Some businesses have a reputation for good personnel policies, some not, eg John Lewis vs Top Shop ?
The general public has no way of checking these claims or calumnies.
This might apply to many other policies of public interest; green credentials, carbon footprint, fair trade, slave labour, customer satisfaction, profit margins etc.
In much the same way as in the purchase of white goods a bar chart could be displayed at the entrance of the shop or on the company website which displays their rating on many of these attributes, as evaluated by an independent auditor.
Any potential customer might be influenced by a good rating on a particular facet of their activity that is considered important by that customer.
The audit would be done at the expense of the enterprise, similar to “Investors in People” system or ISO 9000 status and any failure to display the outcome might be taken as a negative influence on a customer.
High ratings across the board could be a great motivator for customers and influence the business’ recovery significantly.
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