ESRS S1 / S3: the EU social reporting standards for workforce and communities

What are ESRS S1 and S3?

ESRS S1 ("Own workforce") and ESRS S3 ("Affected communities") are two of the social standards within the European Sustainability Reporting Standards. The ESRS are the detailed technical rules that companies use to report under the CSRD, organised into environmental (E), social (S) and governance (G) topics.

S1 and S3 are the two social standards most relevant to corporate social-impact programs. They define the kinds of social data a company must be able to report, which in turn shapes what its programs need to capture in the first place.

‍

What is the difference between S1 and S3?

The two standards look in different directions. ESRS S1 concerns a company's own workforce, its own employees, which makes it relevant to employee-facing programs such as corporate volunteering, volunteer time off and engagement initiatives.

ESRS S3 concerns affected communities, the people and places outside the company that its activities and funding touch. This makes it the standard most relevant to grants, donations and community investment, where the impact is felt in external communities rather than among staff.

‍

How do the ESRS relate to the CSRD?

The ESRS and the CSRD are the rulebook and the law. The CSRD is the directive that requires large companies to report; the ESRS are the standards that specify exactly what to disclose. A company does not comply with the ESRS in the abstract, it reports under the CSRD using them.

S1 and S3 are two entries in this wider set. It is worth noting that the ESRS themselves were being simplified through the 2025-2026 Omnibus process, with the number of data points reduced, so the precise disclosures required are best checked against current EU guidance.

‍

Capturing S1 and S3 data through programs

Because S1 and S3 draw on data that social-impact programs generate, the practical task is capturing it in a reportable form. A grant management software platform records volunteering participation (relevant to S1) and grant and community outcomes (relevant to S3) as structured data, so they can feed impact reporting rather than being reconstructed at year end.