Happy early edition of the B Keeper!
So, I'm not going to lie to you: This is a long one 😅 This week we're covering everything you need to know to participate in next week's Global Network Assembly (GNA), the engagement survey launching March 29, and an updated timeline for our office reopening. Please read carefully!
And as we wrap up B Corp month, please continue amplifying posts on social, keep an eye out on our social accounts for a panel interview facilitated by Hannah (Global Comms), and stay tuned for some stats on B Corp Month in our next B Keeper. In the meantime, you can check out this coverage from The Independent and share some love for Alex Mendoza Farais (Global Comms) for all his hard work to make our first ever globally-coordinated B Corp Month a smashing success!
💖 Cassy
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Dispatches from People & Ops
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Office closures extended until 2022
We are taking values-driven approach to making decisions about our offices that includes prioritizing the health and safety of our team, providing flexibility to meet differing circumstances, relying on scientific data and evidence from health and government officials, considering needs for business health and continuity, and taking into account feedback and input from various stakeholders including our staff.
You can find the full update on our office closure on Slack, but here are the highlights:
- We are pushing back our official office reopening to the Spring 2022.
- We are aiming for some form of optional office usage in late summer/early autumn 2021 for those who would appreciate an alternative to working from home.
- Essential personnel have been and will continue to be able to access the offices in order to maintain the spaces and also prep for any type of usage.
- The $100 USD per month expense support, intended to support staff in setting up a home office, will end after June 2021. We will support new staff with a taxable $500 USD one time contribution to set up their home office.
- Global Partners' offices will have their own country/regional protocols that we must follow. We will do our best to support our international staff based in those offices.
We know that this decision will affect everyone differently based on their preferences and circumstances, including childcare needs, responsibilities at home, and self-care. Please let your managers know how they can help you and continue to offer support and care to your colleagues.
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More changes coming to Slack
It's time to make our next round of changes to our Slack channels! As a reminder, these changes are intended to clean up our Slack, define channel purposes, and clarify lines of communication - all in service of minimizing Slack noise (a work-in-progress, of course).
Changes you'll see in the next ~week:
- We will be archiving the updates-covid-19 channel and communicating directly with staff about office closure updates in the b-lab-team channel and the B Keeper.
- Beginning in April we will be removing US/Can staff from the b-celebration channel and Alex Middleton (US/Can) will be taking over celebration duty for US/Can birthdays and anniversaries. Remember you can always add all staff birthdays to your calendar via Namely ("Calendar" -> "Sync Events") if you'd like to wish your US/Can colleagues a happy birthday/anniversary!
- Given increasing lack of clarity on its purpose and our ongoing work to provide more productive channels for feedback, we will be archiving the #questions-that-matter channel by April 1. We will keep the anonymous feedback form open for now as a safe place to ask questions you may not feel comfortable asking directly, but we encourage channeling ALL requests for P&C support through a FreshDesk ticket (e.g. questions related to what the office closure announcement means for you/your situation). You can read about these decisions here.
Changes coming soon:
- In the coming weeks we will be archiving b-teams-out-loud and creating a new global work out loud channel called global-out-loud that is open to ALL Global Partners 🌍 We are working on guidelines for regular share-outs from B Lab's team leads to help strengthen transparency across the network. Global Partners will also be welcomed to share their own "out louds" here.
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Next employee engagement survey launches March 29
 Our first engagement survey of 2021 launches on March 29 and will be open through April 18.
When the survey launches you will receive an invitation in your email and a direct message from Culture Amp on Slack.
This survey should take about 20 minutes to complete. As in the past, after the survey launches I will send out a few optional calendar holds for filling out the survey that you can accept if helpful.
How will our feedback be used and shared?
Once the survey closes, Cassy will prepare a report in Culture Amp as well as resources to share with each department's Response Leads. If you're curious, you can check out the Response Toolkit and this Results Summary for POps from the September survey for examples. Each department's follow-up will look a bit different because every team has different circumstances and needs. These tools are designed to help Response Leads and managers in their response and action plan.
The data in this survey will also help inform the work of our Operational teams (e.g. P&C, Finance, Internal Tech), as well as our ongoing work toward improving communications with staff (as Vale mentioned in the Feb update following our last Town Hall). To improve on our response from the September survey, this time P&C plans to share out our full-org results with all staff (POps/Global/Trust) in addition to department-level conversations.
As always, these processes are a work in progress and we're constantly making adjustments based on changes in the organization. If you have any feedback on any of the above, please feel free to share it with Cassy in a FreshDesk ticket!
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Evaluations and compensation cycle updates
Olivia recently posted on Slack regarding the schedule for the evaluation cycle and news about the compensation cycle. You can read the full announcement here, but here are the highlights:
The remainder of the schedule for the evaluation cycle is as follows:
- Managers can release reviews to their reports beginning March 16 (the system will release all reviews on March 18)
- March 16-22: Managers will hold meetings with their reports to go over their evaluation and document the outcomes of the meeting
The following actions related to the compensation cycle will occur in March. View the Slack post for the full review schedule.
- March 16: Olivia will share salary grades and details about this year's compensation review cycle
- March 19: Olivia will share information with the managers of all international staff regarding their compensation
- March 22-25: Department Heads will collect recommendations from managers regarding compensation changes for their reports
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Updated Expensify reimbursement policy
The Finance team has updated Expensify to integrate with our updated 2021 program budget framework. When submitting expenses for reimbursement, you will now need to designate your program along with your team. Please review this Freshdesk article for full details and instructions.
These changes have also affected the following Freshdesk Articles - please read and familiarize yourself with the new versions:
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Feedback from Employee Appreciation Week
We hope you all enjoyed Employee Appreciation Week as much as we did! We thought we'd share some highlights with you all based on the feedback we received (and thank you to the 17 people who submitted feedback!):
- 71% of respondents received manager appreciation during employee appreciation week
- 65% of respondents participated in the nomination threads on Slack
- 94% of respondents felt highly appreciated (rated 4 or 5 out of 5) coming out of Employee Appreciation Week
- 82% of respondents attended the virtual social, which received overwhelmingly positive (93% rated 4 or 5 out of 5) feedback.
We also asked you what types of activities you'd enjoy in the future:
- Virtual activities (e.g. virtual concerts) scored most highly (82%)
- Meet & greets by office location came in second place (35%)
- General meet & greets with all staff came in third (30%)
This feedback will help us prepare more regular opportunities and structures for sharing employee appreciation/recognition and organizing staff socials as we continue reintegrating the Trust, Global, and People & Operations under one organization.
If you have additional thoughts you'd like to share with us, the feedback form is still open!
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Questions for us? Submit a ticket (or use the lightning bolt ⚡on Slack!)
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This digest is intended to highlight our work, share how it's making an impact, and help us stay connected to our vision/mission and to each other.
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Cheat sheet for attending next week's GNA
The Global Network Assembly (GNA) is coming in hot! Here's an overview of everything you need to know to participate next week.
How do I prepare to attend the GNA?
Most events should be on your calendar, but due to some technical challenges PLEASE make sure you look at the agenda and block times for all the sessions you’re interested in. Come to as many as you’re able - this event is for you!
The entire week is built around three essential video updates that you’ll want to watch before Tuesday:
📖 2021 Virtual GNA Agenda - Overview of the full 3 days
🎯 2021 GNA Site - Central hub for agenda, pre-readings, and activities
👀 The main channels to follow on Slack are #global-announcements & #global-social (to be unveiled on Monday)
What can I expect from the GNA?
🧠 Opportunities to Understand 💭
📚 Come to the Opening Session to learn about the role and importance of Standards in a global movement like ours. Our own Dan Osusky (Standards Management) will be joined by members of other standards organisations to discuss the topic, followed by a Q&A with the audience!
🌟 Dive deeper into our Theory of Change (TOC): What does it mean and why does it matter? How does it "set the stage" for our strategy and structure? Watch Global Theory of Change and join us on Tuesday!
🌍 Celebrate our first ever Global Strategy: How is it different from strategies past? How does it relate to our TOC? What does this mean for the future of our global movement? Watch Strategy and Objectives and join us on Tuesday!
🅱️ Get clear on what all of this means for our organizational structure: Have you been feeling confused about exactly what's going on with B Lab's organizational structure? How about how we fit into the network as a whole? Watch Our Structure and join us on Thursday for the B Lab Global (😱) Town Hall: GNA Edition!
🤓 Opportunities to Learn 📚
Curious about these new global programs - who's leading them, how they help us realize our theory of change, and what objectives they're targeting? Join us on Wednesday to learn more about each:
- Impact Management (led by David Leathers)
- Global Policy (led by Marcel Fukayama)
- B Corp Certification (led by Christina Forwood and Kali Gibson)
- Narrative Shift (led by Hannah Munger)
- MNC Pathway (led by Tatiana Mendizabal)
You can also learn more about the ongoing project to update to the Performance Requirements for B Corp Certification on Wednesday, led by Susmita Kamath.
Note: Some sessions on Wednesday also have reading materials to check out in advance to make the most out of the session. Please check the agenda or GNA Site for details.
There are two time options for each session and some sessions overlap. Join the sessions you're most interested in, have the most questions about, or that fit your schedule best - don't worry, we'll share recordings after the GNA so you don't miss out on anything.
💌 Opportunities to Engage 🎉
A new global strategy/objectives and a clearer structure for our network also make it much clearer how we should be collaborating as a network - so in addition to being clarifying for our collective work, the GNA is also our best opportunity yet to engage as a global network. Here's how you can participate:
🤗 Join our Global socials on Monday to connect with and get to know Global Partner staff around the world!
🥳 Participate in the Slack threads we'll be posting in #global-social (formerly #random) and keep your eyes open for an exciting announcement on Friday 👀
🔍 Apply to join the Search Design & Advisory Committee for our movement's next leader!
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Fast Company's Most Innovative Companies list for 2021
We're super proud to share that several B Corps have been named to Fast Company's Most Innovative Companies list for 2021 (B Lab won last year, not to brag 🍵).
Many of these B Corps are in the US/Can region, but there are some in other regions and some MNCs. Some examples:
- Ben & Jerry's at #18 overall and #1 for Social Good
- The Body Shop for Social Good, specifically for their open hiring practice (which they learned about from fellow B Corp Greyston Bakery!)
- Intrepid Travel for the Travel category
- Prose for the Beauty category
- Goodee for the Style category
- Grove Collaborative for the CSR category
- Thrive Market, Rev Foods, Patagonia Provisions in Food category
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Is this section missing an important highlight? Tag us on Slack using #bkeeper or tell us directly.
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Events & Opportunities
Global Network Assembly
March 22-25 (Various sessions)
Town Hall - B Lab Org Structure
March 25, 11am ET
Engagement Survey launches
March 29
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Resources
📝 How to Reduce Unconscious Bias in the Workplace
No matter how much we might not want to admit it, unconscious biases influence a vast majority of our decisions. Unfortunately, many of these "cognitive shortcuts" do more harm than good. |
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Best for Last 🎉 Our Favorite B Corps
Happy B Corp Month! This month we'll be sharing some of our staff's favorite B Corps around the globe, celebrating what B Corps and the movement mean to us!
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Favorite B Corp: Tony's Chocolonely
"The company first got my interest because of their package and the super nice store they have in Amsterdam with piles and piles of colorful packages of chocolate, a handle you can pull to release chocolate treats, a description of their mission of ending slavery in the cacao industry all over the shop, and a factory in sight in which you can have your personalized chocolate made in live-time. Now they are planning to open a factory-museum to teach about slavery in the cocoa industry in Amsterdam that will also have a roller coaster! My favorite Tony's chocolate is the dark, almond, sea salt!"
— Veronica, Standards Review
About this B Corp: Tony's mission is to have 100% slavery free chocolate. Tony’s rules of the game for slave free chocolate (traceability, fair prices, investing in farmers, long term vision, improved productivity supporting farmers) allows companies to make slave free chocolate while still enjoying commercial success.
Want to know more? Try this YouTube Video! Recently, they have also launched the campaign "Your favorite chocolate can be made better" in which they reproduce famous brand-look-alike chocolates, to call on customers to sign a petition supporting the need for human rights legislation. You can view and sign the petition here.
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