What is Social Auditing?
Social auditing is a process that enables an organisation to
assess and demonstrate its social, economic, and environmental benefits and
limitations. It is a way of measuring the extent to which an organisation lives
up to the shared values and objectives it has committed itself to.
Social auditing provides an assessment of the impact of an
organisation's non-financial objectives through systematically and regularly
monitoring its performance and the views of its stakeholders.
Social auditing requires the involvement of stakeholders. This may
include employees, clients, volunteers, funders, contractors, suppliers and
local residents interested in the organisation. Stakeholders are defined as
those persons or organisations who have an interest in, or who have invested
resources in, the organisation.
Social audits are generated by the organisation themselves and
those directly involved. A person or panel of people external to the
organisation undertakes verification of the social audit's accuracy and
objectivity.
What does Social Auditing Involve?
The social auditing process requires an intermittent but clear
time commitment from a key person within the organisation. This social auditor
liases with others in the organisation and designs, co-ordinates, analyses and
documents the information collected during the process.
Social auditing information is collected through research methods
that include social bookkeeping, surveys and case studies. The objectives of
the organisation are the starting point from which indicators of impact are
determined, stakeholders identified and research tools designed in detail.
The collection of information is an on-going process, often done
in 12-month cycles and resulting in the organisation establishing social
bookkeeping and the preparation of an annual social audit document/report.
Experience has shown that it is important to provide training to
the social auditor as well as mentoring during the first few years. If well
facilitated, social auditors from different organisations can become
self-supporting for subsequent year
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