SOCIAL

The Social criterion describes how a corporation manages its relationship with its workforce and the society it operates. How the board manages the relationship with its stakeholders. How the company commits to the local community, or facilitates a healthy, fair and safe work environment, respecting labour standards and human rights; at the same time supporting and encouraging diversity, inclusion, equity, belonging and identity. How the company guarantees consumer protection and animal welfare. How the company ensures that their products don’t pose any risk (i.e. geopolitical) or their operations don’t discourage different groups or create social issues. 

The social aspect could be more difficult to quantify and assess, but it should not be underestimated. Any company should maximize benefits coming from the social responsibility toward employees, customers and the whole community. Social key factors should be always elevated in the company’s daily agenda. In the UK, the Public Services (Social Value) Act came into force on 31 January 2013 to require people who commission public services to think about how they can also secure wider social, economic and environmental benefits. 

Public bodies are now obliged to consider how the services they commission and procure might improve the economic, social and environmental well-being of the area they operate in. Before they start the procurement process, commissioners should think about whether the services they are going to buy or the way they are going to buy them, could secure these benefits for their area or stakeholders. 

The Act represents a clear example of promoting and setting as the first goal the social impact. According to the UK government's Social Value Model, social values provide additional benefits which can aid the recovery of local communities and economies, especially through employment, re-training and return to work opportunities, community support, developing new ways of working and supporting the health of those affected by the virus. The government monitors the delivery of a number of related outputs to assess the effect of these commercial interventions. Any company should do the same, assessing the impact in terms of health and well-being, gender equality, decent work and economic growth, sustainable communities, responsible consumption and production, and more.