Corporate social responsibility (CSR)

Many businesses find it hard to measure the impact of their corporate social responsibility (CSR) initiatives. Some benefits, such as customer loyalty and reputation, are difficult to measure, which makes it harder to assess their value. However, measuring CSR is important because it helps you: 

• show the value of your activities to customers and stakeholders 
• make better decisions about future CSR programmes
• align your activities with business goals, such as improving staff skills

By measuring the impact of your CSR, you can connect the value of your activities to your company's bottom line. For example, you can establish a link between skill development and lower training costs, employee satisfaction and lower turnover rate, and even growth in sales leads that increases revenue.

How to measure the impact of your CSR?

You can measure your CSR success in different ways. For example, you can: 

• compare your business with others - this is known as benchmarking
• seek recognition for CSR best practice - eg take part in responsible business awards or use measurement tools such as the BITC's Responsible Business Tracker
• use key performance indicators (KPIs) to measure your environmental performance - download a guide on environmental KPIs (PDF, 354K)

Keep in mind that these measures often show short-term results. The biggest benefit of CSR is usually the long-term improvement in your reputation.