Helping inclusive businesses measure performance and social impact
One afternoon under the grey skies of India’s monsoon season, Prashant, a collection officer with Mahindra Rural Housing Finance, sits with one of his customers at her home in a remote village in the state of Maharashtra. A few months ago, the customer took a housing loan from Mahindra to build a new home. As the lady invites Prashant into her house, he takes out his mobile phone and begins asking questions, as prompted on the screen, about the family’s income level, health and Mahindra’s services.
Mahindra is one of the members of Business Call to Action (BCtA) currently measuring the operational performance and social impact of its business through BCtA Impact Measurement Services (BIMS). This program is providing BCtA’s inclusive business members with survey design expertise to create customised questionnaires and a platform for real-time data collection using mobile phones. BCtA is now offering this service across south Asia, Africa, and Latin America with companies such as Empower Pragati, Nuru Energy, Drishtee, Echale a Tu Casa and Shubham Housing Development Finance in partnership with Arthify Inc and Echo Mobile.
Why are inclusive businesses interested in evaluating their operations and social impact? In many markets where BCtA members operate, market insights on customers and business environment are hard to come by. Accessing such information can help companies make more informed business decisions. Investors, donors and other stakeholders who support inclusive business are also interested in the social impact of corporate activities. Showcasing this evidence enables managers to secure financing and other support to grow their businesses.
While implementation of BIMS is still at an early stage, a few insights are worth highlighting:
Measurement should bring clear and tangible benefits to the company
In order for impact measurement to be successful, companies need to be clear about what they want to measure and how they plan to use the collected data. When companies engage in impact assessment before outlining its purpose and benefits, the data collected are not always aligned with core business activities and the evaluations may not provide meaningful feedback to managers. To promote strategic thinking about these issues, the BIMS program supports companies in developing theory-of-change frameworks that link the measurement activities with their intended benefits.
For example, the company Empower Pragati is working to measure the effectiveness of its IT vocational training program in the state of Himachal Pradesh, India. Of the 45 schools where the program is being implemented, 25 have been selected for impact measurement. The company has the clear objective of using the results to engage in dialogue with the state government on improving the quality of vocational education in Himachal Pradesh and beyond.
You cannot measure everything – be smart about what you ask
Managers of inclusive business initiatives make daily decisions regarding the allocation of resources to activities that generate the biggest results; impact measurement should be approached in the same way. Inclusive businesses often operate in challenging market environments and have limited time and money for performance and social impact measurement. To make the most out of these activities, managers must know what to ask and to whom.
The BIMS program ensures that every question reveals meaningful information to BCtA members by engaging each company in extensive discussions to craft customised surveys. This process includes consultation with field officers to determine whether the questions reflect the reality on the ground and pilot surveys with a small section of the target audience.
Get buy-in and input from staff at all levels of the company
In order for impact measurement to generate its intended results, managers must make sure that all staff – including field officers – are involved in planning and implementation. Typically the decision to conduct an impact assessment is made by the manager responsible for the overall inclusive business initiative. This manager should guide the entire impact measurement process, outlining the scope of measurement, the purpose and its benefits to the company. However, a committed manager is not enough to make impact measurement a success. In most cases, field officers do the actual work of collecting survey data from stakeholders. It is therefore important to communicate clearly with field staff about the purpose and value of their work. This will ensure that data is properly collected at the field level.
BCtA has recently completed training sessions with Mahindra and Empower Pragati staff. These workshops not only provided technical advice on operating the BIMS mobile-based survey tool, but included group discussions on social impact. By engaging company staff at all levels, managers will be able to obtain the internal buy-in needed for successful impact measurement.
This blog was originally posted on the Guardian Sustainable Business BCtA Partner Zone