As part of the Business Culture Certification Programme, the Eligibility & Integrity Declaration ensures that participating organisations do not present material issues that would prohibit their being certified. This is designed to safeguard the integrity and credibility of the certification process by identifying and addressing any significant negative impacts associated with a company’s operations, culture, or governance.

Definition of Material Issues
For the purposes of Business Culture Certification, material issues relate specifically to organisational culture and governance integrity, including:

• Systemic cultural dysfunctions that contradict the principles of positive organisational culture, such as persistent discrimination, harassment, or toxic leadership behaviours.
• Harmful impacts on employees, communities, customers, suppliers, or shareholders.
• Breaches of ethical standards, legal compliance, or governance frameworks.

Assessment Criteria
As well as the Declaration, the Eligibility & Integrity assessment will consider all evidence submitted by the company in their application, including:

• Findings from the cultural surveys aligned to our Culture Model, including cultural strengths such as inclusion, innovation, and performance orientation.
• The company’s internal policies, practices, and outcomes, in the People, Culture & Business Strategy Report and People & Culture Documentation
• Plus other desk research and third-party reports, where applicable and if these are requested.

Certification Threshold
To be eligible for certification, companies must:

• Demonstrate no material issues that would prohibit certification.
• Show alignment between their cultural practices and business strategy.
• Attain the threshold score or above.

Remediation and Transparency
Where potential risks are identified which are specific to cultural certification:

• Companies will be given the opportunity to address and remediate these.
• A transparent process will be followed, including practitioner support and periodic check-ins (e.g. at 12 and 24 months)
• Risk-related findings may be included in the public profile of certified organisations, depending on severity and resolution status.

To safeguard the integrity and credibility of the Business Culture Certification, you will confirm in the “Applicant Declaration” that no material issues exist that would prohibit certification.

Applicant declaration
We attest that, to the best of our knowledge and after appropriate internal review, there are no material issues—including policies, practices, incidents, investigations, sanctions, or other matters—that would reasonably be expected to prohibit our organisation from being certified under the Business Culture Certification standards.