In the UK, employee ownership makes a sizable and increasing economic impact. Employee-owned businesses are more innovative, provide higher levels of productivity, and can weather economic downturns better. Additionally, their workforces are happier, more content, and less stressed. Let's take a look at EO culture, and the activities we coordinate with your business.
Embedding a productive ownership culture takes time, it is important that everyone understands what it really means to be an employee owner. For this to work, everyone has to understand how the business works. What’s the vision for the company? Where does the money come from? What do we spend it on? How can we make sure we’re the first choice for our customers?
There’s often a requirement for developing some of the softer skills like how to run effective meetings, how to encourage engagement, and how to communicate.
Importantly, people have to understand the concept of ‘ownership’. Working in an employee owned business doesn’t mean management by committee, or that all individuals decide whether or not to come to work. There will (usually) be a board of directors with legal responsibility for running the company, and a professional management structure who are responsible for the delivery of the company’s goals.
At Ownership Associates we are able to help new employee owners to understand the ownership concept and give you advice and training to ensure the vision of successful employee ownership becomes a working reality.
Usually, employee ownership is something employees weren’t expecting. It’s not easy to change the ’employee mindset’ after years of being one, but for employee ownership to work everyone must think, feel and act like an owner.
This doesn’t happen overnight. It takes skill to make a success of owning a business – people have to understand how the business works, how decisions are made, and how their voices can be heard.
This skill is not intuitive, but it can be learned. We offer workshops which are primarily aimed at employees with elected employee positions (trustee, director, council member) but they are open to all employees within employee-owned businesses who want to gain a better understanding of how employee ownership works.
Fun, interactive sessions to reinvigorate employee ownership within the business and engage employees in working together to achieve the company’s goals. These workshops last 90 minutes and look at how the company is owned, what employee ownership means, examines the balance of rights and responsibilities and how employees can contribute to making their company more effective.
It can be rather daunting to find yourself elected to a position on the company’s board or trust. We can also deliver a half day induction session for newly elected employees. We will talk through what the legal responsibilities are, how best to approach the role, work through some theoretical scenarios all designed to ensure the individual is well equipped to perform the role.
This is an excellent refresher on how to function as an effective board and leadership team.
We examine the statutory responsibilities of directors, the necessary business skills, strategy setting, and also look at how to achieve that perfect balance of cohesion and challenge that leads to sound decision making.
Managers are fundamental in making the company successful, yet they are often overlooked when it comes to their important role within the business.
We look at the range of management functions such as strategy, communications, people, operations, marketing and finance, all set in the context of an employee owned environment.
Scotland based employee ownership specialists.
