Creating social value is a must. But there’s always something determined to slow you down. You want to help people through initiatives, but you can’t visualise how you’re helping the local community. You want to change lives, but you’re lost in a sea of data.
Every wasted hour, poor decision, or missed funding opportunity adds up. Sometimes, that’s just the way it is. Except no, it shouldn’t be. It doesn’t have to be.
This will come down to how you track, report, and analyse your data. For years, spreadsheets have been the go-to for data entry. While it might work on a simple level, it’s not suitable for the complex nature of social value data. We see some frameworks that still use spreadsheets, but these are headaches waiting to happen.
If you stick with them, it’s going to take more of your time and effort to extract anything meaningful. Whereas social value software is going to make it much easier to see results and calculate ROI. Instead of disparate tools, you need an all-in-one solution that saves on the bottom line. The only roadblock? Convincing your boss that it’s the right move. So let’s take a look at three reasons it can change your social value reporting for the better…
Boost efficiency
Did you know that 60% of employees’ time is spent on admin work? That’s all the repetitive, time-consuming tasks that need completing. Tasks like chasing colleagues for input, searching for data, finding files or documents, or manual data entry.
You could be wasting as much as 19 working days a year… per employee.
Ask yourself: where is your time best spent? Chasing various teams and departments for social value data? Or using that data to make informed decisions about future services and initiatives?
The right social value platform will save you time by capturing and evaluating social value data automatically. No manual input into a spreadsheet. In a matter of seconds, you can see the total amount of volunteer hours logged in any given month. Or the total number of people your organisation has helped out of homelessness in the past year.
This also allows your organisation to…
Improved decision-making
You can’t make good decisions without the full picture. Inaccurate, out-of-date, or disorganised data lost in a spreadsheet only complicates this process. Not to mention its financial cost.
Bad decision-making costs businesses over 3% of their profits.
You want social value software that provides real-time, reliable qualitative and quantitative data. Software that gives peace of mind you’re making decisions based on the full picture. And an accurate one at that.
By visualising the services that see the greatest social return on investment or the initiatives that didn’t perform as expected, you can continually adapt and evolve your approach. Armed with up-to-date, reliable data and insights, you’ll make stronger decisions that push you forward in a more methodical, risk-averse way.
See what you’re working with
Generating a lot of social value is brilliant. But it’s only half the battle. Now you need to evidence all this social value to secure future funding. And this is where it gets tricky.
If your internal staff struggle to make sense of an ever-growing spreadsheet of half-baked social value data, how can you expect anyone to make sense of it?
Instead of leaving your outcomes up to their imagination, you want a social value system that spells out your impact in simple, engaging ways. Easy to digest graphs and charts that make demonstrating your true value effortless.
You also want to tap into the more meaningful impacts of your efforts. As well as easy-to-understand figures, surveys capture the meaningful stories behind your work. Not only can you share how many families you’ve rehomed, but also how your intervention changed each family’s lives for the better.
You’re already making a sizable social impact. There’s no denying that. Now it’s about allowing even more of this social good to shine through. That’s what’s at the heart of social value software and what you need to bring across to your boss.
By removing the inefficiencies that slow you down, you can build up momentum and secure even more critical funding. With the right infrastructure in place, all those wasted hours, poor decisions, or missed funding opportunities will become a distant memory.
Impact makes capturing, evaluating and reporting on social value data a breeze. It’s never been easier to benchmark your efforts, visualise progress, and demonstrate your value to unlock funding. To find out more about our social value software, schedule a demo or get in touch with the team on 0161 532 4752.