Developing a Practical Impact & SROI Framework for a Professional Services Firm

The Context

Thong & Lim is a people-driven professional services firm where performance, continuity, and culture are closely intertwined.

Like many firms in similar sectors, leadership recognised that employee wellbeing, engagement, and retention were becoming increasingly material — yet difficult to assess in a structured, decision-useful way.

Rather than treating wellbeing initiatives as isolated HR activities, Thong & Lim wanted a credible framework that could connect internal practices to organisational value, without introducing heavy reporting or false precision.

“We wanted a way to understand whether our day-to-day operations and internal practices were genuinely strengthening the firm — not just in sentiment, but in long-term value and resilience.” — Management, Thong & Lim

The Challenge

Thong & Lim faced a familiar set of issues:

• People investments were real, but their value was largely implicit

• Discussions about wellbeing, engagement, and retention were qualitative rather than comparable

• Leadership lacked a consistent way to assess what to continue, refine, or stop

• Traditional ESG or CSR reporting felt disproportionate for an internal people focus

What was needed was not more metrics, but clearer signals.

The Approach

Thong & Lim adopted a light-touch SROI and impact framework, designed specifically for internal use.

The approach was deliberately pragmatic:

• Focused only on material internal outcomes (wellbeing, engagement, productivity, retention)

• Used existing HR and operational data wherever possible

• Applied valuation conservatively, prioritising credibility over completeness

• Presented results as ranges and directional insight, not precise financial claims

The framework follows a clear logic:

Internal investment → People outcomes → Organisational value → Better decisions

Focus Areas

The Year-1 forecast concentrated on four core areas:

Employee Wellbeing & Engagement
Structured bonding, wellness, and support initiatives aimed at improving morale, cohesion, and day-to-day experience.

Capability & Confidence
Training and mentorship designed to strengthen confidence, progression, and readiness for responsibility.

Retention & Organisational Stability
Tracking turnover and continuity as a proxy for organisational health and reduced people risk.

Community Contribution (Staff-Led)
Staff volunteering and in-kind contributions, measured only where directly driven by the firm’s actions.

Environmental practices were tracked operationally but not monetised in Year-1.

What the Framework Revealed

Rather than producing a single headline number, the framework positioned value as a range:

Indicative SROI range (internal use): ~1× to ~5.5× value created per dollar invested

This range helped leadership understand how value is created:

• At the lower end, value is driven by improved morale and basic wellbeing

• As engagement and confidence strengthen, productivity effects become visible

• Over time, reduced turnover and sustained engagement begin to compound value

More importantly, the framework highlighted which levers mattered most, and where future effort should be concentrated.

Measuring Success

Success was defined not by maximising a ratio, but by improving clarity and governance.

The framework produced a concise Board Impact Snapshot, combining:

• Directional value signals (using ranges, not precision)

• Core wellbeing, engagement, and retention indicators

• Clear insights on what to scale, refine, or discontinue

Impact was treated as management intelligence, not marketing output.

Why This Matters

For Thong & Lim, the framework established a clear link between internal people practices and long-term organisational value.

It provided leadership with:

• A credible way to discuss wellbeing and retention at board level

• A baseline for year-on-year learning and improvement

• Confidence that people investments were proportionate, intentional, and value-creating

Most importantly, it shifted the conversation from “Are we doing enough?” to “Are we doing what matters most?”.