Frequently Asked Questions

How much does it cost?
Why should I accredit?

The Good Business Charter is a simple way to be recognised for your responsible business practices. You may find you are performing well in most of the components but can improve your practices further in two or three which will be of overall benefit to your organisation. Our third-party accreditation will also point people to your doors as more and more people look for evidence of responsible business practices. To find out more about why accredit, see here.
How long does the process take?
What can I expect from accreditation?

The Good Business Charter is not a membership association with a range of benefits for those who pay a membership fee. It is an accreditation where you commit to uphold your commitments and we commit to uphold the accreditation itself.

Yet we are also a community of people passionate about responsible business behaviour and a movement seeking to raise the bar on good business standards in the UK. So we do want to energise you in that mission and move forwards together in it. We set out here our commitment to our accredited organisations.
How will you enforce it?

We view businesses in a positive light and hope that they would not knowingly give false information in the self-certification. However, to ensure robust monitoring, we undertake appropriate checks as part of our accreditation process and we use a system of whistle blowing where we invite any stakeholder of one of our organisations, who believes that they are not upholding the standards of the GBC, to contact us and alert us to this. We will then initiate a full investigation with that member and will not hesitate to remove their accreditation if they are found to not be compliant. GBC accreditation is not finalised until the organisation displays our logo – holding them to account internally with their workforce and externally with their customers that they are making this commitment and have done their due diligence to ensure they are compliant.
What if I can't qualify for one component?
I am a sole trader with no employees. Can I still accredit?

Yes you can! The Good Business Charter is for all sizes and shapes of organisation and we are proud to have sole traders, limited liability partnerships and charities as part of our membership, alongside small, medium and large companies. We do recognise, however, that the accreditation questions are directed at organisations that have employees. With 5 of our 10 components applicable to workers, we can see why some sole traders, working from home, would feel the GBC is not the right fit for them. We accept this reasoning, recognising that it was not designed with sole traders in mind, but we are also delighted to welcome sole traders who do want to accredit.

Sole traders can have significant reach in spreading the word to their clients and suppliers – some like to do this through first accrediting, others choose not to. If you do choose to accredit, you need to answer the employee questions as a commitment if you were to employ someone.
Do you have any guidance or templates for any of the components?
My team is small. Is an employee satisfaction survey still necessary?

This may sound unnecessary with only a few employees who all have direct access to the boss, however we do think it is good practice to provide an anonymous way for a concern to be raised – even though in practice the best way to address it would most likely be to get everyone together anyway!

There is something useful also, as a minimum, in rating how happy your employees are in their workplace rating 1-5 and measure against prior years (or every 2 years which is what we ask). A Survey Monkey survey with 3 or 4 questions would be sufficient to meet this requirement.
What does the application process consist of?
What standards do I need to meet for environmental responsibility?
Ethical sourcing is irrelevant to me. Why do I need to commit to the ETI Base Code?

We do not expect organisations to sign up to the Ethical Trading Initiative and recognise that for non-trading organisations, the Base Code may not seem relevant.

There is an established principle of leverage in due diligence, which reduces your responsibility the less you consume. If an organisation does not buy very much, it would be disproportionate to expect them to spend as much time checking suppliers as we would expect a large trading organisation to. Every organisation should still do something – we recommend a modern slavery act statement which outlines the steps it takes to avoid human rights abuse in its services and supplies. With agency staff, which can be an area of risk, we would recommend an organisation ask the companies they use to supply labour for their own policies on avoiding abuse and ethical practices.
I run a small business with a high number of temporary or occasional staff. What should I use as headcount?
Where an organisation’s core team is small but the nature of their business means they have a high number of no guaranteed hours, zero hours, minimal hours, temporary, or occasional workers, our position is this: 

The organisation should count and tell us the individual number of people paid through their payroll when registering with our portal; so that will include those on no guaranteed hours, zero hours or other minimal hours contracts (e.g. 8 hours per week, but where flexibility is required to work additional hours in excess of 20% of normal hours to meet demand), as well as occasional workers.

We ask for each individual person to be counted, not FTE’s (Full time equivalents).

This does not include freelancers, where you are procuring and paying for the services of an organisation/individual for professional services.

Our first 5 components MUST be applied to the total number of all workers, not just the core, permanent team.  So, they must all be paid the Real Living Wage and have fair hours and contracts, experience employee wellbeing, representation and diversity and inclusion. These may be worked out in different ways for different groups of workers as befits the situation, but all of the GBC components must be applied to everyone on your payroll. 

Regardless of the size of your organisation, we expect all our ‘Fair Hours and Contracts’ conditions to be complied with and applied to all of the individual people on your payroll, regardless of their contract type (for example permanent, temporary, no guaranteed hours, zero hours, minimal hours, other). This means giving at least two weeks’ notice of shifts scheduled and paying them in full if cancelled with less than 2 weeks notice. Workers must understand their employment rights, face no penalties for declining shifts or requesting more fixed hours and have annual meetings to review actual hours worked for potential adjustments to their contracts.

However, an organisation should contact us or add in the comments box if they employ a very high number of people for very occasional employment.  (For example, a football club who employs many people on a casual, seasonal basis to work some match days or a charity that uses zero hours contracts to cover sickness or leave for essential services or very occasional fundraising events.) We want to ensure the fee you pay is fair, and can support you around how a company with a high number of staff working flexible hours manages the questions for larger companies, including pay gap reporting and reference to reporting to a Board of Directors.

Please also contact us if you’re unsure – we want to make sure we accurately capture the size of your operation and that your practices cover the support and well-being of all your staff, but also ensure the cost of accreditation is fair.
We pay real living wage but are not Living Wage Foundation accredited. Does that matter?

We support full accreditation to the Living Wage Foundation which costs little and ensures you are committed to the payment of a living wage. The Living Wage Foundation also ensures your regularly-contracted staff are paid real living wage, not just those on your payroll.
We are in the public sector/a charity. What does the GBC offer us?

The Good Business Charter offers a GBC for charities which measures your responsible business practices on 9 of the 10 components given that the tax component is not applicable. There is huge value in all organisations, whether for profit or not, committing to care for their employees, customers, suppliers and the environment and that is why charities such as Shelter and The Joseph Rowntree Foundation and Housing Trust have signed up to us.
How do I promote the Good Business Charter?
How does it differ to Business in the Community, Blueprint for Better Business and the various accreditation bodies such as B Corporation?

The Good Business Charter differs from organisations such as Business in the Community (BITC), Blueprint for Better Business, and accreditation bodies like B Corporation in that it is specifically designed as a simple and accessible UK accreditation that focuses on recognising a clear benchmark of responsible business practice across 10 defined components. While BITC and Blueprint for Better Business tend to offer broader guidance, frameworks and support to help organisations continually improve their responsible business practices, the GBC is more structured as a straightforward accreditation that sets minimum standards and acknowledges those already meeting them. In contrast, B Corporation is a more intensive certification process that involves a detailed assessment, higher costs, and ongoing re-certification requirements, making it more rigorous and time-consuming.
I believe an accredited organisation is not holding up to one of the components. For example, I know they are not paying their employees the Real Living Wage. What do I do?
I would like more information, how do I contact you?
What is the GBC's expectations of accredited organisations?
What is the GBC's rejection policy?

We reserve the right to reject an application if we feel that an organisation does not work at the standard of the Good Business Charter for one or more of our 10 components. You can view our protocol on rejecting organisations here.