Belgian companies need to show greater transparency on their corporate websites

Belgian companies perform below their European peers in Webranking 2022-2023. The average score for the 15 ranked Belgian companies is still 39 points out of 100. In contrast, the average score for European companies is 44 points, which also is too low to meet stakeholder expectations. 

Informative homepages

The Belgian companies perform best when it comes to presenting informative homepages, which is positive considering that the Homepage can be thought of as the online front door to your business. The Homepage needs to provide a thorough summary of your organisation and its operations, with links to more information.

The Belgian top performer UCB provide a well-structured homepage where it is clear what their vision and mission are. Company stories and press releases are also given, as well as a social media feed.

Corporate Governance the biggest challenge

The biggest challenge for Belgian companies is presenting enough governance information. This is concerning, considering that stakeholders expect a high level of transparency from companies.

The Belgian companies especially fall behind when it comes to presenting information about remuneration paid to the management and Board of Directors. On a corporate website, both the remuneration policy and the numbers paid should be provided. Only 22% of the ranked companies present this, leaving room for improvement needed to be seen as transparent among the stakeholders.

KBC are a good example of a Belgian company that present an overview of the remuneration policy and the full remuneration report available for download.

KBC, Solvay and UCB top performers

KBC have climbed one placement since last year and are now the best performing Belgian company. They are also the best climber since they have improved their total score by 6.3 points. KBC present detailed about us and governance information.

Solvay are new to the podium and have improved their score by 5.5 points, climbing from fourth to second place. Solvay present a well-structured newsroom.

UCB dipped by 0.7 points which was enough to drop from first to shared second place with Solvay, considering the improvement of the other top performers. Still, they present a comprehensive homepage and an informative online annual report.

Top 5 Belgium

See the full Belgian results list or learn more about Webranking.

Helena Wennergren

Senior consultant

helena.wennergren@comprend.com

+46 70 971 12 10

Webranking

webranking@comprend.com