What have the past three years of employee-ownership meant to us?

The past three years have been transformative for Salad. What began as a bold and unknown step towards a new structure, has resulted in an evolved culture, an even more empowered team and a strengthened purpose.

Understanding and embracing this evolution didn’t happen overnight.

There isn’t a rule book or a set way to run an employee-owned (EO) business, so our first year was dedicated to exploring what this change meant for us. The two years following have allowed us to find our own way and truly embed EO into the business with a collective sense of ownership.

Now, approaching our third anniversary, we look back and recognise how much we’ve learnt, the connections we’ve made and how we’ve become champions of the EO world.

We feel empowered

Before transitioning, we were lucky enough to already have a fairly democratic culture, which set us up well for this change. Adding the EO layer has strengthened this culture, fostered mutual accountability and built a shared sense of ownership among us.

“What I love most is that there’s a true sense of belonging and empowerment. We have a say in shaping our workplace, how we work, the partners we work with, but most importantly we’re all working towards a common goal, and our efforts directly impact our success.”

Natalie Padgham, Senior Designer

A new structure has been introduced, we all have new responsibilities, and even some new roles. We now have three entities in place; the Salad board, the trust board and the employee council. We also have an independent trustee and an employee representative who is responsible for communicating the employee’s voice, and ensuring that the trust acts in the interest of the employees.

“I’m honoured to have been entrusted with the role of the employee representative for the past three years. This experience has offered me invaluable lessons in effective EO. I have a deeper understanding of the business through my role within the trust board and have gained insight into what it truly means to think and act like an employee-owner. My personal growth has been enriched, and my commitment to making EO successful for us is stronger than ever.”

Nicole Cook, Head of Delivery

We’ve found our niche

In embracing EO, we have found our niche without limiting ourselves to a specific sector. By connecting with like-minded businesses that prioritise people, we’ve found a specialism that we’re truly passionate about.

“Jumping between industries each day is one of the things I enjoy most about the work we do. It enables us to bring a fresh perspective to each brief and helps our clients challenge sector habits. That being said, there are times we have craved a niche. The world of EO has given us a place where we can be true experts while remaining industry-agnostic. Starting a project or just a conversation with this common ground provides an immediate connection and springboard to build a lasting partnership.”

Jon Lockhart, Head of Design

Across the years Salad has seen significant changes, from our service offerings, to our scale. The pandemic reshaped our business into a deliberately small yet highly experienced production powerhouse. Following this shift, we started the transition to an Employee Owned Trust (EOT), a move supported across the organisation, with tangible buy-in from the whole team.

We understand Salad better than ever

Becoming employee-owned has encouraged us all to broaden our understanding of the business and to think long-term.

Our shift in mindset has allowed us to delve deeper into understanding the intricacies of our business, understand why and how decisions are made, and foster a sense of ownership.

“I’m very proud of what we’ve achieved together in the past three years. The team has a new found commercial awareness, financial literacy and sense of ownership. Which has given us better context of finances, more trust in each other, greater challenge and has resulted in a better financial outcome than ever before. In theory, we could have done this without changing owners, but the change has inspired us all to work better together; for leaders/Board to share in new ways and for us all to pull together in the same direction like never before, and the results speak for themselves.”

Andy Brown, Chairman

Being employee-owned means we’re not just employees, we’re owners, we’re champions and we’re committed to the shared success of our collective future.

For us, being EO is more than a profit share. Yes, of course, we love that we directly benefit from profit distributions, but for us, it’s so much more than that. It’s working towards a shared future, understanding the business, having passion for our purpose, motivating each other, feeling empowered by new experiences and building new connections.

“Employee ownership has brought me a greater understanding of our team. It’s heightened responsibility, encouraged a genuine sense of ownership, and developed a strong feeling of togetherness that makes me feel fully part of the team.”

Sophie Wilkins, Administrator

We’re part of a community

We’ve learnt our most valuable lessons by connecting with other EO businesses.

Through these connections, we’ve evolved into advocates of a community focused on shared values, principles and support.

This network has served as a valuable platform for exchanging insights, best practices, and ideas, supporting our journey and enabling us to enhance our internal processes.

A year in, Greg became part of our team. This prompted concerns about integrating a new member into our close-knit team. To address this, we made the most of networking opportunities and events organised by the Employee Ownership Association (EOA) to gain valuable insights into effectively integrating team members at any stage of the journey.

“Before joining Salad I had never heard of employee-ownership, but was intrigued right away. I could see I was joining a business with complete transparency and trust among the team. Everyone drives towards the same goal, being proactive and not hiding from responsibilities. For me, it was like a breath of fresh air and made me feel like I was on equal terms with everyone right from the start. Whilst I may have not been a beneficiary within my first year of the business, I never felt excluded from any of the decisions that were being made and still felt like I had a part to play.”

Greg Arnold, Developer

Since then, we’ve met a huge variety of EO businesses and recently hosted our own events to build these relationships.

We’re continually learning 

Bella and Andy initially announced the aspiration to become EO during a team gathering on the beach, around 9 months before we officially transitioned. Change can be daunting, and initially, grasping our new structure caused confusion and concern. Who was responsible for what and who could make which decisions? Will this change the team and our day-to-day? Thankfully, there was transparency, time given to ask questions, time to do our own research and full support of each other.

Looking back, we’ve learnt so much since then.

We have new responsibilities, a different insight into the business and at times we’ve been pushed out of our comfort zones. We don’t have all the answers, but our learning curve has been helped by the various events we’ve attended, the EOA conference, and the ‘How to be an Effective Employee Director / Employee Trustee’ course run by the EOA.

“As founder, embarking on the journey to becoming an EOT, it’s impossible to know how you’ll feel on the other side. It feels good! I had no idea this chapter in Salad would be so rewarding and whilst I’m not saying we’ve done everything right (the announcement over pizza on the beach being just one example) we’ve somehow managed to navigate the last 3 years rather beautifully; with an engaged and happy team, delivering our best work to date, and joining a community of like minded businesses with whom we feel the greatest connection.”

Arabella Lewis-Smith, Founder & Managing Director

We continue to reflect and aim to improve as we evolve. Most recently we’ve been inspired by a suggestion voiced during an EO knowledge share event. From this we’ve decided that we’ll formalise the roles and responsibilities within our structure by creating a job description for each entity (e.g. employee representative). This means we have clarity and there is accountability for each responsibility.

“Since becoming employee-owned, I’ve witnessed firsthand the transformative power of collective ownership. EOTs are not just about sharing profits – though that is a nice perk! It’s about shared responsibility and accountability. This structure empowers anyone to ‘point fingers’ when necessary, not as a means of blame, but as a way to uphold our shared standards and drive continuous improvement. It is a testament to how, when people are truly invested in their work, accountability becomes a shared value that elevates the entire business.”

Matt Leach, Head of Digital

We’re excited to continue the journey

Reflecting on our journey, we have come to recognise EO not just as a new business model, but as a fresh mindset that has transformed the way we operate. We’ve been conscious not to make changes for the sake of it, but instead evolve organically into a more collaborative and empowered workforce.

“All in all, employee ownership has been an empowering shift for all of us at Salad. It’s encouraged us to increase our involvement in the direction of our business, it’s brought renewed focus to our offer, and it’s provided us with a network of businesses and individuals we otherwise wouldn’t have created. It’s reignited our desire for close collaboration, strengthened our passion for the work that we do, and strengthened our relationships with each other.”

Harry Pocknell, Strategy & Creative Director

With every connection, challenge, and change, we gain fresh insights and knowledge. Each experience fuels our excitement to continue championing EO as we navigate the path ahead.

If you’d like to know more about becoming employee-owned, head over to our Employee Ownership page, or get in touch with us for a chat.