Our Operational Journey to B-Corp Accreditation

Applying for B Corp

Earlier this year, we announced that we achieved B Corp accreditation, making us part of a global community using business as a force for good.

The certification process was rigorous. Businesses are required to provide evidence of socially and environmentally responsible practices covering all areas of its business operations, including governance, community, environment and customers.

The process also looks internally at a business’ workers. This information is crucial for evaluating a companies’ impact on its workforce and ensuring that the standards set are met. Areas that are evaluated include looking at diversity and inclusion data, salary information, staff turnover and retention as well analysis of full-time employees. B Lab, who undertake the assessment believe this information is important in evaluating how a business makes a positive impact on its employee’s lives and demonstrates its commitment to its workforce.

Kelly Neagle led the workers element of our assessment at MasonBreese. In this short update, she has shared some more detail about what this involved and how MasonBreese approached this.

Employee Count

As part of our accreditation process, we had to share with B Labs information about all employees at MasonBreese. This included all full time, part time, fixed term contract and permanent employees.

The Impact Assessment tool used to evaluate a company’s social and environmental performance, tailors its questions based on the size of the company, including the number of employees. The assessment is divided into different tracks depending on employee count, ensuring that the questions are relevant to the company’s size and scope.

This helps the assessors to get a holistic view of stability for our colleagues as well as our flexibility as an employer.

Diversity and Inclusion Data

The overall employee count then helps them analyse the diversity and inclusion within a company. They ask for a breakdown of your workforce, specifically looking at race, gender and age. B Lab believes that to be a successful B Corp, you need to be a workforce that fosters belonging and reflects a wide range of your community. Providing this information helps them assess your commitment to fostering an inclusive workplace environment.

While applying for B Corp certification, we recognised the critical importance of DE&I within MasonBreese and appointed a DE&I champion to ensure it continues to remain a central focus for us.

Compensation practices and salary information

Compensating your workforce fairly is another area you are assessed on when applying to be a B Corp. Fair Wages play a crucial role in the overall well-being of individuals, society, and the economy. B Lab also believes that ensuring your employees can cover the cost of having a family helps break the cycle of intergenerational poverty. In order to demonstrate our commitment to fair compensation, we had to provide information on our salary, bonus and compensation structures to prove there was no bias.

Turnover and Retention

Finally, they reviewed our staff turnover and retention rate, as they believe this is a good measure of workplace culture and a sense of belonging. Tenure is a great indicator of a valued and empowered workforce, which are both positive drivers for sustainable and long-lasting change.

Summary

Overall, the process was incredibly rewarding, as it helped us demonstrate our commitment to be a role model business in our communities. Having this data in place, also means we can continue to monitor and benchmark how we are doing and any areas where we can do better.

If you want to learn more about our journey to becoming a B Corp or would like MasonBreese to support you in adopting these practices, please contact [email protected].