There is a reason that business ‘maxims’ continue to guide leadership, management and practice, despite the changing times and variety of challenges business and society now faces. An example of such critical business advice has been to “measure the things that are important to your business’’ – and increasingly, that includes measuring social impact.

Attributed to management guru Peter Drucker, this is a lesson that holds true across sectors, business size or customer types. It remains as current as ever, not only the data it provides, but for the message it sends to staff and the culture it creates.

Fortunately, since it was first stated, there’s been advances in automation, digitalisation and most recently AI. Such advances have made the measurement, tracking and recording of business operations and the customer experience easier and more effective than ever before.

Digital dashboards run business, with key metrics available to all in real time, keeping employees, stakeholders and business partners fully informed.

How do you measure social impact?

If measurement is the key to understanding what you are doing and why, how do you measure the things that make your business truly unique?

What is it about your company that helps you win contracts?

What is it that creates the culture in your business, and that attracts and retains employees?

How do you articulate your role in the community, as well as the impact you are having on your employees and their lives?

These measurements can show the business you truly are and where your social value lies.

Defining your social value

You can understand your social value as the wider positive impact your organisation creates for people, communities, and the environment beyond financial profit – for example, local jobs, inclusion, wellbeing. (Want to know more? Explore social impact examples by sector with us.)

By measuring and communicating this, you can really get the benefit of all that you do, and who you are as a company, if you measure it.

Culture in a ‘dashboard’

The initiatives, activities, plans, procedures and practice that make a business what is it is possibly the true heart of the business can feel to be the hardest to articulate yet are the deepest ingrained and the best things about your business. That’s where social value measurement tools come in.

Working with SocialScore to access the consultancy support needed to measure and manage and social value digitally is the way to turn your impact into your advantage. By bringing together all the activity in one place, with our help, you now have something to celebrate and communicate widely – but also something that helps you understand what you do.