Journal - EO

A reflection on our latest South Coast EO Networking Event, co-hosted with Coda

This month, Salad marks five years as an Employee Owned Trust (EOT). Five years. It's a number that feels significant - not just as a milestone on paper, but because of what it represents. We are no longer a business that recently became employee-owned. We are an established employee-owned business. And that feels rather wonderful.

This month, we celebrate our fourth anniversary of being employee-owned, having transitioned to an Employee Owned Trust in 2021. In what has become a semi-regular annual tradition our MD, Bella, has been pondering the changes we've experienced and lessons learned along the way.

Becoming employee-owned is a significant step for any business. For many, it marks the start of a new chapter, one rooted in shared purpose, long-term thinking and the ambition to build a deeper, more inclusive culture. But the structural transition is only the beginning, part of an ongoing evolution which needs care and attention, alignment and engagement to succeed.

When a business transitions to employee ownership, it marks the beginning of an exciting new chapter. But, while the shift to employee ownership creates tremendous potential, it's important to recognise that structure alone won’t automatically enhance company culture, strengthen market position or boost engagement.

Founded as an employee-owned business, Loadhog have always taken the views of their employees seriously. So, when they asked us to help them develop a new purposeful framework to help deliver their plans for growth, we knew we needed to engage as many people as possible.

Since 2023 we’ve been hosting an ever-growing group of employee-owned businesses at our studio in Poole. Sharing stories and strategies, helping to define (or refine) roles and responsibilities and comparing notes on what’s worked and what hasn’t has been the name of the game.

Since transitioning to employee ownership in 2021, we’ve seen more businesses in the South West joining the movement. Giving employees a stake and a say in the business they work for has been proven to lead to better engagement, productivity and job-satisfaction.

After transitioning to employee ownership, The Industry Club's Founder and MD, Melissa Smith found she needed support to align and engage her team before crafting the communications announcing to the world they'd made the move.

Our transition to employee-ownership inspired us to start hosting South Coast Employee Ownership networking events. Connecting businesses, sharing insights, and building a supportive community.

As we mark the milestone of three years employee-owned, we reflect on our journey so far as a team, and how this transition has evolved life at Salad.

Since transitioning to employee ownership in 2021, we’ve been quietly (or not so quietly) on a journey to empower our team members and elevate our employer brand through personal brand building.

We are operating in a candidate-driven market. The rise of purpose as a means to attract customers is now being matched on the candidate side. This shift represents an opportunity for brands to align their customer & employer brand and ensure that they become talent attractors and retainers.

Neatly fitting into ten points, here’s a round up of my learnings as we pass our two and a half year anniversary of being employee owned.

I was recently invited to share my experience of Salad becoming employee owned with a team who are looking to start their EO journey. With plenty of interesting questions raised by this aspiring group, it felt like they might not be the only ones with these queries.

How do you communicate the adoption of employee ownership as a positive move? How do you use your organisation's vision and culture to align and empower your teams? How will you unlock the potential of employee ownership to accelerate growth and the sustainability of your organisation?

A little while ago, our founder and MD, Bella, shared her thoughts as an ex-owner as we transitioned into Employee Ownership. Now, the baton has been passed to me to share the view of this transition from the other (employee) side, and with the benefit of some hindsight.

Our MD, Bella shares her thoughts on how becoming employee owned has impacted ways of working, our culture and how we’re working together as a team, more than ever, to shape our future.