Programmes are funded to deliver many different types of benefit.
Some are primarily focused on cost reduction, organisational effectiveness, or reducing risk and reputational damage. Others are designed mainly to improve outcomes for people, communities, the environment, and society as a whole. Many programmes aim to deliver a combination of these.
Social impacts are often the most difficult benefits to measure and report.
They are frequently indirect, realised over longer timeframes, and influenced by multiple contributing factors. Measurement often relies on a mix of quantitative data, proxy indicators, and qualitative evidence. As a result, social value is more likely than other types of benefit to become unclear, contested, or undervalued during delivery.
If social outcomes are not delivered, measured, and reported clearly, the social value of the investment is easily lost or overshadowed, even when other benefits are being achieved.
Wovex is designed to help organisations prevent this.
Wovex and social value
Wovex is a complete value assurance and benefits management platform, designed to help organisations define, measure, track, and report social value alongside other forms of value, using a consistent and transparent approach.
Wovex helps ensure that social value:
Is defined clearly from the outset
Is measured in a structured and proportionate way
Remains visible throughout delivery
Is reported credibly to decision makers
Is not overshadowed by benefits that are easier to quantify
Why measuring and tracking social value is difficult
Social value rarely fits neatly into simple metrics.
Unlike many direct economic or operational benefits, social value is often:
Indirect or proxy-based
Delivered over long and uncertain timeframes
Shared across multiple organisations or partners
Influenced by external social, economic, or environmental factors
Supported by qualitative or descriptive evidence rather than single numbers
These characteristics make social value harder to define consistently, harder to track over time, and harder to report with confidence.
In practice, tracking social value also brings additional challenges. Social value measures may:
Involve multiple contributors and delivery partners
Change as delivery progresses or context evolves
Require interpretation rather than simple pass or fail assessment
To help teams deal with this, Wovex allows qualitative and proxy measures to be defined clearly, including measures that use scales, thresholds, or descriptive future states, rather than relying on a single numeric target.
For example, social value measures in Wovex can be defined using scales (such as confidence, capability, or satisfaction levels), thresholds that describe acceptable ranges of performance, or descriptive indicators that explain what success looks like at different levels. This allows social impacts to be tracked credibly even where direct measurement is not possible.
Measuring social value in practice
Social value is rarely captured through a single metric.
Instead, it is usually measured through a combination of:
Direct economic impacts
Proxy indicators
Qualitative and descriptive evidence
Behavioural, societal, or environmental outcomes
Wovex is designed to support this mix of measurement approaches, without forcing social value into purely financial models that do not fit.
Measuring direct economic impacts and social value together
What they have in common
Direct economic impacts and social value often start from very different approaches to measurement.
However, when it comes to review, governance, and reporting, they need to be considered together.
In Wovex:
Both direct economic impacts and social value benefits are defined as benefits, with clear ownership
Both can be tracked over time against expectations
Both can be reviewed using consistent RAG statuses
Both can be aggregated and reported at project, programme, and portfolio level
Both appear side by side in the same reports and dashboards
This allows different types of value to be reviewed together, using a consistent reporting language, without oversimplifying how social value is measured.
Forecasting and tracking social value over time
Wovex supports the full lifecycle of social value tracking, from early assumptions through to post-delivery review.
Teams can:
Define baselines and targets, including ranges or tolerances
Set forecasts even where confidence is initially low
Track actual change over time
Attach supporting evidence to tracking updates
Review progress using consistent RAG statuses
This makes it possible to track social value in a way that is proportionate, credible, and usable for both delivery teams and decision makers.
Building clarity around social value
While measurement and tracking are critical, being clear about the social value you expect to deliver, and how it will be achieved, is essential.
Benefit Maps show how work and investment lead from activities through to outcomes and ultimately social value. They help teams build a shared understanding of social value, rather than relying on disconnected narrative or inconsistent terminology.
Benefit Maps help teams to:
Explain how change is expected to happen
Make assumptions visible
Identify risks or unintended consequences
Discuss, challenge, and agree what social value means in practice
Wovex supports clarity and consistency by:
Helping teams define social value benefits and measures clearly within the map and a centralised Workspace
Using Wovex Assist, which applies AI to generate initial benefit ideas, example measures, and plain-language descriptions that teams can review, refine, and agree.
Encouraging the use of common categories and measures so social value is described consistently over time
To support teams working in complex or unfamiliar areas, Wovex provides curated benefit and measure Packs for themes such as Environment and Sustainability, Social Impact, and Diversity and Equality. These Packs include example benefits, typical measures, and guidance that act as a practical sense-check, while still allowing adaptation to local context.
Benefit Maps support understanding and alignment, while measurement and tracking provide the evidence.
Reporting social value clearly
Wovex reporting and dashboards are designed to make social value understandable and decision-ready.
They support:
Clear views of social value performance
Management by exception using RAG statuses
Portfolio-level summaries of socio-economic outcomes
Side-by-side reporting of direct economic impacts and social value
Clear links between reported results and underlying evidence
This makes it easier to communicate social value confidently to senior leaders, assurance bodies, and external stakeholders.
Governance and value assurance for social value
Social value is increasingly subject to scrutiny, challenge, and assurance.
Decision makers need confidence that reported social value is credible, consistent, and evidence-backed.
Wovex supports value assurance by:
Maintaining a clear audit trail from reported social value back to measures and evidence
Making assumptions and dependencies explicit
Supporting consistent RAG rules across economic and social measures
Allowing aggregation of social value performance across portfolios without losing traceability
Preserving evidence and rationale over time, even as teams or partners change
This helps move social value from aspiration to assured delivery.
Making trade-offs explicit
In some programmes, decisions involve trade-offs between different types of value.
Where organisations want to explore these trade-offs in more detail, Wovex includes Project and Portfolio Optimisation tools that can be used to compare initiatives based on their contribution to social value and direct economic impacts, and to reflect strategic priorities where appropriate.
These capabilities are optional and are typically used where programmes are large, complex, or highly constrained.
Why this matters
When social value is measured, tracked, and reported with the same discipline and visibility as other forms of value:
Softer impacts are less likely to be overlooked
Trade-offs become explicit and defensible
Decisions reflect what matters most
Delivery remains focused on outcomes, not just activity
Quite simply, you get what you measure.
When social value is measured consistently and reviewed alongside other benefits, it is more likely to be prioritised, acted on, and ultimately delivered.
Wovex helps organisations move from aspiring to create social value to demonstrating, assuring, and maximising social value over time.