Our Employee Ownership Service

We’ll ask you to tell us about your business and why you are considering employee ownership (normally through an Employee Ownership Trust (EOT)). This will enable us to give you some initial guidance on:

• The feasibility of an EOT
• key things you’ll need to know and consider
• likely timescale and cost

If you ask us to provide formal advice, the first step will involve us preparing a detailed plan for how the employee ownership model chosen, normally an EOT, will work and whether to sell 100% to the EOT or adopt a ‘hybrid’ model.

A further information gathering exercise with you will help us create a written EOT design

The design will cover all legal and taxation issues, as well as providing a practical roadmap for how your company can become employee-owned.

Further to this, if required, we can also provide guidance and assistance:

• in arranging an independent valuation
• on employee and management engagement
• on incentives for managers
• in appointing trustees and running a trustee meeting

We will:

• produce the legal documents with explanatory notes to ensure their meaning is clear
• apply for all necessary clearances – for example with HM Revenue and Customs
• guide you through the selection of your EOT’s first trustees
• organise the completion
• help you establish arrangements for personal employee share ownership (if required)
• take care of all post-completion filings and registrations
• project manage the implementation process throughout

Key to the success of your company’s move to employee ownership will be obtaining support of your leadership team and employees. This will require clear communication of what employee ownership involves, why your company is becoming employee-owned and what it means for your team.

We can help you produce clear employee ownership communications: written guides, presentations, intranet pages and other media – using communication styles suitable for your particular employees. We can also assist with running a Q&A session with the employees.

We are enthusiastic and engaging training providers, able to demystify employee ownership for any audience.

If you have employees who need assistance and guidance in specific aspects, such as the role of the employee trustee of an employees ownership trust, we can help with this in our induction and orientation pack for the first trustee meeting and suggest an ongoing training solution.

We are available to help with any on going questions or concerns that may arise in future.

We offer a range of aftercare services once an EOT is in place, we can discuss these with you during the consultation process and if you wish to engage us for these additional services we can work out a plan, timetable and pricing for these separately if required.