Small organisations: 2024 updates to our Accreditation Centre

Once a year we assess our questions and check they are fit for purpose – we have also taken the opportunity to improve the way the questions are built onto our system in a way which we hope will be more robust and resolve any errors members may have experienced over the past year. Thank you for your patience with us on this – our Accreditation Centre was built at speed when we first launched and it has been an important area of focus for us this year to improve its functionality, which is very much an ongoing job.
 
We have always said that if we want to propose any major changes, we will take a vote from our membership on this as it is not fair to make changes that might jeopardise your ability to remain accredited, without consultation.
 
The updates this year are not of that nature – the main focus has been to strengthen some of the language and to achieve better consistency between the streamlined accreditation questions and the questions for organisations with over 50 employees.
 
The key changes therefore are:
  • Updating the new rates for the Real Living Wage announced this week as £12.60 outside of London and £13.85 in London (organisations have until 1st May 2025 to implement these new rates).
  • In line with the larger organisations, we have been more specific in the question around fairer hours to ensure that any GBC accredited organisation that uses zero hours or minimal hours is doing so in a way that aligns with the fair approach we have defined for this (namely two weeks’ notice of shifts, paid if cancelled within two weeks, annual review to see if fixed contracts can be offered). For many small organisations this won’t be applicable, so this is the one question where a N/A option will now be available.
  • We have strengthened the language for the customer commitment question from having a clear commitment to ensuring that commitment is published on your website or alternative platform.
  • We have tweaked the ethical sourcing question, again to achieve better consistency with the larger questionnaire, to talk about a process of ethical sourcing.
  • There are two additional free-form questions – one only relevant to those using zero/minimal hours contracts; the other is about how you have communicated your accreditation to your stakeholders. All GBC accredited organisations should be held to account by their stakeholders, which is why we require our logo to be on your website. We want to ensure this is also promoted to your workforce, customers and suppliers who can all hold you to account. If all GBC accredited organisations are doing this, we will together uphold the rigour of the accreditation, increasing the likelihood of people reporting to us anyone who is not complying with the 10 components so that we can take swift action.
 
Thank you for being part of this journey to recognise, champion and encourage responsible business. There is a growing understanding nationally of what we stand for and why it matters. Over the next few months, we have a wide range of opportunities to get the GBC better known and we thank you for your support in this as we head to our 5th anniversary in February.
 
Any questions, do please get in touch at: accreditation@goodbusinesscharter.com