Reporting is the forte of Spanish corporate websites

 By Anna Dunder

This year’s Webranking by Comprend results show a slight drop in the average score when the 23 largest Spanish companies’ corporate websites were ranked against stakeholder demands. This season the Spanish average reached 41.8 (out of 100), a decrease of 2 points from last year. Whilst Spanish companies excel in financial reporting, their career and investor communications remain a challenge.

Spanish companies were left behind by their European peers this season. Only 4 of the 23 Spanish corporate websites evaluated as part of the 900 largest companies in Europe passed the 50-point mark. A widespread issue is that the English version of the companies’ corporate websites is not always a mirror image of the Spanish version. This is particularly prevalent when it comes to careers information, where only 34% of the content jobseekers require is available on average. For a financial audience, investor content is often heavily weighted towards the annual reports; lifting this information out of PDFs and directly onto the website could be the next step here.

Content in online summaries makes reporting a Spanish strength

The shining star of Spanish corporate websites is the reporting information: report archives largely cover several years, and in the latest ranking all companies offer financial presentations. But the true strength of Spanish financial reporting lies in their online annual report summaries.

The number of companies offering an online summary is at the same level as last year, but the content included within the summaries has increased. Sustainability content is an example of this, as 48% of companies have now included this in the summary (vs. 32% last year). Mobile-adapted online summaries have increased in Spain, too, making the user-experience even better as a result.

BBVA's excellent online annual report stands out for its inclusion of an interactive strategy.

When lifting content from PDFs onto the website, another step alongside creating online summaries would be to prioritise the addition of information that is often forgotten. An area of relevance here is risk management.

Risk management focuses on processes rather than risks

Risk management is often a part of the annual reports, but this information is not commonly lifted onto Spanish corporate websites. On the few occasions where risk management appears on the websites, companies tend to focus more on their processes, whilst overlooking the identification of operational or financial risks. Only 10% of companies include these – even though capital markets consider it very important content to present on a corporate website.

Detailed information about operational and financial risks is a key opportunity for a company to show investors that they are constantly preparing for potential challenges. Having this information on the website makes the company's approach more accessible, as it will be easier to search and view.

Superbly-executed risk management communication can be found on the website of energy company Naturgy, who present market, operational, and credit risks on their website.

Careers communication is a challenge throughout Europe

Another area to improve is the information available to jobseekers. Spanish companies presented similar shortcomings to their European peers when corporate websites were evaluated against jobseekers needs this year. For jobseekers, the corporate website is the most important source when looking for vacancies, so the careers section is clearly a key opportunity for companies to put their best foot forward. However, a company's focus is often primarily on introducing both their business and their values, stopping short of presenting crucial information on what the working experience is like.

Focus on information outside of the job ads

70% of Spanish companies offer an introduction to jobseekers with descriptions of company values and culture. Information outside of this tends to be quite brief, often leaving jobseekers reliant on job adverts to find out more about what the employee experience might entail. 52% of Spanish companies presented vacancies on global careers sites, but information on other relevant topics such as locations where job applicants might be working were only mentioned by 25% of the companies. Diversity information is presented well, but less than 40% of companies offered details about employee benefits. If this information is presented exclusively on job adverts, a jobseeker might find it difficult to gain a global overview of the company, which could dissuade them from applying.

A good example of how a company can communicate their geographical presence comes from Inditex, who present their locations on their careers site together with a map.

LinkedIn is actively used by half of the companies along with careers sites

On a positive note, Spanish companies have realised the power of LinkedIn as more than 60% had job ads available on both LinkedIn and the corporate website. LinkedIn is the most-used source for jobseekers after the corporate website, as supported by the findings of Comprend’s Careers Report 2019. Ensuring that the careers sites and LinkedIn information are aligned is a good way for companies to support jobseekers' application processes.

Amadeus' LinkedIn page provides a good introduction for jobseekers, with employee testimonials also included along with a link to their global career site for more information.

Repsol is the winner & Aena takes the Climber of the Year award

This year’s Spanish winner is Repsol with an amazing score of 75.9 (out of 100), improving by more than two points from last year. Second place goes to Airbus with a score of 57.2 whilst Arcelomittal takes the third podium with 55.3 points. Additionally, Repsol - who have retained the top spot on the Spanish list for more than seven years - also finished in 2nd place in the Oil & Gas supersector list. This year’s Spanish list’s Climber is airport operator Aena, who improved by 9 points from last year - with their total score now hitting 38.0 points. The sustainability communication on Aena's corporate website has improved tremendously from last year, a significant factor in securing the Climber of the Year title.

Top ten in Spain

See the full Spanish results