Beyond Typical Tracking: The Value of Measuring CSR Program Impact
Written by Nancy AhlrichsToday, metrics are king: they drive planning, strategy, and often, investment. It is important to know what to measure in order to document Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) program outcomes and impact. Every glossy CSR report features photos of employees reading to students, picking up trash or painting a building. Amid the photos, there are charts and statistics that highlight the hours volunteered, dollars donated, and charities supported. The question is: does this information communicate the impact created in communities? The answer is no. There are three types of metrics that organizations typically track to monitor their CSR programs: inputs, activities and outputs. None of these valuable data points conveys the impact of the program on the community. For example, your organization may sponsor a volunteer program that matches your employees with students for one-on-one mentoring and tutoring. The inputs being tracked likely include the number of volunteers engaged, books read, supplied used, budget, and any other elements required to operate the program. These are much-needed metrics to track, but they are just the beginning. Activities may include the numbers of mentoring sessions held, the levels of books read, and participation by mentors in any extracurricular activities that may boost the confidence of the students. Traditionally, these are the metrics that have been tracked but they don’t really measure impact. The outputs are the tangible results of the volunteer program such as numbers of hours volunteered, and numbers of students mentored. Measurement cannot stop here. The final and most important metrics are outcomes and performance indicators. These metrics should support the intended impact of the CSR program overall and the specific and measurable characteristics of the program. The outcomes of our example of a mentoring and tutoring program might include data on improved reading comprehension, the number of students from the program who move to the next grade level and student increases in confidence and self-esteem. Metrics could also include the changes to grade point average that students experience. These outcomes should support your goals for the tutoring and mentoring program and can be jointly decided upon with your program partners or other stakeholders. Outcome metrics could be reported such as:
- 92% of mentored students now read at grade level
- 87% of mentored students improved standardized test scores
- 89% of mentored students moved to the next grade level
Measuring CSR program outcomes may change over time. The first year of a program, information may be incomplete, so baseline data points can be gathered. Other entities may need to collaborate with you to share their data — the school would need to provide information on students’ progressing to the next grade, for example. Measure what matters to your stakeholders. By gathering and sharing impact data, you will be able to determine whether to continue or modify your program, the level of success of your program, etc. Best of all, the data can be used to recruit more volunteers, donors and (from our example) school systems to participate.
LEARN MORE ABOUT NANCY AHLRICHS
On Monday, August 20, 2018 during the Indiana HR Conference, Ahlrichs will moderate a panel with leaders from Duke Energy, OneAmerica and Anthem to discuss the topic of How to Build Employee Engagement through CSR. If you plan on attending the conference, the session is from 2:45 – 3:45 p.m. in the JW Marriott rooms ICC 125, 126. United Way of Central Indiana Chief Talent Officer Nancy Ahlrichs is responsible for Talent Management and Diversity efforts with a special focus on talent strategy alignment to business strategy, culture change, leader/manager and employee development and employee engagement. Under her leadership, United Way was recognized as 2018 Best Places to Work and won the Mayor’s Diversity Award! Ahlrichs also serves on the board of directors for Indiana Blood Center and is an active member of IndySHRM and OD Network North.