Cb Benchmarking Toolkit First Draft

Invitation to a free CB Benchmarking Toolkit

There is definite and ever increasing evidence for Conscious Business (CB) organisations being highly successful, happy, sustainable entities that are and are seen to be forces for good.
 
As more and more information becomes easily accessible in the public domain, it is predicted that our purchasing habits will continue to transform – most people and organisations making informed choices based not only on a product or service itself but also on the behaviour of its provider – choosing ‘force for good’ providers whose principles align with their own.
 
This benchmarking toolkit will help you to understand more about CB, help to determine where your organisation is on the CB scale and hopefully inspire you to make or continue the CB journey.

Simply answer as few or as many of the questions you wish and we will come back to you on a free of charge, no-obligation basis with a short summary of our interpretation of your answers.
 
Feel free to submit multiple benchmarking toolkits completed by different members of your team if you want to obtain a broader view of your organisation.
 
If you would like a subsequent conversation about CB, without costs or obligation, please do not hesitate to contact us.
 
If you like what we say and become interested in our paid services, we will sit down then and agree the best way forward for you and us – simple, effective, beneficial, fun and of course conscious!
 
Conscious Business (CB)

A Conscious Business enshrines a series of core principles which allow it and its stakeholders at any level to prosper on a simple, rapid, enjoyable and mutually beneficial basis.

Conscious Empathic Engaging Innovative Ethical
Honest Empowering Transparent Fair

Stakeholders are:
Shareholders / Colleagues and their families
Clients  / End users of the product or service
Suppliers / Service Providers
Local and wider community
The Environment
Competitors (in terms of perception and ethics)

CB Principles

Are you familiar with the concept of CB? (y/n/partly)
 
If Y Do you like the concept? y/n

If Y Have you implemented elements of CB? (y/n/ few / many)

If N Are you planning to implement CB or elements of CB in the near future ? y/n

If N What don’t you like about the concept of CB? (enter details)

On a scale of 5 (extremely) to 0 (not at all) how would you rate your organisation’s:
 
Transparency

87% of 280 CEOs in 21 countries surveyed for a report viewed transparency as an opportunity, and 13% viewed it as a threat. The question among many CEOs is how much transparency is too much.
[Research Commissioned by  AICPA and CIMA (the major UK Accounting Bodies) and carried out by Oxford Economics (2012)]
 
Ethical Values

e.g. Do you have an Ethics policy that covers all aspects of the organsiation and is audited?
 
Social awareness

Investors increasingly believe that social and environmental conditions in society can have a direct impact on the business operations of a company and its long-term viability.

In 2011, average support for environmental and social shareholder resolutions topped 20% for the first time, according to research by Institutional Shareholder Services. That’s up from 18.1% in 2010 and 16.3% in 2009.
[Sabine Vollmer  - senior editor - CGMA Magazine March 2012]
 
Involvement with the local and wider community

Respect for the environment
e.g. An environmental policy which is actioned and audited, ISO14000.
 
Involvement with Charities
 
Long term sustainability
Have you planned how your organisation is going to sustain itself on a long term basis?

CB - Profitability and Perception

On a scale of 5 (extremely) to 0 (not at all) is your organisation:
 
Highly profitable?
 
Delivering value and profit to all stakeholders?
 
‘You measure profit. But do you need a new definition of profit? Profit, by my own personal definition, is a measure of the value that your company gives to other people.
Give lots of value to people; and let them reward you with money (yes, money), loyalty and friendship’.
(Pete Burden http://www.conscious-business.co.uk)

Satisfying Shareholders?

Firms of Endearment study – over 10 year period companies that broadly  follow conscious aims outperformed the S&P 100 by ratio of 9:1 [Raj Sisodia, Bentley University]

A Gallup study of earnings per share (EPS) growth of 89 organisations found that the EPS growth rate of organisations with engagement scores in the top quartile was 2.6 times that of organisations with below-average engagement scores [Gallup in 2006]
 
Innovative?
 
Gallup indicate that higher levels of engagement are strongly related to higher levels of innovation.
59% of engaged employees say that their job brings out their most creative ideas against only 3% of disengaged employees. This finding was echoed in research for the Chartered Management Institute in 2007 which found a significant association and influence between employee engagement and innovation.  Based on survey findings from approximately 1,500 managers throughout the UK, where respondents identified the prevailing management style of their organisation as innovative, 92% of managers felt proud to work there
[Gallup/Chartered Management Institute in 2007]

Are your products / services judged as market leading by clients and peers?
 
Does your organisation have a good reputation?
40% of a company’s reputation is determined by its purpose and 60% by its performance.[Burson Marsteller/Penn, Schoer and Berland 2008.]

Does your organisation have a stated purpose?
In the form of mission, vision and values statements or similar.
 
Strong, strategically coherent and well communicated corporate purpose is associated with up to 17% better financial performance [IMD/Burson Marsteller Study 2010]

CB - Leadership and Senior Management

Leaders and senior managers of CB organisations lead through mentoring, motivating and developing people rather than through diktat or simple reward and punishment incentives; aligning leadership style with organisational purpose, and creating a culture of trust, authenticity, caring, transparency, integrity, learning and empowerment.
 
On a scale of 5 (extremely) to 0 (not at all) :
 
Is the Leadership style of your organistion along these lines?
 
How effective is your senior leadership team?
Analysts and investment professionals place an average premium of 15.7% on particularly effective leadership and an average 19.8% discount on companies with a leadership that is deemed as ineffective – that is a 35.5% variance

(Deloitte 2012 http://www.deloitte.com/assets/Dcom-UnitedKingdom/Local%20Assets/Documents/Industries/TMT/uk-tmt-leadership-premium.pdf)

Do senior management demonstrate a sincere interest in colleague well-being?
Towers Perrin in their 2008 Global Workforce Study of employee views found that the top driver of engagement was senior management demonstrating a sincere interest in employee well-being.
 
Is change well managed in your organisation?
Engagement  and involvement are critical in managing change at work; according to Price Waterhouse Coopers, nine out of ten of the key barriers to the success of change programmes are people related;
Only 24 per cent of private sector employees believe change is well managed in their organisations and only 15 per cent in the public sector (Ipsos MORI)

Do your managers take ‘purposeful action’?
Only 10% of Managers take ‘Purposeful Action’ (a powerful combination of focus and energy).  

Do your managers procrastinate?
30% of managers procrastinate

Do your managers show detached behavior?
20% show detached behaviour

Do your managers exhibit distracted behavior?
40% exhibit distracted behavior

[Sumantra Ghoshal and Heike Bruch]

Do your managers truly consult their teams?
If employees conclude that a manager is just trying to win points by paying lip service to consulting them — and has no intention of acting on their advice — they are likely to stop offering input and, worse, act out their frustration by clashing with their colleagues.

[When Employees Stop Talking and Start Fighting: The Detrimental Effects of Pseudo Voice in Organizations, Gerdien de Vries, Karen A. Jehn and Bart W. Terwel, Journal of Business Ethics]

Does your organisation invest in leadership skills?

Does your organisation have a stated Learning and Development strategy?
 
‘An organisation's ability to learn, and translate that learning into action rapidly, is the ultimate competitive advantage. [Jack Welch – former President of GE]

Conscious HR - Engagement

The people in an organisation are its most important asset and will ultimately determine its overall success.
There is countless evidence that when colleagues feel engaged, then there are immense to benefits to them and the organisation.
 
An engaged colleague who is one that feels totally included and appreciated and as a result is loyal, motivated and productive.
 
Engaged employees often display a deep, positive emotional connection with their work and are likely to display attentiveness and mental absorption in their work (Saks, 2006).
 
Engaged employees are the ones who give discretionary effort – not just so they can succeed but so that the organisation can succeed.
 
Engaged employees are consistently more productive, profitable, safer, healthier, and less likely to leave their employer (Fleming & Asplund, 2007; Wagner & Harter, 2006)

The cost of disengagement to the British economy is between £59.4 billion and £64.7 billion.

[Gallup (2008)]

Do the people in your organisation feel engaged?

Only 30% of today’s employees reported that they were engaged
54% reported they were passively disengaged (going through the motions)
16% reported they were actively disengaged (badmouthing the employer, sniping from the sidelines
Getting Engaged: The New Workplace Loyalty, Mattanie Press, October 2005, By Tim Rutledge

Are your colleagues motivated?

Motivated employees are 52 to 127 percent more productive than those who have average motivation. Companies that have an employee recognition strategy double the return to shareholders compared with those that don’t.
40% of the variability in corporate financial performance comes down to employees sense of fulfillment in the workplace.”
[Richard Barrett, ‘Liberating the Corporate Soul' - TBD original source]
 
Only 4% of UK workers exhibit the highest level of engagement with their work.
[Corporate Leadership Council]

Do they feel that they can positively impact the quality of your organsation’s products?
88% of highly engaged employees believe that they can positively impact the quality of their organisation’s products.
Only 38% of disengaged employees think so.[Towers Perrin 2008]

Do they have a good understanding of how to meet customers needs?
70 per cent of engaged employees indicate they have a good understanding of how to meet customer needs; only 17 per cent of non-engaged employees say the same.
[The Macleod Report commissioned by BIS 2009]
 
Would they recommend your organisation’s products and services?
67% of engaged employees advocate their company or organisation – against only three per cent of the disengaged.
78% would recommend their company’s products or services, against 13% of the disengaged.
[Gallup 2003][Price Waterhouse Coopers and Ipsos MORI]

Do all colleagues have the power to influence outcomes?
 
Does your organisation provide a safe place for human development and growth?
Feeling safe is a fundamental condition for optimal learning and development as it allows individuals and teams to explore their potential and try different approaches without fear of reprisal.
One of the key roles for great mentors, coaches and teachers is to create a feeling of safety that allows others to step outside of their comfort zones and try something new in order to develop and grow.
(Claire Walsh – The Learning Consultancy Partnership]
  
Does the organisation invest in a range of good workplace practices?
If organisations increased investment in a range of good workplace practices which relate to engagement by just ten per cent, they would increase profits by £1,500 per employee per year.
[The IES/Work Foundation report ‘People and the Bottom Line’]
 
[IMD/Burson Marsteller Corporate Purpose Impact Study 2010. The study is based on research into 213 European companies from 10 industries.]
 
Conscious HR – Recruitment

Does your organisation have: (Y/N)

A stated equal opportunities policy?

A stated diversity policy?

Job descriptions which detail roles and how they can develop?

An effective induction process?

A Colleague Handbook or similar covering everything that needs to be covered?

Is it an ‘us’ document or an ‘us and them’ document?

Are colleagues encouraged to be individuals?

Does corporate identity always come first?

In a field experiment carried out in a large business process outsourcing company, it was found that when socialisation/induction focused on personal identity (i.e. emphasising newcomers’ unique perspectives and strengths and authentic expression) it led to significantly greater customer satisfaction and greater employee retention after six months, compared to (a)when socialisation focused on organisational identity (i.e. emphasising pride from organisational affiliation) and (b)when it focussed on the organisation’s traditional approach which focused primarily on skills training.

[Breaking Them In or Revealing Their Best? Reframing Socialization around Newcomer Self-Expression By Francesca Gina (Associate Professor in the Negotiations, Organizations, and Markets Unit at Harvard Business School)]
Encouraging newcomers to be themselves rather than adapt to the company culture

Conscious HR - Remuneration
 
Is your organisation seen as a good remunerator by its members? (Y/N)

Are individual rewards available (over and above salary)?

Are group rewards available based on the overall performance of the organisation?
(If Y)

Are these solely monetary?

Is income the main incentive to colleagues ?

Is the happiness and success of the organisation the main incentive to colleagues?

Is Additional Innovative Remuneration (AIR) offered? (e.g. gift vouchers, days out, ‘free’ afternoons off, books, event tickets etc)

Are there opportunities for employees to become Shareholders?

Companies that are owned by their employees have outperformed FTSE All-Share companies by on average 12% each year.  Over successive three-year periods they have outperformed by 37% and over successive five-year periods by 71%.
[The Employee Ownership Index]

Conscious HR – Retention

Is colleague turnover low?
Engaged employees are 87 per cent less likely to leave an organisation than the disengaged.
Some estimates put the cost of replacing each employee at equal to annual salary.
[The Macleod Report commissioned by BIS 2009]
 
Are your colleagues’ sick days below the national average?
Engaged employees in the UK take an average of 2.69 sick days per year;.[The Macleod Report commissioned by BIS 2009
Average sickness absence in the UK is 5.5 days per year (www.direct.gov.uk 2012)

Are colleagues encouraged to act the same at work as away from work?

Is colleague wellbeing regularly measured and published?

Does you organisation have a traditional colleague appraisal process?

Or does it have a less formal, regular two-way colleague progress checks where all all topics are ‘in bounds’?

Conscious HR – Redeployment

Does your organisation treat the termination of a contract of employment as a redeployment, regardless of the reason behind it? i.e. does it actively seek to help colleagues find new positions whatever the reason for the parting of company?

If a medium to long-term colleague had a dream of wanting to work in an entirely different field, would the organisation help them to achieve that goal? e.g. would the colleague be allowed time off to retrain / study and is there a possibility that some funding may be made available?

Does your organisation quickly resort to employment lawyers in employment disputes?
Or does it do everything possible to bring disputes to a conclusion that is felt as fair by both parties?
 
Is your organisation normally more generous than the law dictates when a contract of employment is terminated?
Does is stick to statutory payments or does it take a more adventurous approach to parting on good company?
 
FEEDBACK

Thank you for completing the CB Benchmarking Toolkit

We hope you found the process helpful. If you have any comments on how we can improve it, please do not hesitate to advise.

Could you please conclude by answering some questions that we asked
at the outset.

Do you like the concept of CB? y/n

Are you now more likely to plan implementation of CB or elements of CB in the near future ? y/n

What don’t you like about the concept of CB? (n/a /enter details)
 
 
 

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