Filings buzz in the automotive industry: 31% decrease in the future of work mentions since Q1 of 2021

Mentions of the future of work within the filings of companies in the automotive industry were 31% lower in the first quarter of 2022 than in Q1 of 2021.

In total, the frequency of sentences related to the future of work between April 2021 and March 2022 was 219% higher than in 2016 when GlobalData, from whom our data for this article is taken, first began to track the key issues referred to in company filings.

When companies in the automotive industry publish annual and quarterly reports, ESG reports and other filings, GlobalData analyses the text and identifies individual sentences that relate to disruptive forces facing companies in the coming years. The future of work is one of these topics – companies that excel and invest in these areas are thought to be better prepared for the future business landscape and better equipped to survive unforeseen challenges.

To assess whether the future of work is featuring more in the summaries and strategies of companies in the automotive industry, two measures were calculated. Firstly, we looked at the percentage of companies which have mentioned the future of work at least once in filings during the past twelve months – this was 59% compared to 23% in 2016. Secondly, we calculated the percentage of total analysed sentences that referred to the future of work.

Of the 10 biggest employers in the automotive industry, Ford was the company which referred to the future of work the most between April 2021 and March 2022. GlobalData identified 12 future of work-related sentences in the United States-based company’s filings – 0.09% of all sentences. Lear mentioned the future of work the second most – the issue was referred to in 0.07% of sentences in the company’s filings. Other top employers with high future of work mentions included Stellantis, Mercedes-Benz and Toyota.

Across all companies in the automotive industry the filing published in the first quarter of 2022 which exhibited the greatest focus on the future of work came from Tofas. Of the document’s 2,359 sentences, five (0.2%) referred to the future of work.

This analysis provides an approximate indication of which companies are focusing on the future of work and how important the issue is considered within the automotive industry, but it also has limitations and should be interpreted carefully. For example, a company mentioning the future of work more regularly is not necessarily proof that they are utilising new techniques or prioritising the issue, nor does it indicate whether the company’s ventures into the future of work have been successes or failures.

GlobalData also categorises the future of work mentions by a series of subthemes. Of these subthemes, the most commonly referred to topic in the first quarter of 2022 was ‘robotic process automation’, which made up 78% of all future of work subtheme mentions by companies in the automotive industry.