By Henry Pipe

22 December 2016

Sometimes you get so used to working in a certain way that you forget how unusual it is.

The Government’s recent suggestion that employees should be represented on boards, and that there should be transparency in setting executive pay brought about a range of reactions. Ours was surprise. Not at the suggestion—we’ve been doing both things for decades—but at the fact that more organisations don’t see this as an inherently sensible way of working.

There are a growing number of businesses who are doing this though, including many other consultants in our industry. Recently we’ve had a couple of really productive opportunities to share experiences and exchange ideas with some of them.

At the end of November our Head of HR, Charmaine McKeown and I attended the annual Employee Ownership Association (EOA)’s Annual Conference. Having been Highly Commended in the previous year’s Employee Ownership Awards we were invited to present a case study during one of the conference sessions.  I spoke about sharing financial information internally: something that is very relevant to the Government’s recent ideas. In our experience when we’ve been transparent with our financial information and trusted people with it, that trust has always been repaid with real engagement and with people taking responsibility for business decisions. Some firms are nervous about how they present financial data to non-financial staff, but I argue that if straightforward terminology is used instead of jargon, and if a consistent reporting format is used so that it becomes familiar, then there is no reason why you can’t share it with everyone in an organisation.

Earlier this month we were very pleased to host the EOA’s Midlands networking event. Charmaine shared our story with other businesses.  She shared her experiences of working in a 100% co-owned Practice from a HR perspective, giving insights into the high levels of engagement that can be achieved through openness, total transparency and trust.  She spoke passionately about our Founder, Max Fordham, who shunned the ‘Master-Servant’ relationship some companies have with employees, and removed all layers of hierarchy and bureaucracy. Instead, he chose to offer everyone partnership in the firm, giving them a voice, and making everyone responsible to one another.  Charmaine spoke about the deep sense of organisational values and trust being implicit in everything we do, noting that it is an exciting and rewarding - but often challenging, way to work. 

Who knows what challenges 2017 will bring. The world seems to be a more unpredictable place. But the message from everyone we speak to in the Employee Ownership sector is clear: this way of doing business puts us all in a much stronger position to weather any storm.

 

By Henry Pipe (Senior Partner) and Charmaine McKeown (Head of HR)