CGEM CSR Label Application: Self-Assessment and Checklist

What should you check before applying?

Eligibility, scope and leadership from general management. A poorly framed application costs you later: an assessor who discovers a forgotten site, or a subsidiary instead of the group’s corporate level, extends the mission, and the committee may defer its decision.

The procedure of the CGEM, the General Confederation of Moroccan Enterprises, begins with a meeting between the person in charge of the file, the company’s participants and the head of the CSR and Diversity Commission (Commission RSE et Diversité). It is considered essential to clarify the process and define the scope of the assessment. Prepare it with answers to the following points.

The application form is also used to calibrate the duration of the assessment. It asks for total headcount, the number of sites, the headcount of general management and of managers holding signing authority, the external audits already carried out and the certificates obtained, with their dates. Gather this information from the start.

How do you run the self-assessment across the nine areas?

Objective by objective, separating what the law requires, what the company actually does and what it can prove. The charte RSE de la CGEM (CGEM CSR charter) breaks each of its nine areas down into precise objectives; that is the right level of detail, since the assessor’s report gives a finding for each axis and objective.

1. List the objectives of the CSR charter, area by area, in a spreadsheet.
2. Ask three questions per objective: is there a legal obligation? What is the actual practice? What evidence demonstrates it?
3. Rate each objective. The CSR label grid is not published; as a working scale, we use the four levels of the CGEM’s Responsible SME framework (Label PME Responsable), from A (fully compliant, good practice) to D (not in place or not under control).
4. Test practice with employees. The assessor will hold confidential interviews with every category of staff, taking into account working hours, gender, diversity and contract types, and focus groups with staff representatives. Do the same, with a comparable sample.
5. List the external stakeholders who might be interviewed: suppliers and subcontractors, customers, associations, neighbours.
6. Sort the gaps: legal non-conformity, to be corrected before submission; practice without evidence, to be documented; improvement opportunity, to go into the action plan.

The documents published by the CGEM do not list the blocking criteria of its protocol: the accredited body’s report specifies them for your company, and they must be corrected, or their correction clearly under way, before the file is submitted. The award rules do, however, draw the line: the label requires tangible evidence that the company does not breach the legal obligations included in the charter’s objectives. So treat every legal non-conformity found in the self-assessment as potentially blocking.

What evidence should you gather for each area?

Evidence of legal compliance first, then evidence of implementation. The table below is ACG’s working grid, built on the objectives of the charter; only the assessment under the CGEM protocol is authoritative.

A certified system helps a great deal: ISO 45001:2018 for health and safety, ISO 14001:2026 for the environment, a food safety system for traceability and complaints. The evidence exists; it has to be filed by charter area. A platform such as Normativa can link it to each objective and keep it up to date until the follow-up assessment.

How do you build an action plan the committee will accept?

By linking each action to a charter objective, with an owner, a deadline and a quantified indicator. The Commission’s guidance refers to a continuous improvement plan “with specified deadlines and quantified objectives”, to which management commits.

Four rules for a credible plan:

• separate correction from progress. The award rules ask both for the corrective measures needed for compliance with the charter and for continuous improvement actions;
• stay proportionate. The plan must be in line with the size of the company and the nature of its products or services: ten actions delivered are better than forty promised;
• think 18 months ahead. The follow-up assessment focuses first on the implementation of the plan and on the committee’s recommendations;
• prepare for renewal. Renewal requires innovative actions and good practices: keep a few in reserve for the second half of the cycle.

How do you prepare the assessment and the committee interview?

By organising the mission like an audit, then preparing general management for the interview. Once you have the Commission’s written approval, choose a body from the list of accredited bodies published by the CGEM, sign the contract and send a copy to the Commission.

• The opening meeting brings together the management committee and the highest level of management, preferably with staff representatives. The mission plan is presented there; agree it with the assessor in advance.
• Logistics matter: documents filed by area, rooms for confidential interviews, slots for night or shift teams, a visit to the main site and then a sample of the other sites.
• The headcount calendar matters too: seasonal, temporary or subcontracted staff present at the time of the assessment count in the headcount, which is the basis for the duration of the mission.
• After the mission, the report arrives within 15 days. Validate it point by point, correct the blocking criteria or clearly start their correction, host the verification visit if the assessor plans one, then submit the file within six months.
• The committee interview requires general management to attend. The company may be accompanied by someone who knows its sector. Prepare a one-page summary: commitments, gaps, actions already completed, deadlines.

The assessment durations by headcount are detailed in our article on CSR label cost in Morocco.

Which mistakes delay or sink a file?

The same ones keep coming back, and almost all of them show up during self-assessment:

• signing the assessment contract before the Commission’s written approval;
• targeting a subsidiary when the label must cover the group’s corporate level;
• discovering discrepancies between payroll and CNSS declarations during the assessment;
• producing policies that employees do not know about: the interviews reveal it;
• presenting an action plan without deadlines or indicators;
• letting more than six months pass between the audit and the submission of the file;
• sending someone other than general management to the interview;
• communicating about the label before the decision: a false claim of holding the label is serious misconduct under the rules.

Your file is ready when you can tick every point:

• The meeting with the CSR and Diversity Commission has taken place and the scope is written down.
  
• The application is signed by the chief executive and the CGEM’s written approval has been received.
  
• The self-assessment covers every objective of the nine areas, with evidence or a gap.
  
• Legal non-conformities are corrected, or their correction is under way and dated.
  
• A sample of employees has been interviewed, across all categories and teams.
  
• External stakeholders likely to be interviewed are identified and informed.
  
• The action plan is dated, quantified, assigned and signed.
  
• The “good payer” charter is signed and proof of the contribution is ready.
  
• General management has prepared for the committee interview.
  

To understand the scheme as a whole, read our guide to the CGEM CSR label and ISO 26000; for an applied example, the CGEM CSR label case study of an exporting SME.