Climate 17 is a purpose-led, international, renewable energy and sustainability recruitment firm. They specialise in talent acquisition services to organisations seeking to reduce their environmental footprint, as well as those working towards the decarbonisation of the energy sector.
They recently achieved B Corp certification with the support of StaffCircle. This certification demonstrates the company’s entire social and environmental impact, showcasing those who are certified as leaders in the global movement for an inclusive, equitable, and regenerative economy.
We spoke to Climate 17’s Holly Hemsley, Finance and Operations Manager, and Laura Mari Perez, People and Operations Executive, to find out how similar organisations can achieve B Corp success with StaffCircle.
Achieving high scores with StaffCircle
The assessment works on a scoring basis, with 80 points needed to become a B Corp. Split into five sections, Climate 17 managed to achieve their highest score in the Workers category, supported by StaffCircle.
Holly shared: “StaffCircle helped us with the ‘workers’ section of the assessment, which was our highest achieving section.
We got 117.6 points, which is a huge score.
We worked hard to get that side of things up and running and it’s been a collaborative effort from the company, Laura, and StaffCircle who helped with the practical aspects were really flexible in helping us explore what the platform could do for us and our staff.”
“I remember the day we got the results; records were broken, and we were so proud to be part of it and happy to succeed. It was incredible” added Laura.
Continuous support from the beginning
The journey to B Corp Certification can vary, with smaller companies averaging a process of around 6-8 months, whilst larger companies experience longer verification times. Climate 17’s journey to accreditation took around 7 months from application submission to successful confirmation in June 2023.
Throughout the process, Climate 17 were supported by StaffCircle’s all-in-one employee success platform. Holly explained: “StaffCircle were incredibly supportive in the process and came up with various workarounds and solutions to maximise the functionality of the programme. This helped us to meet many of the requirements necessary to achieve such a high score.”
She continued: “Being new to the company and new to using StaffCircle, I was really impressed with their flexibility and level of commitment. Without their help, it would not have been possible.”
Laura added: “StaffCircle has always helped us to find our way and with needs that arose, such as processes being more efficient. Reaching out and sharing information with employees was important, at the same time as we were applying for the B Corp certificate, we were covering a merger. StaffCircle has helped with something as necessary as bringing people together across two offices, in two countries.”
Communication is key
During the merger, communication was a big factor in the success of not only joining two offices but also in achieving the B Corp certification.
Laura said: “StaffCircle is an important engagement tool for us. The communication board is essential, communication and transparency are easy now. StaffCircle has helped with carrying out satisfaction surveys too. Even something that may seem small such as sharing a new starter on the board with the team is important to us.”
During the implementation of StaffCircle, Climate 17 knew there would be processes required to ensure their set-up of the platform met the certification needs. Holly explained there were some improvements they could make straight away which would lead them to success:
“One of the things we had to do was create an anonymous way to raise a grievance in the company. We were a small company [prior to the merge] so never had to consider this before, but StaffCircle helped us and created a process whereby we could anonymise this process and make it super flexible. They were helpful in making sure we could meet each criterion.”
Finally, we asked, what does having the B Corp accreditation mean to Climate 17?
“To not only be a company that focuses on their own economic profit, but it also focuses on the environment, the well-being of their stakeholders, employees, providers that is so important. Who wouldn’t want to be part of a company that has the accreditation? Now we’re B Corp, we’re attracting talent that wants to work for us because of this.”
Moving forward, Climate 17 will continue to use StaffCircle to support their processes and hope to make further improvements to their current ways of working.
If you’re interested in how StaffCircle can support your organisation, get in touch with our team.