Join the Good Business Charter and become a force for good.

The Federation of Small Businesses (FSB) has recently partnered with The Good Business Foundation to adapt the Good Business Charter accreditation and make it accessible for small businesses with less than 50 employees.

If you want to give your business an edge by becoming a more responsible, ethical and transparent enterprise, getting the accreditation is a positive step in that direction.

The Good Business Charter for small businesses.

To join the GBC, a business must meet the following criteria:

• A living wage for your staff – you must pay your employees the living wage, as set out by the Living Wage Foundation or have plans in place to revise your employee wages.

• Fairer hours and contracts – you must move away from zero-hours contracts that benefit the company and focus on fairer work contracts for employees.

• Employee wellbeing – you must actively encourage and support wellbeing for your employees, by creating a working environment that underpins positive wellbeing.

• Employee representation – you must give your employees the channels to engage with senior management and consider the options for trade union representation.

• Diversity & Inclusion – you must put robust measures in place to encourage diversity at key stages of your recruitment, selection and retention of employees.

• Environmental responsibility – you must develop good environmental and net-zero carbon practices as a company and as a workforce.

• Pay fair tax – you must pay your taxes, only use tax allowances as they are intended and be totally transparent in your relationship with HM Revenue & Customs (HMRC).

• Show commitment to your customers – you must have a clear commitment to your customer base and prioritise reacting to and learning from customer feedback.

• Ethical sourcing – you must commit to ethical sourcing from all your suppliers and meet the Ethical Trading Initiative Base Code with your purchases.

• Prompt payment to suppliers – you must commit to paying all your suppliers promptly and within the agreed 30-day period, in an effort to treat your suppliers fairly.

Talk to us about applying for accreditation.

Being a force for good as a business is always admirable, and it helps small businesses refine their purpose and vision outside of the usual profit measurements.