Yesterday we turned 18. We’re officially an adult! Where’s that time gone??
18 years in and we’ve obviously learnt a lot as a business. We’ve gone through evolutions as any business does, and we know that this is an ever evolving journey rather than a destination.
In 2022, after having been a B Corp for five years, our founder Tom wrote that B Corp™ is ‘not a marketing gimmick’. I read this statement prior to joining Wholegrain and it was music to my ears, and one of the things that made me get in touch. In so many organisations, B Corp™ sits within the marketing team to own and drive, for some it can be initially viewed as a marketing function, when it actually needs to sit within every facet of the business and be led from the very top. In his blog post on the business case for B Corp™ Tom reflected on the five key things that he, as a small business owner, saw as important from the B Corp certification. These were;
- It helps small businesses grow up
- It guides you to better performance
- It helps create a culture of positive change
- It shows you are serious
- It’s a real community
Three years later following the continued explosive growth of the B Corp™ community, these are still very true of the business today. But further to that, B Corp™ needs to mean something to our team, to the people at the heart of our business, and impact them in their day-to-day to truly bringing it to life. So I put the question to the team to see what they thought and interestingly, three clear themes arose;
1. Trust in the business and the decisions it makes
The majority of the team mentioned this as a key benefit for them and it’s brilliant to see the trust that the B Corp™ framework provides to the team, especially within a tricky economy, where corporations and businesses are under ever higher performance scrutiny. Dom our Designer states, ‘Working for a B Corp™ gives me some reassurance that I’m working for a business that’s always pushing to be as ethical as possible, both for the environment and it’s employees. This is a deal breaker for me.’
Our Technical Lead, Dan writes, ‘I want to work somewhere that’s taking clear and tangible steps in factoring social and environmental impact into how it operates, and being a certified B Corp™ is a clear way of showing that.’
From a leadership perspective, this ties into Tom’s previous points for the overall business case for B Corp™. It shows that we as a business are maturing, it guides us to better performance and it shows to the external community, and our team, that we are committed and serious about doing business differently, and doing business better.
Our Project Manager, Luke, states, ‘For me, working at a B Corp™ is the strongest signal that we’re doing work and approaching it in a more meaningful way that goes beyond simply turning a profit’. This has always been something that has been central to who Wholegrain is and why Tom and Vineeta started the business 18 years ago and leads really nicely into the second theme that came out from the team…
2. Making a positive impact that is bigger than just our day-to-day.
When asked what he liked about working for a B Corp™, our Head of Experience Design, Tod responded that being a B Corp™, ‘Represents our commitment to sustainability, and making a positive impact, and that I’m part of a team that genuinely cares about the people and the planet, not just profits.’
We are lucky at Wholegrain in that we can see how we are making an impact on the sites we work across; reducing carbon emissions, improving accessibility and inclusivity whilst driving performance. But for the whole team, knowing that we as a business, and leadership team, are looking at things beyond just simply turning a profit was key when sharing why they valued working for a B Corp™. At Wholegrain this has always been something that we have prioritised. In practice day-to-day it covers things like our commitment to 1% for the Planet, our ethical screening policy to ensure the businesses we partner with align to our values in all ways, our policies around unbiased recruitment, flexible working, annual leave and our employee led benefits all feed into this. It touches everything we do as a business and every decision we make as a leadership team, as it should. As Tom references, it helps us create a culture of positive change and this appeals to team members who want to be part of something bigger. As a small business, change can feel insurmountable, but as a community we have weight and influence.
All of this hard work is nothing without strong and effective communication from the leadership team and this continues to be an area we develop and grow to ensure we never stand still or become complacent.
3. Cultural benefit
We spend a lot of time at work, and you want to work somewhere where you enjoy your colleagues and the overall culture of the organisation. Wholegrain has always been a hybrid workplace. We come together regularly but we’ve always embraced remote working and the benefits it brings to us as a team, but also know that it brings challenges. As much as possible we very much enjoy spending time together and regularly catching up. The team flagged the cultural benefit of working for a B Corp™ and knowing that they will be surrounded by like-minded, passionate people as something they greatly value. Our Project Manager, Ty, sums it up beautifully, ‘I want to work for a positive business with other positive people that does positive work.’ :)
So in conclusion, at the grand old age of 18, reflecting on what B Corp™ means to us in 2025 there will undoubtedly be a number of things that I have forgotten. Ultimately being a B Corp™, it’s values and what it stands for, are so engrained into our DNA as a business that it’s often hard to unpick it all from what is just the day to day normality of running a business like Wholegrain. It’s how we do things and it positively benefits our team, our clients and we hope the wider business community. This B Corp™ month we are proud to officially be an adult and to be part of Gen B!
