What you own
The Social Impact Manager leads diversity, equity, inclusion and community engagement initiatives, the social pillar of ESG.
- Lead DEI and community engagement initiatives
- Track diversity, engagement and community impact metrics
- Automate survey and data collection for social programs
- Link social initiatives to ESG frameworks and disclosures
- Coordinate with HR on workforce data and policies
- Report social pillar progress to ESG leadership
At a glance
The GRC processes this role owns, touches and depends on.
Owns
accountable for the process
Touches
contributes or approves
Depends on
consumes its output
How the GRC processes connect
Three lines of defense set the frame; the chain shows where each process hands off to the next. Colors follow the role: navy is owned, blue is touched, gray is depended on.
Reporting lines
Who this role reports to, who reports to them, and the peers they work with most.
Reports to
Direct reports
Works closely with
How SmartSuite supports this role
Lead
ESG. Centralizes social metrics and program tracking with survey automation and HR metric tracking.
Reporting. Links initiatives to ESG frameworks and supports external disclosures with evidence.
Products this role uses most
Industry reference
The GRI 400-series standards, SASB human-capital metrics and the ESRS S1 to S4 standards under CSRD define social disclosures: workforce composition, pay, health and safety, community and value-chain impacts. ISSB IFRS S1 requires material social matters to be reported alongside climate.
Statutory reporting shapes the data: UK gender pay gap reporting, the EU Pay Transparency Directive (transposition deadline 7 June 2026), US EEO-1 filings and modern slavery statements under the UK and Australian Modern Slavery Acts. Healthcare and public sector bodies carry equality duties under their own statutes; financial firms and technology companies answer investor and customer requests for human-capital data.
Related roles
Explore Further
Guides and definitions from the GRC Knowledge Center and the What-is glossary, chosen for this role.
Frequently asked questions
What does a Social Impact Manager own within the ESG program?
The Social Impact Manager owns the social pillar of ESG: the diversity, equity, inclusion and community engagement initiatives, the diversity, engagement and community impact metrics behind them, the survey and data collection that feeds those metrics, the link from each initiative to ESG frameworks and external disclosures, and the coordination with HR on workforce data and policies. They report social pillar progress to the ESG Program Director. As ESRS S1 to S4 and ISSB S1 take hold, the evidence behind each number matters as much as the number.
How does SmartSuite help a Social Impact Manager track social metrics and programs?
ESG & Sustainability Management centralizes social metrics and program tracking with survey automation and HR metric tracking, so the DEI initiatives, their targets and the workforce metrics that measure them sit in one place, with Employee Engagement & Surveys collecting the engagement data on a schedule rather than by an annual scramble. The Social Impact Manager sees each initiative against its metric, and Workforce Planning & Headcount Management holds the headcount data the workforce metrics are built from.
How are social initiatives linked to ESG frameworks and disclosures?
SmartSuite links initiatives to ESG frameworks and supports external disclosures with evidence, so a community program or a pay equity initiative is mapped to the GRI 400-series, SASB or ESRS S1 to S4 disclosure it supports, and the evidence for the disclosed figure is attached to the initiative. The Social Impact Manager can show the ESG Analyst where each social disclosure comes from, and the Communications Director can quote a number knowing its source is recorded.
How does a Social Impact Manager report to the ESG Program Director?
From the same records the initiatives are tracked in, so the report to the ESG Program Director shows each initiative's progress against its metric, the survey results behind the engagement figures and the disclosures each initiative supports, without a separate reporting pack. Because the social pillar sits in ESG & Sustainability Management with the environmental and governance pillars, the director sees it in the same view as the rest of the program. Progress questions are answered from the record.
What does a social impact program need to start in SmartSuite?
The list of initiatives with their owners and targets, the metrics the organization already reports, such as workforce composition or pay gap, and the current surveys. New customers can start with SmartSuite Onboarding, a guided four-week program around one or two priority workflows; the first workflow is initiative tracking against the metrics already reported. Statutory filings such as EEO-1, UK gender pay gap or modern slavery statements become disclosures the initiatives link to. The HR Operations Manager's cooperation on workforce data is the main dependency, and the shared record makes it easier to sustain.

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