Putting People at the Heart of Business Strategy and Reporting
People drive business growth. The Taskforce on Inequality and Social-related Financial Disclosures (TISFD) was launched to integrate people-related issues into decision making.
By Kate Meier and Peter Bakker
People drive business growth. Workers’ physical labour, talent and creativity fuel innovation. Consumers’ prosperity helps sustain markets. And communities provide the social license and conditions required for companies to operate. When companies properly prioritize the people they depend upon and serve, the opportunities are profound: increased productivity, competitiveness and value creation for investors and all other stakeholders.
Yet many people today are struggling with rising inequalities. Inequalities of income and wealth stand at historic highs in many countries, and hundreds of millions of people are unable to attain even basic needs. These challenges are being exacerbated by climate change, nature loss and the dislocation of workers and communities due to the digital transformation of industry.
These changes in the operating context of business are accelerating the need to put people first in corporate strategy, governance, management and reporting.
Introducing the TISFD
In 2025, the Taskforce on Inequality and Social-related Financial Disclosures (TISFD) – an international multi-stakeholder initiative – was launched to integrate people-related issues into decision-making. Drawing on lessons learned from its predecessor taskforces, the Task Force on Climate-related Financial Disclosures (TCFD) and the Taskforce on Nature-related Financial Disclosures (TNFD), the TISFD aims to complete the picture by enabling holistic reporting that can incentivize financial practices that facilitate a just transition and create stronger, more resilient economies.
To do so, the TISFD will develop a social disclosure framework that helps companies understand how they impact and depend on people, and how these impacts and dependencies lead to risks and opportunities for their business – and for the system in which they operate.
Putting people at the heart of decision making
Putting people at the heart of decision-making is, in part, about values. The international norms that governments around the world have collectively agreed on have enshrined the need for companies to respect people’s human rights. But a people-centred approach is also about value. Economies are not a zero-sum game: when all people do well, economies and markets thrive. And when the conditions for upward mobility are not in place and a significant proportion of people are struggling, political and economic systems weaken.
People-related issues have long been seen as ill-defined, difficult to measure or peripheral to corporate interests. At a time when increasing popular discontent is directly threatening market stability, the need for companies to shift their focus from nebulous social goals to concrete, measurable improvements in the outcomes they generate for people has never been greater.
Changes in the operating context of business are accelerating the need to put people first in corporate strategy, governance, management and reporting.
Shaping the future of social disclosures
The TISFD will co-create its disclosure framework with business, finance, civil society and labour leaders to enable meaningful and concerted action; and it will partner with standard-setters and market service providers to ensure its recommendations are practical and contribute to harmonization in the reporting landscape. We invite you to join us to shape this initiative.
Further Information on TISFD
Please visit www.tisfd.org to learn more.
Kate Meier
is Chief of Strategy for the Taskforce on Inequality and Social-related Financial Disclosures (TISFD), a global initiative to incentivize business and financial practices that create stronger, more resilient societies and economies.
Peter Bakker
is the President & CEO of the World Business Council for Sustainable Development (WBCSD), the premier global, CEO-led community of the world’s leading sustainable businesses working to accelerate system transformation for a net-zero, nature-positive and equitable future.