How can you collect QHSE data to measure social impact?

QHSE, encompassing quality, health, safety, and environment, bears varied significance across companies and sectors. Recognizing the dynamic influence of local and global regulations is crucial, as their integration into the system ensures comprehensive benefits by the project's conclusion. While widely endorsed by global development agencies, establishing KPIs, assigning evidence-based weightages, and assessing overall contributions to impact are pivotal components of a credible Monitoring and Evaluation (M&E) plan. I propose that enterprises and project managers articulate a coherent logical flow diagram, a robust theory of change, and a Social Return on Investment (SROI) strategy to effectively align with overarching development goals.

To measure the social impact of QHSE practices: 1). Use surveys and questionnaires for stakeholder feedback. 2). Conduct interviews and focus groups for in-depth insights. 3). Analyze health and safety records for workplace trends. 4). Assess environmental impact through data like carbon footprint. 5). Track community engagement and program effectiveness. 6). Review employee QHSE training impact. Examine audit reports for compliance. 7). Monitor public opinions via social media. 8). Compare practices with industry benchmarks. 9). Evaluate economic effects on the local community. Ensure ethical data collection and analysis for actionable insights.

In my experience, while defining QSHE indicators, it is important to identify and measure “Outputs” as well as “Outcome” indicators. For instance, for social impact on health and safety, one should monitor the number of training sessions provided and number of safeguards installed (outputs) that are resulting in nil loss time injuries (outcomes) for the workers. Similarly, for an environment impact, the amount of electricity sourced from renewable energy is an output indicator whereas, reduced CO2 emissions is an outcome indicator. Indicators on outputs as well as indicators aid in effective story telling of the social impact.

Primary data sources play a pivotal role in research projects, yet capturing observations and conducting interviews faces practical challenges. For instance: - Extracting perspectives on education from untrained and unskilled youth poses inherent difficulties. - Acquiring information about income and savings from vulnerable sections of society is critical, often hindered by reluctance, non-disclosure, or memory lapses. - Uncovering awareness gaps regarding certain rights-based issues demands specialized skills to distill nuanced information. The selection of indicators should be meticulous, considering the proficiency of the data collector and the cooperation of the interviewee.

The choice of data sources and methods will usually be context specific and usually defined by the budgets allocated. In my experience, stakeholder interactions undertaken through tools like interviews, focus group discussions and further validated (triangulated) with secondary resources like reports studies aids in credibility of the process through which the impact was measured.

While the importance of digital tools, especially to manage data cannot be undermined, the importance of training of human resources to use those digital devices is also important. Data collection need not be seen purely as a transactional exercise. It should also be used as a valuable tool for human-to-human interaction, observations and learning.

Stakeholder involvement holds significance not just during data collection but also during the design of data collection tools and M&E planning. It's crucial to guarantee that each stakeholder gains value from the overall research, offering them a voice in decision-making and providing relevant information.