Business Juice had demonstrated its ethical credentials by becoming the first independent energy broker to be an accredited ‘Living Wage Employer’.
The company has signed up to voluntarily pay its entire staff an agreed minimum hourly rate which is over 20% higher than the minimum wage and Business Juice is the first in its sector to become fully accredited.
Living Wage Scheme
The Living Wage is a movement of responsible businesses who voluntarily agree to pay above the statutory minimum hourly rate in order to ensure that their employees are able to provide for themselves and their families.
At £7.85 per hour for over 18s, the current national Living Wage is just over 20% above the minimum wage of £6.50, providing a significant improvement in income for those affected. As well as benefiting a company’s own staff, the scheme extends to contract workers.
Business Juice CEO James Constant has embraced the scheme:
“We fully support the Living Wage scheme and are proud to be involved with it. The scheme sets a standard by which UK companies can demonstrate genuine care and compassion for its employees very simply by paying them a satisfactory wage.”
“The energy industry doesn’t always have the best reputation in the UK. The media portray stories of high prices and poor selling by an industry run from big companies with highly pressured call centres. Business Juice is an independent energy broker and since a successful management buyout at the beginning of 2014, we’ve been proud to build a more ethical style of business, setting high standards in the industry.”
“We work hard to be honest and genuine. For our clients, this means a genuine desire to find the best deal on gas or electricity and arrange any administration efficiently to deliver high customer satisfaction.”
“With regard to our own employees, we are keen to treat people with respect and reward them for the job they do.”
“Many companies in the energy industry pay staff at a low rate in order to motivate them to sell harder in order to meet commission targets. However, the Living Wage campaign has shown that 80% of employers believe that the living wage enhances the quality of their staff’s work, as they feel more valued.”
“We have found that at all levels of the organisation, our staff have appreciated the security and ethical stance of a sensible Living Wage; yet they have remained, if anything, more motivated in terms of their daily work.”
The open and honest confrontation of difficult issues is not new to Business Juice. The company’s Customer Charter is based on foundations of Quality Service, Open Communication and Fee Disclosure, the latter of which has seen Business Juice issue thousands of detailed statements illustrating their own commission fee alongside the customer savings achieved.
More information on the Living Wage scheme can be found at https://www.livingwage.org.uk/