How to make employee ownership a key business strength

Telos Partners' Jeremy Gadd (left) and Alex Bloom

When JGA first shared news (in late 2023) of its plans to merge with Telos Partners, the reaction was overwhelmingly positive.

Now, with the merger complete, the sense that this was an obvious step for both our businesses is even stronger and our new joint employee ownership (EO) services offer is live.

Designed for clients who are exploring employee ownership as their succession plan – and those who are already employee-owned – our EO support draws on our combined business and EO experience to benefit clients by unlocking active, responsible ownership in their teams.

Committed to our clients’ success

Alex Bloom working with an employee-owned client

Jeremy Gadd, JGA’s founder and now a Partner at Telos Partners, leads our joint employee ownership support alongside fellow Telos Partner Alex Bloom.

Both are committed to creating even better value for our clients now we are one team.

As Jeremy explains: ‘Our employee ownership support focuses on ensuring our clients achieve the right sustainable outcomes for them as founder/owners, leaders, employee owners, trustees and as a business.’ 

Alex agrees: ‘We work with clients to define what’s most appropriate for them to ensure a smooth transition to employee ownership, drawing on our insight and experience of supporting businesses of all sizes, sectors and stages of EO.

‘We guide them, highlighting potential pitfalls, providing clarity and building confidence through our focused, practical support.’

Clarifying what your employee ownership means 

'Successful employee ownership can.... offer a competitive advantage for your business. Yet it's a myth that employees will automatically feel engaged in it'

And ‘practical’ is the key word here.

Why? Because becoming successfully employee-owned is about so much more than a signature on a piece of paper – or letting your people know they’ve suddenly become employee owners and expecting them to get ‘on board’.

As Jeremy points out: ‘Successful employee ownership can be a force for good, as well as offer a competitive advantage for your business. Yet it’s a myth that employees will automatically feel engaged in it – or even ‘get’ what employee ownership means.’

This is why our employee ownership support helps to ensure everyone understands their roles and responsibilities, says Alex.

‘This means effective decisions can be taken to enable the business to move forward and leverage the benefits of being employee-owned.’

In practice, this clarity enables our clients to make the most of their employee ownership model, improving performance and productivity.

Here’s how.

Unlocking benefit: How we support employee-owned businesses

At Telos Partners, we work with owners, leaders, boards, teams and representative bodies to unlock the benefits of being employee-owned.

We…

·       understand the leadership, cultural, commercial and governance challenges of transitioning and realising EO’s benefits

·       can assess the health and strength of your EO using the EO Framework developed with the eoa and the recently launched eoQ

·       enable you to shape, transition, embed, energise, and renew (STEER) the elements of successful EO in your business and achieve sustainable success.

 

Adding value: What we do for employee-owned businesses

Successful employee ownership doesn’t just happen. It takes energy and thought to get ‘right’ and sustain in the longer term.

Working with you, our team can help by:

·       Establishing effective trust boards, leadership teams and representative bodies and voice groups

·       Bringing about improved engagement, stronger ownership cultures and developing your employee owners to deliver EO’s advantage

·       Improving your approach to strategy and innovation to build a more resilient business

·       Delivering better results for all your stakeholders and your business

·       Enabling individuals to network and share best practice

·       Supporting Independent Trustee recruitment and career transitions of founders

·       Supporting effective leadership and succession within key roles

Realising potential: Why choose Telos Partners and JGA for your employee-owned business?

'Successful employee ownership can be a force for good, as well as offer a competitive advantage... yet it's a myth that employees will automatically feel engaged in it – or even get what it means'

As the UK’s employee ownership sector has grown, so has the range of professional consultants out there. Commercially, businesses face a hard economic climate and budgets are tight.

So why choose us?

First, our commitment to you. We believe in employee ownership’s potential to create successful, sustainable organisations that generate and more sustainably distribute wealth. We believe in the future and are here for the long term.

Second, our people. We bring knowledge, skill and a practical understanding of how to realise your business potential through EO. We draw on Telos Partners’ 25 years of working with a wide range of organisations and JGA’s 10 years of supporting 100-plus transitions to EO.

Third, our approach. We listen, clarify, enable, support – we ‘work with’ rather than ‘do to’, creating bespoke solutions vs prescribed.

Finally, we are clear about the value we offer – delivering agreed outcomes and impact for a fixed fee.

Speaking your language: What our clients say about us

We may have only just started working together, but our teams have their own track record of success.

Clients describe us as straightforward, approachable and enjoyable to work with. They say we speak in a language they understand and are ‘honest about bumps in the road’. We’ve been called the ‘people’ people of EO.

Enlightening, energising and worthwhile are just three of the words they’ve used. Our clients gain personal/professional growth alongside business solutions – and the confidence to do something different in the years ahead.

The results we create for employee-owned businesses

Here’s the change we bring at a glance. We work with you and your business to:

Shape – assess and diagnose the status of your EO, define your desired destination and establish your roadmap for successful EO

Transition – implement your roadmap for successful EO, equipping and empowering your people and business through the process

Embed – take stock of progress and learning, identify enablers and blockers and ensure the foundations in place are built upon and strengthened

Energise – leverage your employee ownership as you aspire, plan and take your business to the next level

Renew – leverage your EO as you adapt to the business opportunities and challenges presented by a changing world and leadership succession

Find out how we can support you and your employee-owned business. Get in touch with us today.