Recognition for great work practices and employee care

Best Companies Accreditation has been established to acknowledge excellence in the workplace. Accreditation is a focus on Workplace Engagement as an integral component of an organisations success and growth.

Softcat a 3 star accredited organisation in 2009

Star Quality

This ‘Michelin style’, elite Accreditation system recognises organisations by Star Status.

• One Star is acknowledged as First Class
• Two Stars as Outstanding
• Three Stars is Extraordinary

Every organisation that goes for Best Companies Accreditation is given a Best Companies Index score (BCI). This score (on a scale of 1 to 1000) is defined from employee’s responses to questions within the Best Companies survey.

‘Star Status’ is determined by the ‘BCI’ score and the specific cut-off points for One, Two and Three Stars Accreditation remain constant year on year.

Unlike the 100 best competition, Star Status standards are fixed and any organisation achieving the required BCI score will always be accredited.

Best Companies Guide

The Best Companies Guide is an annual reference guide for graduates and jobseekers, which provides independent and unbiased information on some the of the UK’s best workplaces. It’s available in both print and viewable online.

The data used to compile the guide is taken from the Best Companies Accreditation project. Any organisation achieving Best Companies Star Status receives a full page profile within the guide. Additionally, those organisations who do not achieve star status but are reaching for the stars, receive profile within the ‘ones to watch’ section.

Best Companies Guide Website & Job Board

2009 sees a re-launch of the Best Companies Guide website, with an improved design for organisation profiles and even more relevant information for visitors. The best news is any accredited or ‘one to watch’ organisation can advertise job vacancies completely free of charge. This fantastic recruitment tool brings together, for the first time, all the best jobs from the Best Companies in one place. No other job board offers this unique opportunity for job seekers and it will be promoted to graduates and experienced candidates throughout 2009.

Why be Accredited?

• Prestigious Best Companies Accreditation logo for use on stationery, advertising and promotions
• Organisation profile, including ‘Star Status’ and BCI score, published in ‘The Best Companies Guide’
• Organisation profile published on the Best Companies Accreditation website, and the ability to post job vacancies free of charge
• Organisation recognition plaque for interior or exterior display
• All participant organisations receive a free Results Summary from the Best Companies Workplace Insight Tool (WIT) including a star status stretch benchmark enabling you to aim higher
• Year on year results allow you to identify trends and improvements within your organisation

Accreditation gives us a fantastic benchmark to measure ourselves against as opposed to simply being in the 100. It has given us a focus and something that we can set targets to improve each year. It is the one stat on our performance; as an employer that we can monitor ourselves against. Also our people love it when they can honestly let us know how well we are performing as their employer it is their way of appraising us each year and they can see that we will do something to improve each year. We have also found that prospective colleagues are starting to mention this more often during the recruitment process.Phil Jepson
Head of Human Resources, Beaverbrooks the Jewellers Ltd