Human Resource Accounting as a Panacea to Financial Performance: Evidence from Listed Financial Services Companies in Nigeria

Abstract

Investing in training of employees, paying reasonable remunerations, as well as making adequate provision for health and safety of workers are vital investments that financial services companies can make. However, due to lack of proper personnel to oversee and manage these investments, financial services firms with enormous resources and newest technology found themselves in the middle of financial catastrophe. Thus, this study looks at how listed financial services companies in Nigeria perform financially in relation to human resource accounting. The study used an ex post facto research approach and collected secondary data from ten (10) listed financial services companies in Nigeria, including six listed deposit money banks and four listed insurance companies. The information came from the annual reports and accounts of the chosen companies for the ten (10) years between 2016 and 2025. Descriptive statistics, correlation and regression analysis were used to analyze the data collected. The findings revealed that training cost, staff remuneration, and health & safety cost do not significantly affect return on assets of listed financial services firms in Nigeria. As a result, the study concludes that future and present investors of the chosen financial services firms cannot depend on all the predictors (training cost, staff remuneration, and health & safety cost) when assessing the firms’ return on assets over the study period. The study recommended among others that management of listed financial services companies should provide their employees with training and appropriate working conditions in order to improve the companies’ financial performance.