THE 14 PIONEERING COMPANIES YOU SHOULD APPLY TO

Looking to start your career with an apprenticeship, internship, school leaver programme, graduate programme or other entry-level job? Want to be sure you’ll receive a reply – and that the company has committed to hiring young people from all backgrounds? Now, it’s easy to check whether a company you’re considering has been certified as ‘good and fair’ employer of young people – just look for the badge.

The Good + Fair Employers Club (the new name for the Graduate Fog Employers Club, since January 2020) has awarded the first round of badges to our 14 Founder Members of the Club, whose logos are below:

Uniquely, ours is the only Club that asks employers to pass a test before they can enter. That’s right – we check whether they are good enough for you (not the other way around). Before we let them in, companies have to answer Yes to the following questions:

FAIR PAY

Does your organisation pay all staff at least the National Minimum Wage / National Living Wage (including interns, if applicable)?

If staff require training, do they receive their full salary during this period?

FAIR ACCESS

Do you advertise all your vacancies publicly, and make efforts to ensure they are seen by as broad an audience as possible?

When recruiting graduates, do you consider those from a wide range of universities?

Are you making active efforts to improve diversity and inclusion within our workforce, including ethnic and social diversity?

FAIR PROCESS

Do you reply to every application you receive?

Do you fund travel expenses for applicants who ask for financial help in order to attend interviews or assessment days?

Created by the team behind the campaigning careers website Graduate Fog (best known for calling out bad practice among employers such as Poundland, Capita, Arcadia, Simon Cowell, Vivienne Westwood and Tony Blair), the Good + Fair Employers Club demands that our Members truly live by the values they claim to champion. Only the best will make it – which is why the tagline for our Club is: The UK’s best firms for young people. You can even check the order in which these pioneering firms joined the Club – just click the logo below. (Warning: the list will surprise you!).

In case you’re wondering, yes, we have turned down a few firms that don’t quite hit the mark. But, no, we won’t reveal who they are! This is because all have gone away to work on improving their hiring processes – so that we can re-start the discussion about them joining the Club once they answer ‘Yes’ to every question on the list.

NICE COMPANIES – JOIN OUR CLUB! Click this badge to find out how to become a Club Member

(To their credit, none has been stroppy about it. Instead, they say our list is a useful tool to help them benchmark the way they’re doing things now, and improve their systems and processes, to makes sure these are truly in line with the company’s stated values and commitments).

That right – some of the UK’s biggest firms are actually changing the way they hire, so that they can join our Club. That’s just one of the ways that the Good and Fair Employers Club is already making a difference to the lives of young job seekers. We’re also bringing together all our Club Members four times a year, to share their experiences and find solutions to common problems, to help make everyone’s recruitment processes even better. And we’re just warming up – stick around in the coming months to witness many more ways that our Club will benefit young job seekers…

2020 VISION: The Good + Fair Employers Club met for the first time under our new name on 13th January – for our Members’ Winter Lunch at the Delaunay restaurant in Covent Garden. For more photos and to see who was there, click the collage.