Almost all companies, including the ones in Indonesia, are required to submit their performance results for the past year in the form of an annual report addressed to the public or stakeholders.
On a fundamental level, an annual report not only serves as a written copy of the company’s performance presented to comply with regulations or directions from regulators. It also serves as a means to gain trust from both the public and from business partners for the company’s business continuity.
As such, several important matters must be kept when preparing an annual report. These include, among others, the report’s communication aspects and the role of public relations when it comes to this aspect.
In preparing an annual report, the company should not only focus on submitting data or figures that seem rigid and are only intended for certain groups but must also package those numbers in such a way so that they are attention-grabbing and readable for all groups.
This is where the role of public relations comes into play to provide the direction needed so that a company’s annual report can serve as a strategic communication tool that could also be utilized as an effective marketing tool for the company, with the reason being that the company can, through its annual reports, communicate more than just numbers, graphs and pictures.
In addition to serving as a medium for communicating the management of company performance in a given year, annual reports can also be used to disseminating the company’s culture and strategies when it comes to the management of their human resources (HR).
It is through these annual reports that companies can demonstrate how their human resource (HR) management strategies have helped to support the company’s targeted achievements within the preceding year. In addition to describing management strategies related to the company’s business, the report can also be used to explain the extent to which the company has worked to boost employee competence and guarantee their welfare.
Annual reports can also reveal the company’s strategies in providing service and satisfaction to its customers, as well as how the company maintains customer trust by improving the quality of its products and service facilities. The report may also be used as a communication tool to describe the company’s environmental and community social activities, as well as its general company responsibility when it comes to environmental conservation and social care.
All in all, it can be said that the communication aspects in annual reports are very extensive as a medium to maintain relationships with business partners, employees, customers and all stakeholders for the company to run harmoniously and in a sustainable manner. (ALV
Originally published on Alveo website
