Feeling part of a bigger movement - by Aoife Lynch

Feeling part of a bigger movement - by Aoife Lynch, Field and Recruitment Executive

This year’s EOA Annual Conference took place at the ACC Liverpool on 27-28 November.  The conference was a sell-out with over 800 delegates there, plus 100 people on the waiting list!  Flying the DJS flag from a cross section of the business (senior management, HR, Creative, Research and Operations between us!) were Al Gleed, Angharad Pearce, Holly Collins, Lucy Pawson and myself – a motley crew if ever there was one!

Hosted by BBC News presenter Martine Croxall and the EOA Chief Executive James de le Vingne, the conference opened with a key-note speech from Joe Garner, the former CEO of Nationwide. His passion for leading with humanity and purpose was inspiring.  He believes in the value of physical and mental wellbeing in leadership, leading by example by prioritising completing triathlons in his spare time (I don’t know how he has any time to spare!).

Throughout the conference we attended presentations and workshops led by other EO business leaders and employee owners who shared their experiences of being part of EO organisations.  From a recruitment company with a staff of 8 who all discuss EO issues together in a monthly meeting, to a healthcare company of 1,000 staff who have a more structured and formal feedback loop. What we found, unequivocally, was that each individual business has to work out what is best for them when it comes to EO.

The prosperity of EO businesses was highlighted throughout the conference and the evidence was clear from recent research conducted in this area. Employee Owned business have been found to be 50% more likely to expand their workforce, 25% more likely to see an increase in profits and 70% less likely to have a high turnover of employees compared to non-EOBs. This is just a snapshot of the powerful research findings which make you even more proud to be part of an EO company.

This year’s conference saw the launch of the new ‘Proudly Employee Owned’ badge. This symbol has been designed to be a declaration of EO businesses’ commitment to shaping a world where businesses thrive, employees prosper, and community’s flourish.  We of course already have our own EO stamp, designed by our fantastic creative team, which we’ll continue to use internally and externally but the new EOA badge is another great piece of our EO toolkit.

After the first full day of motivating speakers, engaging breakout sessions and meeting other likeminded EO leads, the evening brought the EOA awards and – a new one on me – a Rock-a-oke Band! Think karaoke but on a whole new scale; a stage, a live rock band and hundreds of people dancing their socks off. Conference hosts Martine Croxall and James de le Vingne even joined in the singing with a fun duet!

It was a fantastic way to celebrate the achievements of the award winners and end a brilliant first day.

With the rock anthems of the previous night still ringing in our ears, day two proved no less engaging with more interactive sessions and food for thought in an inspiring closing speech by James de la Vingne.

We all agreed we came away from the conference feeling like we are part of a much bigger movement that is trying to do good for society and the economy.  We’re hopeful we can use some of our learnings from the conference to support our continued growth on our employee ownership journey (as well as inspiring more of our partners to want to attend the next conference too – I’d love to go again!) - watch this space!