When Keystone began over 12 years ago, I set out to help ambitious businesses and community-focused organisations connect with people in meaningful ways. Engagement wasn’t just a service offered, it was – and remains – the heart of Keystone’s mission.
But I’ve always believed that meaningful engagement shouldn’t stop with our clients. It should run through everything you do as a business, shaping how you work with everyone – be it colleagues, partners, stakeholders and communities. Because engagement is about people.
As Keystone has grown, it has changed from ‘I’ to ‘we’, and with that brings responsibility. We want our values to be seen in action and not just be words on a page.
That brings us to recognition and its importance. Clients want their work recognised with their audiences, our team want to be recognised for what they deliver, and now we feel that Keystone should be recognised for our practices too. Over recent months, we’ve worked towards a series of accreditations that don’t just validate what we say but instead demonstrate – through independent assessment – that we’re putting our values into practice. And that’s something we’re proud to share.
So, as we continue to engage, grow, be responsible and gain recognition, we’re proud to have secured three accreditations that we feel fit perfectly with our mission, vision and values. We have taken a pledge with The Ethical Move, become accredited to the Living Wage Foundation as a Living Wage Employer, and are now Disability Confident Committed.
The Ethical Move: we market with integrity
Forget the smoke and mirrors – for us, marketing is fuel. Strategy-led, people-first, and designed to spark real change. But that isn’t us. To stay true to that philosophy we have made a pledge with The Ethical Move, stating we:
- Put people before the sale
- Communicate inclusively, truthfully and clearly
- Take responsibility for our part in changing the marketplace
For our clients that means no confusion, no hidden small print, and a conscious effort to make marketing more transparent and responsible. It reassures clients and their audiences that they are reached with respect, honesty and inclusivity. For us, we want to play our part in shaping our industry in the most positive light, and one we are proud to be part of.
The Living Wage Foundation: we offer fair pay for all
Good business starts with fair pay whether that’s for our colleagues or our clients, and for this we are delighted to be recognised by the Living Wage Foundation as a Living Wage employer.
The impact of paying the Living Wage is clear: 94% of accredited businesses reported benefits, with 87% saying it improves their reputation, and nearly two-thirds finding it helps attract and retain talent. Workers feel the difference too, with three-quarters of employees saying they’d switch to an employer paying the real Living Wage.
For us, this is about more than numbers. It’s about supporting our people so they thrive – because when they do, Keystone does, and so do our clients.
Disability Confident Committed: we are committed to creating opportunities
Over 18,000 UK employers are Disability Confident, creating thousands of opportunities for disabled people to thrive and we have taken our first steps to ensure that nobody should be prevented from working with us because of a disability.
As a Disability Confident Committed employer, we’ve pledged to make recruitment inclusive and accessible, provide reasonable adjustments where needed, and support colleagues who develop long-term conditions. This is because it’s the fair and responsible thing to do.
We’ve also committed to create real opportunities through work experience, apprenticeships, internships and more. Like anything we work on, it’s about opening doors (to creativity, methods, communications) but in this case, it’s ensuring talent isn’t missed because of unnecessary barriers.
And as for our clients, they know that they are working with an inclusive partner who respects everyone, no matter the circumstances.
Why it matters
Accreditations aren’t just a vanity project – badges for our website or things to shout about in on social media or in reports. They are meaningful standards for us to live by and a public statement of intent of how we conduct ourselves. Our accreditations provide the social proof that we are embedding ethics, fairness and inclusivity into how we work every day. And we will continue this as we grow.
Ready to spark something brilliant, together? As we look ahead, we’re looking to partner with organisations who share our belief in purposeful, people-first engagement. If that feels like you, let’s start a conversation.
