Organizations have incredible opportunities to create social impact for customers, their communities, and the sustainability of their environment. Having a transparent statement of your company's commitment to socially oriented values such as EDI (Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion) and sustainability can show initiative, care, and dedication among work teams and clients alike. It can be intimidating to publish a social value statement, as stating your ambitions can feel performative, but many reasons and tools can help you authentically reaffirm this commitment.
Practicing Transparency
Stating your commitment to social value is the beginning of creating a well-informed and equipped organization. Writing, publishing, and achieving an easily understandable statement is essential, as practicing transparency and approachability are vital for maintaining the trust of the people you aim to support.
Your organization's priority initiatives are semi-permanent - you cannot shift your efforts on a whim. When you publish your key initiatives in a document showing your commitment to supporting and implementing these goals, it keeps the social value vision succinct and forward moving.
Continuous Improvement
The key to overcoming the balancing act of having brief and clear initiatives is knowing your audience. By learning more about your clientele, communities, and environments, you can tune your social value statement to best reflect your practice within this relational dynamic. Fully realizing the goals of your social value statement through data, certification, and e-learning is a way to show ongoing commitment and learning. This continuous improvement approach to social value results in a sense of accountability and accomplishment in aligning with your social value initiatives.
Key Benefits
The benefits of communicating your organization's commitment to social value can manifest in many ways. Some key benefits include:
• Actively engages team. A social value statement that promotes continuous improvement and learning maintains a sense of engagement and meaningful progress among a group. This allows for individual and team growth and creates room for the purpose of betterment and celebration of personal growth.
• Informed decision-making. Having a social value statement that keeps your goal synchronized and moving forward ensures informed decision making and therefore results aligned to overarching efforts.
• Marketing opportunities. When your team is involved and feels empowered with insights to share and connect with others based on social value, your social value statement can be the bridging point to broadening networks and connecting across different work disciplines.
• Bolstering recruitments. Because many employees want a sense of purpose and empowerment in their work, showing social value could attract new recruits. A LinkedIn survey showed that almost half of employees (46%) said that whether or not their employer has positive impact on society affects their workplace pride and the vast majority (71%) said they would take a pay cut if it meant working for an employer with a mission that aligns with their values. Demonstrating that positive impact through a social value statement could not only attract new workers, but keep current employees active and engaged.
When done right, your social value statement is a tool and a commitment that reflects your organization's internal compass. Publishing a statement about social value brings a company's social motivators, crucial data, experiences, and projects to the forefront of the organization's story. It is about getting life, humanity, and advocacy into the work that you have done and ensuring that potential customers see that you are motivated to creating social value within and throughout your deliverables.