How can you align benefits plans with social impact and community goals?

1 Identify your social impact and community goals

The first step is to clearly define what your social impact and community goals are, and how they relate to your mission, vision, and values. These goals can be based on various dimensions, such as environmental sustainability, diversity and inclusion, social justice, health and wellness, education, or philanthropy. You can use frameworks such as the UN Sustainable Development Goals, the B Impact Assessment, or the Global Reporting Initiative to guide your goal-setting process and measure your progress.

2 Assess your current benefits plan

Assessing how your current benefits plan supports or hinders your social impact and community goals is the next step. You can use tools such as surveys, focus groups, interviews, or benchmarks to gather feedback from your employees, stakeholders, and customers. Additionally, it's important to analyze the costs, benefits, and risks of your existing plan, and identify any gaps or opportunities for improvement. When doing so, ask yourself questions such as: does the plan align with your values and culture? Does it differentiate you from competitors and peers? How does it influence employee engagement, retention, and productivity? And finally, how does it affect your social and environmental footprint and reputation?

3 Design or revise your benefits plan

The third step is to design or revise your benefits plan to align with your social impact and community goals. To involve employees, stakeholders, and customers in the design process, you can use co-creation, experimentation, or consultation. Additionally, you can explore different types of benefits like flexible work arrangements, wellness programs, volunteer opportunities, charitable donations, or green initiatives that can support your goals and meet employee needs and preferences. When doing this, it's important to be strategic and realistic about your budget and resources, inclusive and diverse in your offerings and eligibility, transparent and communicative about your plan and rationale, as well as flexible and adaptable to changing needs and expectations.

4 Evaluate and communicate your benefits plan

The final step is to evaluate and communicate your benefits plan and its alignment with your social impact and community goals. You can measure the effectiveness and outcomes of your benefits plan using metrics such as participation rates, satisfaction scores, retention rates, or impact indicators. To share your benefits plan and its achievements with your employees, stakeholders, and customers, you can use channels such as newsletters, intranet, social media, or reports. To enhance your evaluation and communication, be consistent and regular in data collection and reporting, be responsive and open to feedback and suggestions, be proactive and creative in storytelling and recognition, and be collaborative and supportive in partnerships and networks.

5 Here’s what else to consider

This is a space to share examples, stories, or insights that don’t fit into any of the previous sections. What else would you like to add?