Halo | B Corp - redefining our definition of success

When I first overheard my colleagues talking about the B Corp certification I thought “AMAZING” and jumped straight onto Google. The B Corp Certification helps businesses ‘balance purpose and profit’ and holds companies legally accountable for internal decisions surrounding workers and clients, as well as external factors such as suppliers, community and of course, the environment.

I think it’s important to mention that for us this wasn’t just a box to tick, it’s something we care about - we are based in Bristol after all, one of the top 10 greenest and most eco-friendly places to live in the UK. As a smaller agency it is definitely easy to assume you know all you can know and are doing all you can do, but it’s things like B Corp that help you realise you can do more.

We want to be on the right side of history and we know that Halo has a responsibility to the people and the planet (as well as profit of course, we are a business after all!) to do what we can to help.

Before you pay any fees or fully commit, there is a chance to work through the assessment questions and this gives you an ongoing score, along with the option to flag any questions to revisit or set as goals.The assessment covers the following 5 main sections;

• Governance
• Workers
• Customers
• Environment
• Community

Here at Halo I would say we, like many other agencies, pride ourselves on being a great place to work as we believe our team makes our business, as well as trying our best to be environmentally conscientious, so after some quick research my thoughts continued with “that will be easy…”

But boy, were we in for a surprise - of a pleasant and an eye opening kind.

It was immediately apparent the areas which we were excelling in and it felt great to be able to give ourselves a pat on the back and be proud of how much we had already implemented - good socials, birthdays off, higher than average employee NPS score, and also how transparent we are with our employees (we are sharers). We hold what we call ‘Town Halls’, at which we give a super transparent and honest company update and also answer anonymously submitted employee questions.

However the areas where we could absolutely improve also became apparent, as well as coming across things that hadn’t even crossed our minds, but were easy and simple changes to make. We’ve started to think more about where we source products from: are they local? Are they an ethical supplier? What does that company do to help? We’ve set waste and electrical reduction targets and are also looking at how we can give more back to the local community and how we as a company and our employees can assist in more charity and community work.

We want to create meaningful work but also meaningful jobs, we want meaningful connections with both our clients and our suppliers. We want to support our local community where we can and overall, we just want to leave a positive impact where we can - and this accreditation holds us accountable to do exactly that.

The assessment itself is no small task, it takes time to get the accreditation and it costs money. But it is worth it; it’s both a rewarding process and a process that brings you back down to the ground, to review and revisit. This is definitely something we have already benefited from and will continue to benefit from in the long run, and in turn be able to better help our local communities, the environment and our employees.

To find out more about B Corps visit their site.