What an ESG questionnaire wants to know about your personnel
An ESG questionnaire almost always asks for a handful of personnel figures: the number of employees, the breakdown between permanent and temporary contracts, the absenteeism rate, the number of training hours and sometimes the number of work accidents. These are company-level figures, not names or individual personnel files. For an installation company with fifteen people on the floor, that means: one figure per category, totalled from data already on file.
This question comes up again because the voluntary EU standard for non-listed SMEs, the VSME, includes a 'personnel' module. A buyer who is themselves subject to reporting requirements may not ask a supplier with one thousand employees or fewer for more than what is stated in that standard. The personnel module is the part that most quickly causes confusion, because it concerns people and the entrepreneur wonders whether they now need to provide a sort of payroll statement. That is not the intention.
What figures are concretely requested
The VSME personnel module typically asks for the total number of employees, broken down by contract type (permanent or temporary) and working hours (full-time or part-time). Turnover also often comes up: how many people joined and left in the past year. Absenteeism is requested as a percentage, not as a list of names and dates. Training hours are usually requested as an average per employee, and work accidents as a total number, possibly with a breakdown by severity. Some buyers add a question about the male-female ratio in the workforce, which is requested as an aggregate figure and not as individual records.
If you recognise something in the questionnaire you received that goes further, for example a request for job descriptions per employee or salary data per person, that is the moment to check whether that question still falls within the VSME. What falls outside it, a supplier with one thousand employees or fewer may refuse. precisely clarified what applies to you by subject shows where that boundary lies for each type of question.
Where you get the figures from
Most personnel figures are already in your payroll system. An extract from your payroll software typically shows the number of employees on the reporting date, the breakdown by contract type and working hours, and turnover over the year. Absenteeism figures usually come from the same system or from the absence insurer, who already aggregates the percentage. Training hours can often be found in an overview of training budgets or in the records of your occupational health and safety service.
The work is not in the calculation, but in aggregating without a name remaining anywhere. A useful approach is to have your payroll software generate a summary report rather than exporting a list per employee and counting it yourself. This way you avoid a file with personal data circulating that is not needed for the answer. For an HR manager doing this for the first time, that is often the only step that takes extra time; the rest is a matter of adding up and typing over.
Why this file remains on file
Once these figures have been recorded, usually not much changes from year to year: the number of employees fluctuates, but the format of the question does not. Those who keep the file can simply enter the new figures at the next questionnaire instead of having to find out again which report needs to come from which system. how the figures lead to an answer shows how that process works.
What this is not
Completing these figures is not an audit and not a certification of your personnel policy; there is no recognized body for these SME sustainability reports. It is also not legal advice on what exactly you are required to provide to a specific customer. If you are unsure whether a question about your personnel falls within the VSME, you can verify this against the official text or, if in doubt about your own situation, consult a lawyer or the competent supervisory authority. answers to frequently asked questions addresses a number of those cases of uncertainty.
Would you first like to see which questions in your questionnaire do and do not fall within the standard, and which personnel figures are associated with them? in five questions see where you stand provides you with a first indication in a couple of minutes, without requiring an account.