Useful links

Workforce Inclusion and Voice: Investor Guidance on Workforce Directors – provides thoughts from investors for companies on how to how to take a meaningful approach to including the worker voice at board level.

Investor Statement on Workforce Engagement – Investor Statement which sets out our shared commitments as a Coalition.

Worthwhile Workforce Reporting: Good practice examples from the UK's biggest examples – guidance on what constitutes good workforce reporting, highlighting examples of best practice 

How do companies report on their ‘most important asset’? – an analysis of workforce reporting in the FTSE 100 and recommendations for action 

AGM Statements – Railpen’s Annual General Meetings (AGM) questions, statements and letters which include our engagements with companies on workforce directors 

Fair Reward Framework – assesses the UK’s biggest companies on a variety of pay metrics, including whether or not the company has a workforce director. 

Get in touch

To learn more about the Coalition, our guidance and/or to provide feedback, please get in touch with us at SO@railpen.com