Accreditation for small organisations

Accreditation for small organisations

The Good Business Charter is a benchmark for responsible business practices across the UK.

Designed to be adaptable to suit the needs of small organisations and sole traders, it is your opportunity to demonstrate your commitment to people and planet and attract customers who share your values.

Good Business Charter and the Federation of Small Businesses partnership

The Good Business Foundation partnered with the Federation of Small Businesses to adapt our accreditation to work for smaller organisations with 50 employees or fewer. We recognise that once you grow to more than 50 employees you are likely to develop a layer or multiple tiers of middle management and the business becomes more complex, which is why our original questions sought to encompass this. For the Good Business Charter accreditation to work for businesses with 50 employees or fewer, the FSB strongly felt it needed to be made more accessible, streamlined and small-business-friendly. Please note: the number of employees should include everyone on your payroll regardless of contract type.

We are grateful to Craig Beaumont, Samantha Bonser and Martin McTague at FSB for their commitment to the GBC and assistance in designing this part of our accreditation. We are delighted with the result which we believe asks the right questions for each of our components to this important audience. Of particular note, FSB has asked that small businesses who sign up as a good business in this way, also commit to good payment practice to suppliers – paying them within at most 30 days.

Find out about our fees and costs for becoming accredited.

The accreditation process

Do not delay! Accreditation for smaller organisations and businesses is quick and simple. Your application can be completed online and requires you to answer a series of questions based on your individual business and our ten components. Check out the component questions below.

Living Wage

Do you pay everyone on your payroll (regardless of contract type) the real living wage as defined by the Living Wage Foundation and currently pay or have plans in place, which include achievable actions, to work toward paying your regularly contracted employees the real living wage? (currently £12.60 per hour outside of London and £13.85 inside London)
Fairer Hours and Contracts

Do your contracts without guaranteed hours or minimal hours ensure at least two weeks’ notice of shifts (except for emergencies) and full payment for cancelled shifts with less than two weeks’ notice, and do employees understand their 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?
Employee Well-being

Do you actively support and encourage employee well-being treating those with legitimate sickness in a fair and respectful manner and promote access to impartial support and advice for employees with physical and mental health needs (this can include signposting to NHS services or charities)?
Employee Representation
Equality, Diversity & Inclusion

Do you put robust measures in place to encourage diversity and inclusion at key stages of recruitment, selection and retention of employees? And have you put in place robust measures to prevent harassment or victimisation in the workplace with access to independent third-party support if necessary?
Environmental Responsibility

Do you encourage the development of good environmental and net zero practice as an organisation and by your employees, suppliers and customers, seeking to minimise your impact and commit to improve it, depending on the size, sector and relevance of your organisation?
Pay Fair Tax
Commitment to Customers
Ethical Sourcing
Prompt Payment

GBC Accreditation

Be recognised for your responsible business practices and start your accreditation journey today.

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The Good Business Charter also requires organisations to display the GBC Accreditation Stamp in a prominent, permanent place on their website and promote it internally and externally. This commitment to ensure their workforce and wider stakeholders know about the commitments they have made is a requirement of fully completing their accreditation.

Public and third sector

Public and third sector organisations with fewer than 50 employees will answer an adapted version of the FSB streamlined questions, removing the tax component since it is not relevant and changing the wording of the customer commitment to stakeholders to encompass beneficiaries and donors.

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.

If you have any questions regarding GBC accreditation, please do contact us.