B8: Workforce – general characteristics
Your employees by contract type, gender and country.
In brief
B8 describes your workforce: the number of employees by type of contract (permanent or temporary) and by gender, and by country if you employ people in more than one country. You can report the figures as headcount or as full-time equivalents. Employee turnover, which VSME asked here from companies with 50 or more employees, has moved to C5 in the Comprehensive Module.
At a glance
- Requirement
- Essential: by contract type and by gender. By country if you operate in more than one country.
- 10 employees or less
- Required in full.
- Value chain cap (from 2027)
- Employees by contract type and by gender, for all sizes.
- In Selko Report
- Page "Workforce"
What changed from VSME
- Moved: employee turnover is now in C5, without VSME's threshold of 50 employees.
- Unchanged: employees by contract type, by gender and, for companies operating in several countries, by country.
VS Standard Reference
The official text of the Voluntary Standard, Annex I to Commission Delegated Regulation (EU) 2026/1560.
Selko Insights
How Selko applies it
Headcount at year end
Selko Report asks for all B8 figures as headcount on the last day of the financial year. Each person counts as one, whatever their working hours, including people on parental or sick leave. Using one point in time keeps the workforce figures consistent with each other and comparable year on year.
Who counts as an employee
An employee has an employment contract with your company. Self-employed contractors and agency workers are not your employees. You can report them voluntarily in C5.
Gender as registered
Use the gender your employees have registered with your company. Do not estimate it. The categories are male, female, other and not reported, as in EFRAG's guidance, and they add up to your total headcount.
Several countries
If you employ people in more than one country, give the headcount per country of the employment contract. EFRAG's guidance asks you to use each country's legal definitions of permanent and temporary contracts and then add the countries together.
Frequently asked questions
Related content
C5: Additional workforce characteristics
VS disclosure C5: the employee turnover rate, now without a 50-employee threshold, and the voluntary gender ratio in management and non-employee workers.
Read moreB9: Workforce – health and safety
VS disclosure B9: recordable work-related accidents, the accident rate and fatalities. The new definition of a recordable accident and how to keep your trend comparable.
Read moreB10: Workforce – remuneration, collective bargaining and training
VS disclosure B10: minimum wage, collective bargaining coverage, average training hours, and when the gender pay gap must be reported under the Pay Transparency Directive.
Read moreB1: Basis for preparation
VS disclosure B1: the option you apply, the statement of compliance, omitted information, reporting basis, subsidiaries, company details, sites and certifications.
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