Employee ownership is a complicated topic that you need to research thoroughly before implementing. Thankfully, there are loads of resources out there to help you…
Deciding whether to implement employee ownership in your company is a huge undertaking. Whether you’ve spent time looking into employee ownership before, or you’re a complete newbie, there are employee ownership resources that can help you expand your knowledge.
Watching employee ownership webinars, reading information packs, and reading case studies can make all the difference.
In this post, we’re going to go through all the employee ownership resources at your disposal. This way, you have an idea of what information is out there and where you can find it before taking the leap.
Webinars on Employee Ownership
In the digital age, we seem to be moving away from reading lengthy textbooks and moving more towards virtual learning tools, like webinars. This way, we can learn the information we need instead of poring over every scrap of information that might not even be necessary.
These days, there are webinars about everything, including EOSs. In fact, there are plenty of useful employee ownership resources for when you aren’t able to sit down and open a book. You can just pop your headphones in and listen away.
Some of the best webinars are found in the following places:
Employee Ownership Association
This organisation represents companies which are employee owned, and has a whole host of webinars you can access.
They’ve actually done a series of webinars exclusively covering COVID-19 best practice that ended in May of this year. These are useful for companies who’ve already adopted an employee ownership scheme and those looking to start.
RM2 Partnership
The RM2 Partnership is made up of a series of advisers who work with private company employee share schemes in the UK. Their employee ownership resources include webinars on employee ownership trusts and employee share schemes.
These webinars are fairly recent, and cover everything from how to implement employee ownership, to how it can help your business grow.
Information Packs on Employee Ownership
If you’ve watched all the webinars you possibly can, and you want some employee ownership resources that delve into the specifics, there are always information packs.
The good thing about information packs is that they are short, fast, and easy to refer back to when you need information. Also, you can print them off to highlight important bits and hand them out at company meetings.
Here are some of the more useful information packs you’ll want to look at if you’re thinking of investing in employee ownership:
- Model documentation from the UK government – the gov.uk website has a model document to show you what an example employee owned business’ documentation might look like. This is a good example that you can apply to your own business.
- Guide to structuring employee ownership by the EOA – this document will help you decide which type of employee ownership you want to get involved in, how to introduce the concept to your employees, some do’s and don’ts, and information on tax relief incentives.
- Employee ownership: how to get started by the EOA – once you’ve decided on the type of employee ownership you want to invest in, this guide will help you set one up. It even has a dedicated section for funding the scheme.
These packs only scratch the surface of the employee ownership resources you can access. When you get to the point where you need to find more specific documentation, you’ll have to start scouring some employee ownership sites yourself.
Employee Ownership Case Studies
There comes a point where you’ve learnt everything you can about employee ownership, you know the ins and outs of the system, but you still aren’t satisfied that it’ll work.
Some of the best employee ownership resources out there to help you make that final leap are case studies. Once you see how well other companies are thriving using these schemes, the more real the idea of having your employees own the company becomes.
Parfetts
Parfetts is 100 percent employee owned, using an indirect employee ownership scheme This is where the shares are held by a third party on behalf of the employees. It became an employee owned company in 2008 after 28 years as a family business.
This Cash and Carry business now has over 600 employee owners, and has used annual dividends and sales target bonuses to help drive the success of the company.
Parfetts operates out of 7 depots, 4 retail shops and serves more than 5,000 customers a week across the North of England and North Wales. It has a 90+ percent customer satisfaction rate, and its recent upgrade to a ‘virtual cash and carry’ has added an extra 600 customers.
The company credits its employee ownership structure for giving it a competitive advantage. This especially includes their ‘Voice Groups’, consisting of employees from all areas of the company sharing their input on the strategic development of the business.
Gripple Limited
Gripple Limited are a market-leading manufacturer of wire joining and tensioning devices for construction and agricultural markets. It was established in the 1990s and has been employee owned since 2011. As of today, the business is a worldwide success, with:
- Over 670 employee owners;
- 6,000 products it manufactures;
- And 85 percent of its trade exported to 80 countries.
Its main focus is on transparency, two-way communication, recruitment and retention. The employees are trained to the Gripple standard, and the company has even set up a training academy to train its staff across the board.
They seem to have done a decent job, considering they have a 98 percent global employee attendance. You can read more case studies like these on the Employee Ownership Association website.
Is There Any Other Way to Learn About Employee Ownership?
In this post, we’ve managed to share some employee ownership webinars and information packs. We’ve also given you some case studies to help you decide whether employee ownership is right for your business.
These employee ownership resources are useful as learning tools, but the truth is you’ll never be able to fully grasp what an employee owned company can be until you’ve seen one in action. If you can, you should arrange a meeting with an employee ownership adviser and see if you can look at one of these companies from the inside.
Thank you for reading this post, and good luck researching employee ownership for your company.
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