GoodCorporation Accreditation

2008

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What is GoodCorporation?

• GoodCorporation is a business assessment and certification organisation

• The company was founded in the UK in 2000 and launched in Summer 2001

• Over 250 assessments have been completed in 100+ organisations across 42 countries. Work has been undertaken for 11 FTSE100 companies and many smaller organisations

• GoodCorporation is the ‘measure of a good company’ and our reputation in the market is to undertake credible checks of organisations

• Companies that have been assessed by us include Adnams, ARM, Total, DHL, Hard Rock Café group, Hilton group, BG, FTSE and many small businesses and not-for-profit organisations

• GoodCorporation assesses organisations against the GoodCorporation Standard, developed in conjunction with the Institute of Business Ethics

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About GoodCorporation Accreditation

• GoodCorporations are organisations that can demonstrate ethical and sustainable business practices

• Accreditation provides a logo and certification for companies that are able to show that they are trusted and respected by their employees, customers, suppliers and other stakeholders

• A GoodCorporation can display the logo and use it to win new business and retain old customers

• The logo will refer to the year the organisation was assessed

• The stakeholder feedback can be used by the organisation to improve how it works

• The assessment process is simple and cost-effective for small organisations

• Only good organisations can be accredited - stakeholders must rate the company highly in order to be able to use the GoodCorporation logo

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What is the benefit of being assessed?

• The applicant receives:– An off-the-shelf mechanism to seek feedback - in itself will enhance reputation– 20+ charts showing how they are rated by their stakeholders– GoodCorporation will speak to stakeholders that have a concern about the organisation -

and where this is needed, GoodCorporation will feed back concerns so that they can be dealt with

– A presentation to management setting out the findings from the assessment– GoodCorporation will provide guidance to the organisation on where improvements can

be made to business practices– The right to use the logo when stakeholders rate the organisations highly

• In addition:– Extra questions can be added, for example on customer satisfaction– Positive stakeholder comments can be anonymised and fed back to the company to help

with marketing and promotion– Any negative comments can be fed back to the organisation to help the organisation

make improvements – If needed, high profile stakeholders like regulators can be interviewed by

GoodCorporation either by phone or face-to-face

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What’s in it for my organisation?

• Our clients use the GoodCorporation logo and the charts with their stakeholder feedback as a central part of their sales approach to their potential customers

• The assessment helps companies to differentiate themselves and therefore helps them to sell – “we always present the GoodCorporation logo at the beginning of our sales pitch and explain

what it means. DFID and the World Bank love it” MD, GoodCorporation accredited company.

• The assessment also helps the organisation to spot problems and improve performance (eg customers not happy with the way that complaints are handled)

• The assessment helps companies to obtain structured and useful feedback from employees, customers, suppliers, shareholders and other stakeholders

• Our clients tell us that by conducting an independent survey of stakeholders their reputation is enhanced

• The assessment generates a list of stakeholder quotes and comments about the organisation – “this is perfect. We can put this customer feedback straight on our website” Director,

GoodCorporation accredited organisation.

• The assessment can also help the company explain its own non-financial performance to its board.

• The assessment provides a concrete measure of an organisation’s ethical business practices.

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It’s a three week process - Week one

• Company receives an application form from GoodCorporation

• It completes the management questions and commits to uphold the principles of the GoodCorporation Standard (promising to work in a fair and responsible way with stakeholders)

• The company compiles an email list of all its employees, customers, suppliers and other stakeholders

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It’s a three week process - Week two

• GoodCorporation meets with the company

• GoodCorporation works with the company to design and finalise the stakeholder questions (based on the GoodCorporation Standard)

• GoodCorporation gives the company an email link to all the surveys for each of the stakeholder groups

• The company sends a reminder at the end of week two

• GoodCorporation will speak to stakeholders that have concerns about the organisation

• GoodCorporation will collect the views of all stakeholders from the surveys over week two and week three

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It’s a three week process - Week three

• GoodCorporation will collate the results and send to the company– A summary presentation - showing how the organisation has performed overall– A detailed annex with all of the responses from stakeholders

(charts and verbatim comments)

• If the results are positive and stakeholders are happy with how they are treated, the company will also receive the GoodCorporation logo

• If the results do not meet the Standard, GoodCorporation will show which areas the company needs to improve. Company can state that it is ‘working towards with GoodCorporation to be a responsible business’

• The certificate is valid for three years subject to completion of an annual self-assessment

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Use of the logo

• The logo can be used on stationery, tender documents, websites, brochures etc

• Once the organisation has started working with GoodCorporation, the organisation will be supplied with a ‘working with’ GoodCorporation logo. This logo can be used by the organisation to show that it is “working with GoodCorporation to be a responsible business”, even if it did not achieve GoodCorporation accreditation

• If the organisation achieves GoodCorporation accreditation, a logo displaying the year in which the organisation was assessed can be used for three years subject to an annual self-assessment

• The logo links back to the GoodCorporation website which explains what you have achieved - so you do not have to explain it yourself

• If stakeholders later complain and show evidence that the company is not upholding the spirit of the GoodCorporation Standard, then the logo can be removed

working with

to be a responsible business

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Overall Percentage Rating VERCO As Excellent Or Above Average

60%

65%

70%

75%

80%

85%

90%

Employees Customers Suppliers Shareholders Other stakeholders Overall

Overall summary of GoodCorporation assessment

GC target pass mark 75%

VERCO’s overall score

77%

% rating company as ‘excellent’ or ‘above average’

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Employee results- % rating VERCO as excellent or above average

50 55 60 65 70 75 80 85 90

Health and safety practices and training

Clarity about how pay and benefits are determined

Ability (perceived or real) to manage issues relating to harassment or bullying

Clarity regarding terms and conditions of employment

Providing adequate training

Providing regular appraisals

Competing fairly

Compliance with relevant employment laws and regulations

Involvement in the local community

Ensuring that privacy of employees is respected

Respecting freedom of association

Protecting the environment

Ability (perceived or real) to manage issues relating to discrimination

Handling any grievances fairly

Looking after the special needs of disabled customers

Providing a confidential reporting channel that you can trust

Communication generally around the organisation

Treating disciplinary issues fairly

Employees overall

% rating company as ‘excellent’ or ‘above average’

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Customer results- % rating VERCO as excellent or above average

50 55 60 65 70 75 80 85 90

Contribution to the community

Clear, fair and responsibleadvertising of its services

Requesting and using feedback

Delivering any agreed after-salesservices

Handling and protecting personal

Delivering the agreed product orservice

Protecting the environment

Clear product/service information

data/intellectual property

Handling of anycomplaints/concerns I have raised

Clarity regarding Verco's termsand conditions

Ethical behaviour in terms ofgifts, hospitality & entertainment

Customers overall

% rating company as ‘excellent’ or ‘above average’

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Supplier results- % rating VERCO as excellent or above average

50 55 60 65 70 75 80 85 90

Ethical behaviour in terms of gifts, hospitality & entertainment

Encouraging suppliers/contractors to adopt healthy & safe workingpractices

Clear and fair processes to select suppliers/contractors

Clarity regarding business terms and conditions

Encouraging suppliers/contractors to adopt responsible businesspractices

Requesting and using my feedback

Paying invoices on time and in accordance with agreed terms

Handling and protecting personal data/intellectual property

Handling of any complaints/concerns I have raised

Suppliers overall

% rating company as ‘excellent’ or ‘above average’

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Shareholder results- % rating VERCO as excellent or above average

50 55 60 65 70 75 80 85 90

Providing financial informationthat you need

Being clear about companystrategy

Preventing insider trading andmisappropriation of information

Disclosing relevant materialissues

Access to Senior Management

Quality of governance andmanagement structures

Quality of financial controls

Dealing with queries andcomplaints regarding corporate

governance

Shareholders overall

% rating company as ‘excellent’ or ‘above average’

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Sample detailed analysis slide -Suppliers - “requesting and using feedback”

0

10

20

30

40

50

60

Excellent Above average Average Below average Poor

% rating company as ‘excellent’ or ‘above average’

For each of the standard questions (and any additional questions added by the company), a chart is available to show the detailed breakdown of

responses.

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Example employee comments

ORIGINAL QUOTES - TAKEN DIRECTLY FROM STAKEHOLDER COMMENTS

“Training and appraisals are very good compared to my last employer”

“The company treats health and safety training as a top priority”

“Our line managers are responsible for annual review and development, but their recommendations are consistently ignored by the dept. head who set this years' increases and perf ratings before the annual reviews were performed.”

“Having worked for larger companies in the past, VERCO do have a small company mentality that limits its experience of participating equally with other companies.”

“Depends on the manager so there is no consistency of application within the organisation; the variability means I am unable to score highly”

“I like VERCO, it's a great company in many ways and I am glad I am here. However, even after having been here for over two years I still don't know where my career is going - and not for lack of asking.”

“Two recent sackings of senior staff members appears to have been handled very badly, NAME and NAME, which has created an air of uncertainty throughout the department.” [anonymised]

“I think there may be some inconsistencies between departments in how things are handled regarding policies e.g time off in lieu, part time working. there should be a company standard followed by all.”

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Examples of customer quotes

“Verco is a great company in all respects, it is a pleasure to do business with them”

“They have never missed a deadline, despite our exacting timelines!”

“Very professional and helpful people, they are also fun to work with”

“Jo Smith is absolutely terrific. The highest integrity and thoughtfulness.”

“Effective and responsive service; strong reputation in their field of expertise”

“They did not respond well to a complaint we made about service levels, they made some weak excuses.”

“I feel that the webtools they have designed for us are too simplistic and rely on boilerplate designs”

“Delays in delivery of our XX product are very frustrating, I would have expected more effort to resolve these”

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Assessment report

• The detailed report is a set of charts with feedback from employees, customers, suppliers and other stakeholders

• The report includes results from customised questions added by the client

• The report gives valuable commercial information to the organisation on areas of strength and areas to improve

• The charts form a summary business ethics/CSR report for the organisation

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What does it cost?

• Assessment– For companies with 0-25 employees the cost is £1,500– For companies with 26-50 employees the cost is £2,500– For larger organisations the price will depend on size, locations,

sector and complexity of the organisation (about £2,000 per stakeholder group)

• The cost quoted above is for three years

• The use of the logo will be valid for three years subject to the organisation completing a self-assessment form and abiding by the spirit of the GoodCorporation Standard

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Next steps

To arrange your assessment or for more information, please contact:

Hemrish AubeelackAssessor

Tel: 020 7736 7379 (+44 20 7736 7379 from outside the UK)E-mail hemrish.aubeelack@goodcorporation.com

GoodCorporation LimitedBurlington House184 New King’s RoadLondonSW6 4NFUnited Kingdom

www.goodcorporation.com