Every organization’s success depends on its ability to adopt decisions and execute essential procedures swiftly, effectively, and consistently, including introducing new strategies or projects. Implementation of new strategies, projects, or extending the definition and reaching of CSR is always associated with some risks and requires careful preparation and monitoring of the result. Key performance indicators (KPI) are the most suitable tool for assessing progress in achieving the specified Triple Bottom Line (TBL) objectives within corporate social responsibility (CSR).
It would be best to start by asking a strategic question for each element of TBL. This is a powerful technique that helps both in developing a strategy and understanding the tools and criteria for monitoring its effectiveness. Strategic questions force one to think in a way that inspires movement and helps you find new approaches. It is imperative to implement TBL because many of the challenges that the company and the team will face in implementing the strategy are unprecedented. Under such conditions, one cannot simply project what has worked in the past.
The first strategic question critical to determining how to measure sales and marketing success in achieving company goals concerns People. What steps can a company take to improve the people’s experience internally and externally for customers, employees, and shareholders? This question can help break down the broad concept into specific steps for which it becomes possible to create corresponding key performance indicators. First, it is essential to consider employees’ experience because they are one of the critical resources for achieving the company’s success. Moreover, the experience of clients and shareholders largely depends on employees because they are responsible for communication with clients. Their effective work helps generate profit that provides a good experience for shareholders and can be directed to various corporate social responsibility goals. Through employees, a company can have an impact on society.
The SWOT analysis indicates that one of the significant problems is the high turnover of sales and marketing teams. The strategic question is related to it since it concerns employees, particularly the problem of employee turnover. Several different KPIs can be used within this strategic question, such as employee turnover, diversity supportive ratio, employee perspectives, health and security, satisfaction ratio, and respect ratio (Neri et al., 2021). Considering the SWOT analysis, the most important and top priority is the employee turnover rate. It is the number of employees who leave a company during a certain period. In turnover estimates, voluntary resignations, dismissals, noncertifications, and retirements are often included, while internal moves such as promotions or transfers are not. Employee turnover measures the success of an organization’s human resource management system and overall management. Different numbers to determine the staff turnover rate may be used depending on what the company needs to monitor.
There are several ways to measure this employee turnover rate. For example, suppose it is necessary to illustrate competitive retention. In that case, it is required to define separation as voluntary resignation since non-voluntary separations and retirements don’t necessarily mean that the company is losing employees to other employers. This indicator is useful because it allows you to measure turnover to see whether the new hire turnover rate is higher or lower than the overall turnover rate. All separations must be included to illustrate overall turnover.
To improve the situation with turnover, some changes need to be made. These include finding the right talent who has the right skills and aligns with the company’s cultural and behavioral beliefs. To do this, you can ask behavioral interview questions to determine the personality and character of the candidate. It’s also essential to encourage sales and marketing people to retain early on. It can be achieved by improving and improving the onboarding process, introducing them to the team, helping them become part of it, and providing them with a clear understanding of the company’s mission and how they can help add value to the organization.
Recognition and rewards are also important, as happy employees are more productive than unhappy employees and are less likely to change jobs. It will help create a positive work environment that helps employees thrive, feel appreciated and stay motivated. It also includes career opportunities, which may even be more important than financial rewards for many promising and talented employees. It is essential to encourage a healthy work-life balance and flexible hours, the possibility of remote work or parental leave can help at this point. Also, to reduce staff turnover, the introduction of training and development programs for staff can help. It will help improve employee morale and benefit the organization. A relatively small annual conference or course attendance budget will not exceed the ongoing recruiting budget. In the long run, these steps will have a much more significant positive effect on the entire company. All of these suggestions will help not only reduce employee turnover but also help the company build its employer brand. The company’s reputation and popularity from a potential employer’s perspective will allow us to attract more qualified, confident, and talented employees in the future.
The second strategic question concerns Planet in the context of sourcing and disposing in an environmentally friendly manner. What environmentally oriented messages or positions are most important to all stakeholders, and how can the company achieve them? Doing business in an environmentally friendly manner is an extensive and complex process. It is difficult to completely move to such a model in three years since a completely environmentally friendly company considers not only its practices and strategies but also makes sure that suppliers and partners also meet all the requirements, which is a long and complicated process. For this reason, the specified strategic question will help to identify the most significant and key aspects of the company, customers, employees, and other stakeholders and start from there. In addition, consumers increasingly view sustainability efforts as an essential business responsibility (Svensson et al., 2018). In this regard, sustainability efforts have become necessary to achieve long-term growth, and the company should consider its impact on the environment and society.
The SWOT analysis includes several points directly related to the second strategic question. They include the industry pressing companies to use post-consumer recycled plastics, redesigning all marketing using a global loyalty marketing agency, the trend toward decreasing consumer product environmental impact, and increased consumer desire to see companies focused on philanthropy. KPIs within this question may include metrics such as the consumption and use of energy, overall emissions, the use of water and materials, effluents and waste, and overall biodiversity. Reducing the use of water and materials can be calculated based on the company’s costs for utilities and purchases. This indicator is relatively easy to achieve, and at the same time, it is weighty when creating the image of an environmentally friendly company. The result can be achieved through awareness programs and through designing efficiency in new buildings, equipment, and working practices, such as going paperless. To improve this indicator, you need to set and meet targets for the reduction of utility consumption, monitor the report, and update it annually.
The third strategic question concerns Profits in the context of providing shareholder value and long‐term growth. How can a company ensure that the goals of Caring for employees, shareholders, and the community, disposing in an environmentally friendly manner, and generating profits are simultaneously achieved? Since social and environmental goals are not diametrically opposed to profitability, and the company has a lot of experience generating profits, this aspect of the Triple Bottom Line is not difficult to achieve. Such advantages of the company as high customer satisfaction among existing members, high retention of existing customers/memberships, and high utilization of all membership programs indicated in the SWOT analysis, will help achieve profit goals. KPIs within this question include profit, revenue growth, the percentage increase in market share, healthy cash flow, and social return on investment. It is an outcomes-based measurement tool that may help the company evaluate the financial, social, and environmental value it creates.
Identifying functional considerations related to TBL, it is important to mention that poverty and environmental change have drawn attention to the importance of preserving sustainability by achieving balance in TBL. It is one of the principles for assessing and improving sustainability. The commitment of businesses to act ethically and contribute to economic development while enhancing the quality of life of their staff, families, the environment, and their local communities is known as the triple bottom line. Despite its popularity, TBL was removed by its author, Elkington, since he discovered it did not fit the requirements of the purpose for which it was designed (Srivastava et al., 2022). The interconnectedness of the sales and marketing departments impacts the measurement of TBL by combining the strengths and weaknesses of each department into a more sustainable and integrated system to achieve goals of triple bottom line within People, Planet, and Profit, which allows the whole company to work more efficiently.
References
Neri, A., Cagno, E., Lepri, M., & Trianni, A. (2021). A triple bottom line balanced set of key performance indicators to measure the sustainability performance of industrial supply chains.Sustainable Production and Consumption, 26, 648-691. Web.
Srivastava, A. K., Dixit, S., & Srivastava, A. A. (2022). Criticism of triple bottom line: TBL (with special reference to sustainability).Corporate Reputation Review, 25(1), 50-61. Web.
Svensson, G., Ferro, C., Høgevold, N., Padin, C., Varela, J. C. S., & Sarstedt, M. (2018). Framing the triple bottom line approach: Direct and mediation effects between economic, social and environmental elements.Journal of cleaner production, 197, 972-991. Web.