Beyond the badge: Why we’ve re-certified as a B Corp

At Hallam, we’ve always believed that business should be a force for good. It’s a nice sentiment, but in an industry often defined by “the hustle” and rapid-fire growth, it can easily become just another hollow statement. That is why we first sought B Corp certification and why we have just completed the rigorous process of re-certification for 2026.

But we don’t do good work because of B Corp. The values that underpin the certification – transparency, worker empowerment and community impact – were ingrained in our mission long before we ever filled out the assessment. For us, B Corp isn’t the goal; it’s the benchmark that ensures we are holding ourselves to account and maximising the impact we have for our team, our clients and our community.

A more rigorous standard

B Corp status is not just a badge you can buy. Since initial certification in 2021 the application process underwent a significant shift, becoming far more rigorous. It took our team nearly a year of deep-diving into our data, providing substantial evidence for every claim and answering increasingly in-depth questions about how we operate.

This is a positive shift. It means the foundation of care that B Corp advocates for is no longer optional; it must be proven.

Excelling across the 5 key pillars

The B Corp assessment measures performance across five core areas. While we are always looking for ways to improve, the latest assessment highlights where we excel as a business striving to do better.

Governance

Governance focuses on a company’s mission, ethics, accountability and transparency, including how it incorporates stakeholder interests into decision-making and shares financial information. This was a strong area for us, driven largely by our move to becoming employee-owned. Hallam is structured to include all stakeholders in decision-making, which in turn empowers employees and allows the team to take greater sense of ownership in the work they produce. We practice radical transparency, disclosing all finances and board-level decisions to the entire agency. This creates a culture where everyone can challenge each other to be better in order to produce the best outcomes for the wider team.

The announcement of employee ownership in September 2025, photographed by Tom Platinum Morley

Workers

Over the years we have continuously tried to improve the positive impact life at Hallam has on its workers, looking at factors such as wellness, career development, benefits, job satisfaction, work-life balance and training.

Employee engagement over time via our HR system, Lattice

Agency life is notoriously high-pressure. To counter this, we’ve focused on systems that empower our team. This includes living wage commitments, bonus schemes, mental health support, and “thrive time” for personal development. We received full marks for systems that allow our workers to take ownership of their roles and have a genuine say in strategic policies. These systems allow for continuous feedback and praise as well as complaints.

We have a genuine commitment to giving workers a healthy work-life balance, which empowers workers to enjoy their job, and gives freedom and autonomy around their career. We see increased levels of job satisfaction and higher team morale by putting emphasis on the importance of this balance.

Team praise in our ‘egg’ Slack channel, via Lattice

Community

Our community impact goes beyond just donations. We maintain a 50/50 gender split at management level and we think carefully about our entire supply chain, prioritising local suppliers wherever possible, from office catering to our hardware. Where we outsource, we are mindful to do so to businesses who align with our values. We also invest in the next generation of talent through training initiatives like the Digital Marketing Academy (DMA) for university students as well as internship schemes to nurture fresh talent.

From a local community perspective, the core aim of our longstanding annual Nottingham Digital Summit (NDS) has been about raising money for local causes. In 2025 we were able to say we had raised over £100,000 in total for local charities, including Emmanuel House, Framework, Nottingham Samaritans and Rainbows, after raising £17,000 at our sixth NDS in September.

Presenting the cheque to Rainbows following the 2025 Nottingham Digital Summit

Customers

We pride ourselves on the fact that we are massively selective about who we work with at Hallam. We have a clear “blacklist” of industries we won’t support, and we have walked away from numerous potential clients where their values haven’t aligned with ours. As we’re here to support business growth, we want to make sure we’re putting our energy into businesses that are having a net positive impact on the world as well. 

Our goal is to empower our customers to do business the right way, treating marketing as a tool for responsible growth and building an economic system that stems from systems of care. Whether that is care for staff, for workers or for the environment, these factors all play a part in our decision-making when it comes to our own leads into the business.

The CEO’s decision on working with Airbus in 2024 after every member of staff was given a say

Environment

Finally, consideration for the environment of course plays a part in B Corp. It goes without saying that we are environmentally conscious where possible. Whether that’s recycling, renting equipment over purchasing, or reducing travel where it’s unnecessary. As a digital agency, our biggest impact is clear – carbon. While we carbon offset through Ecologi, we know that isn’t the final answer. Our focus currently is on responsible AI usage. We are training our staff and advising clients on how to mitigate the environmental and privacy impacts of AI server generation, ensuring we use these tools as a force for good rather than just a shortcut.

Building on a foundation of care

B Corp co-founder Andrew Kassoy famously said: “We’re building a new economic system, but we’re building that system on a foundation of care.”

For us, that means realising and reinforcing that work should fit into your life, not the other way around. It means caring enough about our work to produce something of quality, caring enough about our clients to guide them ethically, and caring enough about our community and the wider world enough to stand by our principles even when it’s inconvenient or less profitable to do so. Re-certifying as a B Corp isn’t a finish line. It’s a reminder of the standard we’ve set for ourselves and a promise to keep doing better.