World Values Day

Lisa Fryer, Associate, reflects on World Values Day and businesses relationships with employees and communities

This year, World Values Day on 15th October has a focus is on putting our values into action.

As identified on their website “Values are the things that are important to us as individuals, organisations, and as communities. By putting them into action each and every day we can change ourselves, the communities we belong to, and the whole world for the better.”

In the employee owned community we already recognise that organisations with a distinctive culture or purpose are:

• more likely to grow revenue faster than competitors

• more profitable than industry peers

• more likely to make long term strategic and operational decisions and commit to taking action on them 

The White Rose report released on 26th June, EO Day, shared how across the UK EO businesses combined sales were +4.3% compared to +1.2% as a UK whole. The median change in operating profit was +5%, and mean increase in productivity was +6.9%. 

The common factor in many employee owned organisations is that they have a clear sense of purpose and direction, often driven by a legacy or history based around shared experiences and values. These may be ethical, social, environmental or emotional, but whatever they are, they act like a sort of glue, that holds certain individuals and groups together, creating a focus and energy to get things done. Most co owners experience a sense of shared responsibility for their businesses and the wider communities they serve and support.

When I think of the employee owned organisations I’ve experienced, whilst they are diverse, working in different sectors and regions as well as at varying scales, they all have a clear identity. Many are market leaders in the sectors they represent, with reputations for excellence other organisations aspire to. However, they will all acknowledge that they are not perfect, and are constantly seeking out how to do what they do even better tomorrow, next month and next year. 

And it’s the same feeling within the wider employee owned community. At last years EOA awards there were examples of businesses from various sectors being recognised for their achievements and their values celebrated by the whole community. These organisations, like so many other employee owned businesses put their values into action on a daily basis, meeting their customers and clients needs, supporting their communities, working towards sustainable goals and taking a more ethical approach. And everyone at the awards enthusiastically celebrated these successes, proudly applauding the employee ownership model as a better way of doing business.

So by my reckoning, the employee owned sector is full of businesses and co owners already putting their values into action.

I’ve chosen trust as the value that I feel is most relevant this year. Trust has been widely spoken about, in particular recently, and when missing it is something you become keenly aware of. Trust is what binds together the individuals in organisations, those invisible links that are created when transparent and open communication is in place. Trust is the connection that enables collaboration and courageous decision making in times of crisis. 

Trust also represents the legal structure that enables an employee owned organisation to seek assurances that the business is being run true to it’s values and for the benefit of the employees, current and future. It is the mechanism that enables the distribution of profits to the beneficiaries, the tool that enables those beneficiaries to hold the operational leadership to account and in some cases even replace them if necessary. 

Putting trust into action to me, means doing what you say you’re going to to, speaking up and saying the difficult things when it’s important to do so, and keeping those shared secrets just that, secret, until their owner is ready to share.