Workiva ESG Reporting for Disclosure Teams Training Course

Course overview

Disclosure teams are expected to turn environmental, social and governance data into traceable, review-ready narratives under tight reporting cycles. The difficulty is not only selecting the right indicators: teams must control source data, assign accountable owners, maintain evidence, manage comments, reconcile figures across disclosures and produce consistent outputs for frameworks such as GRI and ESRS. This course addresses the practical reporting workflow inside Workiva, helping participants replace disconnected spreadsheets, email-based reviews and late-stage document rework with controlled collaboration and linked reporting.

Participants learn to configure and use a Workiva ESG reporting workspace, including data collection requests, source documentation, task ownership, document structure, linked values, review comments and approval workflows. They practise translating disclosure requirements into a reporting index, mapping metrics to data owners and evidence, and building narrative disclosures with auditable links to supporting information. The course also covers Wdata queries and tables for preparing reporting datasets, change tracking, version control, permissions and quality checks before publication. Exercises use GRI and ESRS-style disclosure scenarios rather than generic software demonstrations.

Instructor-led demonstrations are followed by guided builds in a realistic reporting case. Participants work through a simulated annual sustainability reporting cycle, resolving incomplete submissions, reviewer challenges and a late change to a reported metric. They leave with a reusable Workiva ESG reporting blueprint: a disclosure index, data-owner matrix, evidence register, review workflow and a sample linked disclosure section. This gives both the participant and their manager a practical starting point for improving the organisation's next reporting cycle.

Course objectives

By the end of this course, participants will be able to:

• Configure a Workiva ESG reporting workspace with folders, permissions, reporting documents and assigned responsibilities
• Build a disclosure index that maps GRI and ESRS requirements to metrics, narrative content, evidence and accountable owners
• Create data collection requests with clear instructions, due dates, validation expectations and source-document attachments
• Use Workiva linking to maintain consistent metric values across tables, narrative disclosures and reporting outputs
• Prepare reporting datasets using Wdata tables, queries and controlled data transformations
• Design a reviewer and approver workflow using tasks, comments, change tracking and sign-off checkpoints
• Perform traceability checks that connect reported claims and figures to source evidence and calculation records
• Produce a Workiva ESG reporting blueprint for a defined sustainability disclosure cycle

Benefits of attending

Target competencies

Who should attend

• ESG Reporting Managers — who coordinate disclosure calendars, contributors and final reporting outputs
• Sustainability Managers — who own performance narratives and need reliable evidence for reported claims
• Corporate Reporting Specialists — who integrate sustainability disclosures with annual-report production controls
• HSE Data Managers — who consolidate environmental, health and safety metrics from operational sites
• ESG Data Analysts — who prepare, validate and maintain datasets used in sustainability reporting
• Internal Audit and Assurance Professionals — who assess evidence trails, controls and review readiness for ESG disclosures

Requirements and prerequisites

Participants should understand the purpose of ESG or sustainability reporting and be comfortable working with structured data in spreadsheets, including filters, basic formulas and tabular data review. Familiarity with their organisation's reporting process, metric owners or source systems will help them apply the exercises directly. No prior Workiva experience is required, and participants do not need to be programmers, data engineers or framework specialists. Complete beginners should expect an initial orientation to ESG disclosure terminology, Workiva navigation, documents, spreadsheets, tasks and evidence-management concepts before progressing to linked reporting and Wdata exercises.

Training methodology

The course combines short instructor-led demonstrations with guided Workiva builds using a simulated multi-site sustainability reporting case. Participants configure reporting content, issue data requests, attach evidence, create linked tables and resolve reviewer comments in small working groups. Framework exercises use selected GRI and ESRS disclosure requirements to make decisions about metrics, narrative evidence and ownership. Each day closes with a practical output that feeds the final reporting blueprint. On day five, participants create an application plan identifying the first workflow, disclosure section and control improvements to implement at work.

Course outline

Day 1: Workiva ESG reporting foundations

• ESG disclosure-cycle roles, milestones and hand-offs
• Workiva ESG workspace navigation and content architecture
• Folders, document types and reporting-workspace organisation
• User permissions, groups and responsibility segregation
• GRI and ESRS disclosure structures for reporting teams
• Disclosure index design and reporting-scope definition
• Metric ownership and evidence-source identification

Workshop: Participants create a disclosure index and data-owner matrix for a simulated sustainability report, assigning each requirement to a metric, narrative owner and evidence source.

Day 2: Data collection and evidence control

• Data collection request design in Workiva ESG
• Metric definitions, units, boundaries and calculation instructions
• Contributor tasks, due dates and submission-status monitoring
• Source-document attachment and evidence-register practices
• Data validation rules and exception-handling procedures
• Wdata tables for ESG reporting datasets
• Wdata queries for filtering and preparing metric outputs

Workshop: Participants build a data collection pack for energy and safety metrics, including contributor instructions, validation criteria, evidence requirements and a Wdata query output.

Day 3: Linked disclosures and controlled content production

• Workiva document creation for sustainability disclosures
• Linked values across documents, spreadsheets and tables
• Narrative drafting with metric-to-claim traceability
• Table design for performance indicators and comparative periods
• Content reuse and consistency across reporting outputs
• Change tracking, document history and version comparison
• Disclosure-level quality checks before reviewer release

Workshop: Participants produce a linked climate and workforce disclosure section that connects narrative claims, tables and source metrics without duplicating values.

Day 4: Review, approval and assurance readiness

• Reviewer assignment by disclosure, metric and control owner
• Task management and reporting-calendar checkpoint design
• Comments, threaded discussions and issue-resolution records
• Approval workflows and evidence of management sign-off
• Traceability testing from reported figures to source evidence
• Material changes, restatements and prior-period comparatives
• Internal assurance preparation and audit-request response

Workshop: Participants run a structured review of a draft disclosure, log and resolve evidence gaps, and produce an approval-ready issue tracker.

Day 5: Reporting deployment and operating model

• End-to-end ESG reporting workflow design in Workiva
• Control points for completeness, accuracy and consistency
• GRI and ESRS reporting-index maintenance procedures
• Reporting-calendar planning and dependency management
• Dashboard views for submission, review and approval status
• Production handover and post-publication evidence retention
• Ninety-day implementation planning for disclosure teams

Workshop: Participants assemble and present a Workiva ESG reporting blueprint containing their disclosure index, workflow map, evidence register, control checkpoints and 90-day implementation plan.

Tools & standards covered

Workiva ESG, Workiva Wdata, GRI Standards, European Sustainability Reporting Standards (ESRS)

A typical training day

Live online deliveries follow the same structure in the East Africa Time zone, with shorter screen blocks and longer breaks.

What the fee includes

How you can take this course

Certification

Participants who complete the full five days receive the Skillset Development Certificate of Completion, stating the course title, course code, dates and delivery format — suitable for professional-development records and employer reimbursement.

Frequently asked questions