Yoyo 2024

B Corp Impact Report

We’re passionate about using our business as a force for good - good for people, good for the planet, and good for our community. We think that there’s always room for improvement.

This has meant even more partnerships with charities, such as Sustrans, Royal Voluntary Society, Fight for Sight and Worldwide Cancer Research. Our work with other Good Brands, like VivoBarefoot and Sustainable Restaurant Association have been awarded prestigious global awards for their design, and we continue to have an impact on their bottom line. 

We’ve continued to help to educate the industry around Accessibility and Sustainability in web design and development through webinars and content. 

An area of focus for us in 2024 is to better protect the work/life balance of our team. Many businesses are struggling with this, as the world seems to be growing more complex and fast every year. 

A new focus

Our solution is a year of focus on ‘Operational Efficiency’. This involves embedding AI and technology in every part of the business, as well as developing even tighter processes and frameworks to help us deliver. It’s also about allowing even more flexibility in our working processes - more time off where needed, work where you want policies and scrutinising our agency culture & get togethers, to make sure it works for the individual, as well as the agency. 

Whilst we continue to focus on our own agency impact and sustainability goals, this past year my passion for sustainability has led me to take a deeper, more personal dive into being more heavily involved with amplifying impact further afield across local businesses within the community. In January, we launched Amplifi  - a local movement to unite and support businesses around climate change and reducing our collective emissions. Our aim is to reduce the noise and confusion around ‘sustainability’ and facilitate ways to learn from and support one another. We believe that, by tapping into our collective knowledge and expertise, we can ignite real change and share practical ways to make an impactful difference.

The plans for 2024 are focused around action. To facilitate this, we have organised local businesses into sector groups, with a sector lead facilitating discussions, organising events and supporting our members. 

Almost 40 local businesses have signed up to measure and reduce their emissions through the Net Zero Now platform, and with generous donations from sponsors and the BID, we have been able to meaningfully subsidise the cost of this. Educational events, collaborations & partnerships continue to build momentum and we have lots of plans in place over the months ahead to take the Amplifi concept to other parts of the UK and continue to build momentum, awareness and action. 

The B Corp movement continues to inspire and guide both Yoyo and Amplifi initiatives and I'm proud and excited to be leading organisations in 2024 committed to being a driving force for good and accelerating our collective sustainability journey together. 

Amplifying our impact
Our Score

Like anything worth doing, recertification was a journey. A journey that necessitated deep reflection into the impact that we’ve had, and that which we plan to have going forward.

We became a B Corp because it formalised what we already believed and aimed to do as an organisation. We’ve always believed in doing right by people, and achieving meaningful things in the world - through our work and our actions outside the office too.

A B Corporation is a business that balances purpose and profit, and one legally required to consider the impact of its decisions on employees, customers, suppliers, its community and the environment. By turning the ambiguity of “doing good” into tangible, measurable scores, policies and commitments, being a B Corp encapsulates how we want to function as a business, and our certification gives us something that people can identify, trust, and support.

We earned our first B Corp certification in 2020 - an achievement that we’re beyond proud of. In 2020, we scored 100.1, with the following scores in each area:

  • Governance: 18.5
  • Workers: 37.7
  • Community: 21.6
  • Environment: 9.6
  • Customers: 4.7 

Over the next three years, we aimed to improve our score, and when the time came to recertify, we did.

Our current overall B Impact score is 107.1. Our scores for each area are:

  • Governance: 23.3
  • Workers: 40.7
  • Community: 27.9
  • Environment: 10.1
  • Customers: 5.0 

We’re aiming even higher for our next recertification, and we’re going to put in the work to achieve it. Our target score for when we recertify is 120. We’ll be re-completing our assessment in June 2026, so raising our score in every impact area is a priority for the next two years in order to hit, and hopefully exceed this goal. 

People

Doing right by people is a tenet of what drives us at Yoyo. Contributing to the wellbeing of our employees and of our local community is one of the ways we can have an impact on those around us, and we see it as our responsibility to do so.

What we said we'd do

1.

Help every Yoyo-er find a sense of purpose and positivity through professional development.

2.

Support Demelza as our single chosen charity.

3.

Host bi-monthly lunches for female business leaders, helping empower them to build better business through a specific focus on female leadership and peer mentoring.

4.

Host our first B Corp Breakfast, with the aim of innovating around our B Corp values to create better methods and outcomes and, ultimately, improving the environmental impact of our digital industry.

5.

Actively encourage and inspire others to become B Corp certified, educating other companies to use their business as a force for good.

What we delivered:

Tightening workflows.

We invested in technologies to reduce pressure and stress levels on individuals, including monday.com and fireflies.ai 

No more bending over backwards.

We improved our approach to flexibility so the team have more autonomy over how they work.

A new Yoyo base.

In response to our employees, we took the decision to hand notice in on office space to allow more of a hybrid approach. This allows more funding to be placed to other methods of coming together - like quarterly team days for training, alignment and fun.

Lifelong learning.

We have provided a £250 budget for each member of the team to use for training and courses in an area that interests them (even if not related to their Yoyo career).

Doing our bit.

We raised over £3,600 for Demelza through all of our fundraising activities - including a Fire Walk, a Bake off, and a Skydive! 

Food for thought.

So far, we’ve hosted seven “Female Lead Lunches” with topics like personal growth, work-life balance, and leading with compassion. We’ve also hosted two B Corp Breakfast events, where we got groups of B Corp marketers together to offer an open, supportive space to discuss and find solutions for their challenges and offer useful innovative ideas for them to drive growth across all marketing channels in their organisation.

A part of the Hive.

We hosted a series of B Corp drop-ins to support aspiring B Corps through the certification process. Jenny regularly provides guidance and advice for those looking to use their businesses as a force for good 

We went above and beyond what we'd planned for our Workers and our Community:

Keeping it close to home.

We invested in TN Cards in order to support local businesses. The TN initiative is a loyalty scheme encouraging the community to support our independent businesses, with a percentage of the profits going to West Kent Mind. Shopping locally is very much part of our values, so this partnership is perfect for yoyo.

Every little helps.

All donations are now match-funded by Yoyo. In 2023, all £335 of the team's personal giving was matched by Yoyo and donated to their chosen charities.

And for something sweet...

We set up a B Corp tuck shop for the office, with a selection of snacks, drinks and treats from fellow forces for good, including Candy Kittens, Dash Water and Proper Popcorn.

Planet

The planet is always a key stakeholder for us. We want to minimise any environmental harm, while maximising the positive impact that we can have on the world around us.

What we said we'd do:

1.

Carve out a proportion of our profits for Surfers Against Sewage.

2.

Create products for our clients that can be seen through a lens of sustainability.

What we delivered:

Continuing our pledge

We continue to include Surfers Against Sewage as our Planet Stakeholder as part of our profit-share scheme. A percentages of our profits is allocated to the marine environment charity each year.

Making space for more

We created two new products dedicated to helping clients address the sustainability of their digital presence. We now offer a Training Masterclass in Sustainable Digital Design, and a Digital Sustainability Audit. Through these, we aim to support businesses in balancing creativity and innovation with eco-friendly best practice.

Keeping track

Within the next month, we plan to formally measure our carbon impact through Net Zero Now. We're also encouraging other businesses to measure their emissions, and those around us to be more eco-conscious.

Processes

It's not just business as usual for us. Our policies keep us aligned with our ethics, and that we stay true to these through transparency and accountability. 
The value that we create for our customers in practice goes beyond the digital products and services we provide - it's about integrating and imparting what's important to us, and always keeping purpose at the centre.

What we said we'd do

1.

Update job specifications to incorporate responsibility for social and environmental action.

2.

Increase annual leave from 25 to 29 days.

3.

Opt to work with fellow B Corps and purpose-driven organisations.

What we delivered:

Making it official

Doing good is incorporated into each team member’s job description, and is also included as an aspect of their performance review. We also formalised the role of People and Operations Manager to make sure that we follow through on taking action and execute decisions faster.

Work hard, play hard

The team get 29 days off each year, in addition to bank and public holidays.

A fair playing field

Every new potential client is a debate and a discussion involving the whole team - no red lines, and open discourse about potentially controversial issues.

A helping hand

Sought out spaces where we can help in times of conflict, supporting the local council in providing information to refugees from Ukraine with a bespoke website.

The only way is up

We’ve had three promotions and four new hires this year and created new positions where necessary.

Listening, not just hearing

We completed a Culture Survey to include more voices in decision making, with action being taken to make sure these ideas come to pass. Based on the results of this survey, we've made a series of changes:

  • Increased comms and reporting to support transparency
  • Creating written summaries of important updates
  • Change to the format and content of monthly meetings
  • Introduction of an in-person quarterly team meeting
  • Covering the cost of official Yoyo events
  • Mixing up the type of socials to include more varied interests

Our plans for continued improvement

  1. People

    Use a holistic picture of fulfilment - including fun, challenge, purpose and collaboration - to create different initiatives that tap into what’s important for the team, to create a workplace that works for everyone.

    Encourage and support all team members to participate in external professional development and lifelong learning.

    Promote and share B Corp values in all of our Comms, including podcasts, talks, and panels.

    Getting more involved in B Corp Local and on BHive.

    Reconsider the financial institution that provides the majority of our banking services.

  2. Planet

    Use our leadership, marketing and digital expertise to support Amplifi, which aims to get 200 local businesses involved, and 50 members on formal carbon reduction plans with Net Zero Now. Amplifi is a Tunbridge Wells initiative co-founded by our CEO Jenny, which brings business together around climate and community, aiming to reduce confusion and share knowledge to bring about meaningful change.

    Set targets for reducing our energy consumption.

    Implement further energy conservation and efficiency measures for our facilities.

  3. Process

    Ensuring the team use their volunteering days throughout the year, and encouraging them to donate their time through pro bono work.

    Formalise policies for engagement, marketing and promotion of customers.

    Promote diversity and social responsibility by formalising policies regarding suppliers.

    Develop a client advisory board to provide guidance and advice on business policy.

Until next year... 

Wow, what a year it’s been! From our incredible partnerships with great brands to leading the way in accessibility and sustainability, we’ve achieved so much in the last 12 months. There’s been bumps along the way as to be expected with the recent financial impacts across the whole industry, but we’ve held fast, worked together and it’s been really great to see our collective efforts proving that we’re not just talking the talk, but walking the walk when it comes to being a B Corp.

Looking ahead, we’re focusing on creativity, action and growth. We’ll keep improving our processes, embracing flexibility, and spreading our sustainability messages further afield with the aim of providing value for our clients, elevating our people and protecting the planet in the process. With ambitious targets for our B Corp recertification and a focus on sustainability and social responsibility, we’re excited to keep driving positive change in the months ahead. 

Together, we’ll build on our successes and create a brighter, more sustainable future for everyone.

Gregg