Measuring Corporate Social Responsibility Success
Can you imagine your quarterly company meeting where you report on your social impact before you report on your financial results? What if you gave awards to employees who were standout corporate citizens, who managed to excel in their job while excelling at volunteerism or raising money for their cause or sitting on a prominent board of directors for a local non-profit? Would your employees cheer for the difference they were making? Do they cheer now for how much richer they helped the CEO get in the last three months?
The answer is probably no to the last question.
Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR), done right, can permanently shift company culture to that of enthusiasm and innovation. Many HR magazines reiterate that employees are often looking for more time off not a bigger bonus when citing incentives that will increase their job satisfaction.
Some companies, large and small, are giving employees paid time off to volunteer. In fact the California Cryobank (CCB) provides about 20 volunteers each year to local Los Angeles non-profit Fertile Action’s annual gala. The charity helps women touched by cancer become mothers and CCB leadership along with its employees actively support the cause. In fact, CCB also offers discounts on donor sperm for infertile individuals or couples trying to have a family, as well as storage discounts for young men banking sperm when diagnosed with cancer.
It’s no secret these days that companies with a social purpose are outperforming their competitors without one. But how are they measuring their success beyond market share and profit margins? How are they measuring their true social impact? Or are they?
Just like any other objective in a company, Key Performance Indicators (KPI’s), are a great way to track your progress. The key is ensuring you use the most relevant KPI’s for your CSR strategy. KPI’s whether financial or non-financial measurements should be:
- Measurable
- Time sensitive
- Action oriented
- Easy to understand
The number of volunteers that sign-up to assist Fertile Action’s gala grows each year. So does the number of cancer patients CCB helps annually through storage discounts. Making a difference is always something to cheer for and CCB employees make a habit of doing just that.
Stay tuned to learn more about measuring CSR Success.
Join our newsletter to keep up to date with more posts like this.
