OTHER STANDARDS

How GoodCorporation fits with other CSR Standards and initiatives.

There are many different CSR initiatives as well as business standards and it is sometimes a confusing job to work out how they all fit together. The purpose of the following section is to share our views of how GoodCorporations Standard fits in with other CSR Standards and initiatives.

Our view is that the GoodCorporation Standard and assessment are unique because:

We genuinely check out in an impartial way how business practices work on the ground. Many initiatives are basically self-audited by an organisation.

We take time to interview employees, customers, suppliers and so on ourselves. We interview confidentially and allow stakeholders to say how well practices really work. There is no doubt in our minds that in simply asking people for their view in a structured and systematic way brings benefits to the organisation – people like to be asked for their view!

We cover all aspects of corporate responsibility – this includes fair and responsible behaviour towards shareholders, as well as employees, customers, suppliers, the community and the environment. Many CSR initiatives are evolving and moving towards this full coverage. We welcome this as we think that CSR is about much more than just one stakeholder group or one element of responsible behaviour – it is about all aspects of business

By measuring all aspects of corporate responsibility using the same scoring mechanism we are able to measure and benchmark performance in a way that is consistent whatever aspect of CSR you are considering. Many other initiatives are stuck with quantified measurement (eg of environmental inputs or employee statistics) and they are unable therefore to measure many other important aspects of CSR that do not lend themselves to quantified measurement.

We have the courage to have a pass/fail test. We are prepared to say clearly to the organisation if a practice is not good enough. After 200 assessments we have a first time ‘fail’ rate of over 20%, showing that our assessment has teeth and is a challenge that only good organisations can meet

Our assessments can be used by smaller companies and benefit them by helping them to make sales. Most other CSR initiatives are designed primarily for larger organisations.

We have the ability to tailor our assessment to include other CSR Standards. The GoodCorporation assessment can be used to prove that these practices work in reality. For example a number of our clients ask us to extent their report to see if they really do comply with the principles of the UN Global Compact or the ILO principles.

However, many of the other aspects of our work are similar to other Standards and initiatives. We:

Cover the same ground as many of the other CSR Standards, but we also cover many aspects of business ethics, risk management, and also shareholder relationships.

We do grade in a similar way to other audit type systems like ISO. But in developing our grades we take into account lots of stakeholder feedback whereas systems like ISO rely heavily on reviewing documents and looking at internal processes.

We do allow organisations to review their own practices against the GoodCorporation Standard. But for us this would be part of the preparation for an external assessment and not an assessment in itself. Some other processes like the BITC CR Index would use the self-assessment against their questionnaire as the heart of the assessment process, although BITC does then visit a sample of companies to make sure that questions have been completed properly.

We also allow organisations to use our logo like many other CSR organisations. However we only allow this if they meet the minimum requirements of the GoodCorporation Standard. Some of the other CSR initiatives allow people to use their logo

When choosing a CSR standard ask yourself:

• Do you want to be externally or self - assessed?
  
  
• Do you want a global or industry focused standard?
  
  
• What is the reason for an assessment?
  
  
• Do you want your stakeholders (customers, employees, suppliers, shareholders) to be interviewed to find out how they really feel?
  
  
• What kind of output do you want? A report, presentation, graphs, certification, grades
  
  
• Are you using the standard for PR purposes or to find out how your company is really performing?
  
  
• Is the assessment for the whole company or is it also intended to be used by subsidiaries?

We support the work of other Corporate Responsibility Standards and encourage you to visit their websites.

Social Accountability 8000
UN Global Compact
Global Reporting Initiative G3
FTSE4Good
Accountability AA1000
Business In The Community – CR Index
ISO 26000
Dow Jones Sustainability Index

If you would like more detailed information about how the GoodCorporation Standard compares to specific standards please contact us.