How to keep your employee owners engaged in EO

For many of us, the connection we feel to our business is as important as the work we produce. In fact, the quality of the two is often linked.

So if you’re an employee-owned company looking to strengthen your employee owner engagement, what practical steps can you take?

The first is to recognise that effective employee engagement not only strengthens your culture – it has commercial benefits too.

That’s because knowledge and awareness can drive positive behaviours such as collaboration, sharpening the focus on business goals.

In today’s tough economic climate, enabling your employee owners to understand and get behind key challenges such as margin and profitability is time well spent.

Communicate openly with your employee owners   

'Sharing critical figures with your team will deepen their understanding of their business and can positively impact your ability to achieve commercial goals'

It's easy to talk about revenue and income targets, but how often do employees hear about margin and profitability? And do they understand the link with employee services and benefits?

Some figures will be too commercially sensitive to share in every forum.

But, when you can, sharing critical figures with your team will deepen their understanding of their business and can positively impact your ability to achieve commercial goals.

At Telos Partners, our EO consultants have seen first-hand how enabling a team to understand their contribution changed behaviours and added value to the bottom line.

Keep employee engagement on the radar

Joanna Booysen and Jeremy Gadd from our EO team

Yet focusing on employee owner engagement can slip off the radar following your EO transition, especially if other change is coming fast.

Even without the impact of the current economic and geo-political volatility – and advance of AI – energy can drift. Time and budgets can be tight.

Reaching the point of EO transition can also leave leaders and boards feeling they need to step back and draw breath.

Our experienced EO team has this advice: ‘If your business plans to pause, make one commitment, set a deadline for when you will give more attention to culture and stick to it. Explain to employees why there’s a break and when employee ownership will be back on the priority list.’

Refresh your employee owner engagement as you grow

'Keeping your employees informed and engaged in your EO is something you should revisit over time to ensure your approach still works'

So is it ever ‘too late’ to start engaging your employees in your EO?

No. In fact, keeping your employees informed and engaged in your EO is something you should revisit over time to ensure your approach still works – so set a review point to check in.

It’s easy to think that because you have an employee survey with encouraging results, it’s ‘job done’.

But if you’re facing into wider commercial or cultural challenges, it can make a huge difference when everyone feels engaged with the changes and goals.

At Telos Partners, we advise organisations to see their transition as the start of a longer journey, so there’s no need to run headlong into lots of activity at the start.

Instead, it’s a good idea to pace yourself and identify the areas of your culture that will have the biggest impact over the longer term first. As your business evolves, other things will naturally change too.

Practical tips for effective employee owner engagement

So how can you keep your employees informed, engaged and excited about EO?

Our EO team shares these practical tips.

1.    Be clear about your purpose.

This provides a point of alignment and something they can test business successes and decisions against.

2.    Establish a strong set of values.

These will clarify expectations, help with decision-making and support external stakeholder relationships too. Don’t have them? Involve everyone in shaping them for the longer term.

3.    Explain your governance framework, each element’s responsibilities and how they support/challenge each other.

Raise the profile of the teams involved in your boards and representative bodies and equip them with the skills and information to engage your whole business.

If your EOT has employee trustees, make sure you give them the time and development support they need to maximise the value they can add to in this demanding board-level role.

4.    If you’re establishing or reinvigorating an employee forum, clarify roles and responsibilities.

In smaller companies, it’s usually more effective to hold informal group meetings, such as a simple breakfast meeting for all.

5.    Support your middle leadership.

They’ll be feeling squeezed as the shift in ownership will change expectations. Equip them to be more empowering EO leaders by investing in their personal development.

The eoa's EO Leadership Development Programme – which our consultant Alex Bloom is supporting – is a good place to start. Find out more and book your place on the March 2026 programme here.

6.    Communicate well and through several channels, investing in new tools or people if needed.

As employees share more and influence bigger decisions, the language and culture will shift anyway.

7.    Define the key indicators of business success and share regular performance updates.

Ensure these cover more than sales and profit, so every employee feels connected to your overall success.

8.    If not already a member, join the eoa.

Get involved in the eoa's activities, networking and learn from others’ best practice, while sharing your own. Attend their in-person events when you can.

How our EO team can help  

At Telos Partners, our experienced EO support ranges from EO perception studies and board development to EO-focused leadership development and our free EO client peer support groups for MDs, people and culture leaders and employee trustees.

Explore the support we can offer here and get in touch to talk to our knowledgeable team.