Having a happy and engaged workforce is the bedrock to performing well as a responsible business. Whether aiming to make strides in environmental sustainability, due-diligence in the supply chain, governance arrangements, the respect of human rights or community engagement, its fundamental to get the people element right. There is also a clear benefit in terms of wellbeing and mental health. 

Responsible business is ultimately the accumulative contributions from individuals, the behaviours they exhibit and the skills and expertise they have. Having a values-based positive culture that enables and builds people up, will undoubtedly amplify the delivery of responsible business. In our changing world and the sustainability challenges faced, we need people who are ambitious in doing the right thing and enabled to find solutions and make positive change happen.  

Taking Burges Salmon as an example, the firm has been named Best Law Firm to Work At 2022 in the RollOnFriday survey, in addition to a number of other important accolades in 2021 including: being named a Top 75 UK employer in the Social Mobility Foundation Index; being recognised with a Platinum 'We invest in people' accreditation by Investors in People; and, being named one of The Time Top 50 Employers for Women. This dovetails with its responsible business performance having achieved 71% in the Business in The Community Responsible Business Tracker (above the average cohort of 45%) and being award the Gold Standard by EcoVadis ranking in the top 5% of organisations assessed.  

If an organisation wants to enhance its responsible business profile and performance then prioritising the people agenda would be a sensible place to start.