Clare Gill, head of social value at HBC Construction (HBC), says social value is too often about a headline opportunity and needs to deliver real change.

Walk onto almost any construction site or office today and you’ll hear about social value. Community volunteer days, charity partnerships and seasonal donations have become familiar fixtures across the industry – and rightly so, these activities matter. But visibility doesn’t always equate to impact, and as an industry, we’ve sometimes been guilty of confusing the two.

Social value is too often measured in what can easily be captured: a good photo, hours volunteered, pounds donated, carbon reduced, KPIs met. Those metrics have a role to play, but when prioritised in isolation, they quietly pull focus away from what genuinely changes lives and towards one-off, higher ‘point-scoring’ activities that are simply easier to evidence.

Over time, that risks social value becoming transactional – well intentioned, certainly, but limited in reach and rarely tailored to the needs of real people in real places.

That’s not what social value is meant to be. At HBC, we’ve become increasingly clear on one thing: we’re not interested in chasing numbers for the sake of it. What matters is creating a legacy that lasts long after the build is complete.

The greatest impact doesn’t always come with a camera-ready moment. Sometimes it comes from quieter decisions – the ones made in HR meetings, supply chain discussions and site-based recruitment conversations.

Filling a genuine vacancy

We made one such decision recently when we chose to employ an individual on Release on Temporary Licence (ROTL) from an HMP, filling a genuine vacancy on site through one of our subcontractor partners. This wasn’t part of a headline-grabbing employment scheme or a time-limited placement. It was a sustainable role, created by stepping away from business-as-usual recruitment routes and asking whether our industry could do more to support reintegration and long-term employment.

There’s no photo opportunity attached to that decision. But there’s a real chance to alter someone’s trajectory through stability, skills and the dignity of work – and that feels like social value in its truest form.

Employing someone from the prison system requires trust, internal alignment and support structures, alongside a willingness to accept that some outcomes cannot be captured quantitatively. But construction manages risk for a living. If we can design and deliver large-scale infrastructure, we can also design pathways into employment for people historically excluded from our workforce.

Crucially, this was also about working in partnership with our supply chain, supporting and guiding them to operate differently, building capability and creating meaningful social impact together.

From competition to collaboration

Many of the social challenges we face are too systemic for isolated solutions. Employment pathways, skills shortages and rehabilitation support cannot be solved one project at a time. This is something reinforced through our involvement in Yorkshire Children’s Charity’s Great Yorkshire Build at Maltby Hilltop School, where HBC provided full main contractor services on a pro bono basis.

Alongside more than 50 Yorkshire construction firms, that collective effort transformed teaching spaces for 180 children with complex needs, demonstrating what’s possible when the industry unites around a shared purpose rather than competing on social value metrics.

Embedding purpose into everyday decisions

The most powerful social value initiatives are those embedded into decision-making from the outset – in how people are recruited, how supply chains are structured and how success is defined. This demands a shift away from chasing volume and towards examining outcomes, asking questions like: did a decision create long-term opportunity? Did someone gain sustained employment, or did we simply meet a new jobs KPI through a short-term role?

These outcomes are harder to quantify, but they are far more closely aligned with the responsibility construction has to the communities it serves. Real industry progress depends on prioritising what’s right over what’s easiest to measure – or what simply makes for a lovely photo.