19. The objective of this DR is to provide insight into the undertaking's approach to employment practices, including security of employment for its own workforce. It also serves as the basis for calculating certain quantitative metrics required by other DRs in this Standard and provides contextual information for those metrics.

20. The undertaking shall disclose:

AR 7 for para. 20(b) (Definition of distinct types of employees)
The definitions of permanent, temporary and non-guaranteed hours employees differ among countries. If the undertaking has employees in more than one country, it shall use the definitions as per the national laws of the countries where the employees are based to calculate country-level data. Country-level data shall then be added up to calculate the total numbers.

AR 8 for para. 20 (Methodological context information)
In accordance with ESRS 2 GDR-M, the undertaking shall disclose the method used to calculate and compile employee data (for example, at the end of the reporting year or as an average) and provide contextual information.

AR 9 for para. 20(a) and 20(b) (Presentation tables – employee headcount)
The undertaking shall present the requested disclosures either in a narrative format or in the following tabular formats. (Table 1 and Table 2 are shown below this table.)
In some Member States, it is possible for persons to legally register themselves as having a third gender, which is categorised as ‘other’ in the table above. However, if the third gender is not permitted by law, the undertaking may explain this and indicate that the ‘other’ category is not applicable.

Table 1. Template for presenting information on headcount by gender

Table 2. Template for presenting the number of employees by headcount for each of the countries in which it has 50 or more employees and that are the ten largest countries in terms of employee numbers

AR 10 for para. 20(c) (Presentation table – employee headcount breakdown)
The undertaking shall present the information either as narrative text or using the following table. (Table 3 is shown below this table.)
In some Member States, it is possible for persons to legally register as having a third gender, which is categorised as ‘other’ in the table above. However, if the third gender is not permitted by law, the undertaking, may explain this and indicate that the ‘other’ category is not applicable.
In some countries, non-guaranteed hours contracts may be considered permanent or temporary contracts in accordance with national legislation.

Table 3. Template for presenting information on employees by contract type, broken down by gender (headcount or FTE)

AR 11 for para. 20(d) (Calculation employee turnover)
For the employee turnover calculation, the undertaking shall divide the number of employees who leave voluntarily or due to dismissal, retirement or death in service by the average employee headcount.

Non-guaranteed hours employee: Non-guaranteed hours employees are employed by the undertaking without a guarantee of a minimum or fixed number of working hours. The employee may need to make themselves available for work as required, but the undertaking is not contractually obliged to offer the employee a minimum or fixed number of working hours per day, week, or month. Casual employees, employees with zero-hour contracts, and on-call employees are examples that fall under this category.

Purely quantitative data, such as the number of employees on fixed-term contracts, is often not enough on its own to understand what it means. A high share of such employment relationships could point to a lack of job security, but also to flexibility, if this was chosen voluntarily.

To make the data interpretable, the undertaking must provide contextual information. For example, it should explain the reasons for fixed-term employment contracts, such as when they are needed for seasonal or project-based work, or when new employees first receive fixed-term contracts before they are offered a permanent position.

The undertaking should also explain why non-guaranteed hours occur, in order to give a more complete picture.