EOA Podcast: Episode 17 – Communicating EO transition news to employees

Listen below to Episode 17 of the EOA Podcast, which focuses on how to communicate an employee ownership transition to your team and why it’s important to factor internal comms into your planning as part of the journey to becoming employee owned.

We know from speaking to members that the transition process goes more smoothly when communications are planned out and well thought through, ensuring the message really hits home with employees about why the decision has been made, and to help build understanding and increase engagement.

To explore this further, this episode showcases three businesses of different sizes and from different sectors that have transitioned to employee ownership more recently to hear how they went about communicating the news, the challenges they faced and lessons they learnt, as well as tips they have for other companies embarking on their own EO journey.

Episode interviews

  • Michael Lawrence is managing director at Target Components in Castleford, West Yorkshire. Established in 1998, Target is an IT hardware and software distributor of 60 employees which became majority employee owned via an Employee Ownership Trust (EOT) in June 2022.
  • Sarah Hughes is Head of People at Welsh company Celvac, which is the UK’s leading industrial cleaning and waste recovery services specialist. The business, which has 65 employees and sites in Tenby, Port Talbot, Connah’s Quay and Slough, became employee owned via an EOT in March 2023.
  • Jackie Cotton is HR Manager at Galaxy Insulation and Dry Lining Limited, which distributes insulation and related products mainly to the building and construction industry. It has 350 employees spread across 14 UK branches, with a head office in Sheffield. It became employee owned in September 2022.

You can hit play below to listen to the episode, or you can find it on the following streaming services: Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Spotify, Anchor, Overcast, Breaker, Castbox, Pocket Casts, RadioPublic and Stitcher.

You can also view the full episode schedule here.