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Traditionally, profit has always been at the forefront and driving force of organisations, however, in the last decade there has been a change in our understanding of what value both private and public sector organisations should be offering. This shift in perspective initially came from the Public Services (Social Value) Act (2012). The act aims to provide procurement professionals freedom to establish the types of value their procurements will provide benefit to for their local community. Which in turn, initiated a shift in perspective for private organisations bidding into the public sector, meaning they had to place a bigger emphasis on how to drive social value through their offer.
Bidding into the public sector and specifically central government requires organisations to demonstrate social value, with a minimum weighting of 10% being applied to social value as part of bids, it’s even more important than ever to factor in social value to win business.
Take the time to understand your organisation values and identify the most appropriate actions you can take that support you purpose and add value to everything that you do.
Here are some ways in which you can embed social value within your organisation.
- Start simple, changing your organisation attitude to social value isn’t an overnight process. Start small and build, begin with recycling bins, have a walking / cycling initiative, or use public transport.
- Most corporate organisations have a ‘charity of the year’. Asking your staff to choose a charity will normalise the concept of supporting local charities and schemes.
- Various employee initiatives such as lunchtime cycling, recycling projects or helping local communities. If you ask your employee what they think is important to the local community it will help you embed yourselves into the surrounding community.
- Embedding social value into client’s contracts, as a organisation you should insist that partnering organisations should also practise social value.
- Practise what you preach, by leading from the top you set a standard that all you employees will follow.
- Finally ensure your partners and stakeholders also match your values. This is critical for your organisation to make a lasting impact on your local and global community.
At Value Match, our values run through everything we do.
Value People: We value People for their uniqueness, capability, capacity for change and for what they do.
Value Relationships: We value Relationships that are built on integrity, mutual support, trust and a sense of purpose.
Sustainable Prosperity: We believe in creating sustainable prosperity through commercial interventions that supports responsible and inclusive growth for both individuals and organisations.
Value the Environment: We believe in enhancing our Environment through the way we operate, championing environmental best practices and delivery through our service lines.
We use these values as a base line to embed social value in everything that we practice at Value Match this is how we demonstrate value:
- The Value Match Foundation seeks to promote and support organisations to increase their financial sustainability through commercial activity, providing professional advice, resources, and training.
- Contract for Change is a voluntary programme seeking to embed social value principles and enhance environmental outcomes. They support organisations in developing their procurement strategies, policies, and operating practices. Value Match have used our experience in the procurement field to aid Contract for change along with resources.
- Kiva is not for profit organisation that helps bring loans to places where people are incapable of borrowing money. Value Match have chosen to support women owned business to promote equal opportunity. To date we have loaned £7500.
- We have worked with Carbon Footprint to offset our carbon emissions, making Value Match carbon net positive.
To discover more ways that we embed social value in our organisation click here.
Learn how you can add social value to your organisation and bids to win more business with our social value courses, find out more here.
