Employee ownership allows companies to outperform their competitors in respect of KPIs including productivity, staff retention and absenteeism – and as such can be the key to business success, according to one Yorkshire business.
With employee-ownership growing by bout 10% annually, it’s a model that’s working for Horizon Platforms, which operates from Normanton near Wakefield and has been employee owned for two years.
As an employee-owned business, employees have the potential for annual bonuses associated with company performance, but do not directly own shares, allowing ownership to be transferred without the team needing to source funds to buy into the business.
Recently recognised by Best Companies, formerly the Sunday Times List, as one of the top 100 mid-sized companies to work for in the UK, Horizon became the first powered access company to become employee-owned in February 2021. Since then to has gone from strength to strength, with revenue growth reaching about 60%.
CEO Ben Hirst said: “I believe that even before becoming employee-owned, Horizon Platforms had already created an aligned, empowering, and collaborative culture. There’s no question though, handing ownership to the team via an Employee Ownership Trust has enhanced it further.
“I link my thinking around this to two innate human needs – security and purpose – and I find it helpful to reflect on some similarities to home ownership. I guess it is safe to say that the majority of us wish to, at some point in our lives, own our own home. This provides us, and our families with security. I also regularly come across people who dream of building their own homes, wishing to influence the look and feel of a place they not only own but will spend significant time within.
“Allowing great people the opportunity to enjoy the security of working in a business they collectively own, as well as the opportunity to craft the look and feel of that same business plays straight into these human needs. Hence why I was, and still am, thrilled to have been able to facilitate this for the team here at Horizon Platforms.”
