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The choice to adopt a new organisational or ownership model is incredibly important, and one that should not be made without expert strategic support and specialist hands-on, practical advice. Our support for transition into a mutual or employee owned organisation is targeted in five ways:

1. Mobilising employee support behind a new approach
2. Evaluating strategic options on ownership
3. Establishing a business case for change (for public sector organisations)
4. Supporting full transition
5. Funding for transition

1) Mobilising employee support behind a new approach - No matter what circumstances have prompted you to consider a new approach, one of the very first questions to ask is whether your fellow employees will support the change. This is fundamental to any significant organisational change, but particularly so if you are contemplating becoming a mutual or employee owned organisation, where a culture of meaningful staff participation is integral to achieving any potential gains in motivation, innovation and productivity. Right from the start, levels of staff engagement with the proposed change will be critical to the success of that new approach. For this reason, Baxi Partnership offers a free Transition Readiness Survey to organisations considering employee ownership. The survey analysis provides a clear sense of where your organisation sits in terms of its current structure and culture, and how difficult any move to an employee-led approach is likely to be.  To take the survey Click here if you are in the private sector or Click here if you are in the public sector.

2) Evaluating strategic options For every organisation considering a change, there will be a range of options open to you. It is vital that you carry out a thorough appraisal of those options and identify the best way forward. Whatever the specific circumstances that prompt a shift in approach, it is vital that senior decision-making is exemplary throughout whether for example by public sector employees looking to take control of how their service is delivered, or a family-owned business looking for a viable succession plan. The process of exploring those options needs to be done with rigour from the start, and often benefits from external challenge and support. Baxi Partnership has a unique range of services designed to enable organisations to help understand the model options and work at developing the structure which delivers optimum value to everyone’s benefit.

3) Establishing a business case for change - Once the most viable option has been identified, the team leading this process will need to explore that option in greater depth and begin to pull together an outline business case to back up their thinking. If that option is a shift to a new organisational model, it is important that the views of all the stakeholders who will be impacted are considered and potentially consulted on directly. Crucially those stakeholders include all of the employees, and it is at this stage that the leadership team needs to start educating staff on the challenges and rewards employee ownership can bring. If the outline business case is successful in winning the backing needed from key stakeholders, the leadership team will proceed to delivering a full business case in which every foreseeable detail is addressed and ironed out. This process will require that the leadership team has the time, resource and access to the skills needed to carry out this work. Baxi Partnership provide support to leadership teams through this process, not least in helping to create commercially viable business plans, and either ourselves or through our network of specialist partners – provide technical guidance on legal models and ownership structures.

4) Supporting full transition – Finally, if the leadership team has successfully won the argument for change, they are faced with the task of implementing that change. The process of developing an employee owned structure will likely be a journey that is rewarding and challenging in equal parts. Transition is not just a technical process. Developing a fundamental understanding of what this change will mean for your enterprise including your key stakeholders and employees is crucial to maximising your chances of success. When you work with Baxi Partnership, you will be assigned a senior Project Manager who will work in close collaboration with you and ensure that you and your organisation are properly supported throughout. Baxi Partnership helps project manage transition and co-ordinate experienced professional advisers (including lawyers, accountants and communicators) to deliver an efficient and streamlined process, minimising any distraction to the ongoing work of your organisation. We also draw on our training and development support services to ensure that organisations start to build a strong internal culture of employee ownership through the transition process so that employees are fully engaged with what will be expected of them in the new organisation.

5) Funding for transition – Baxi Partnership is in the unique situation of being able to offer not only technical advice on how to secure external capital to support transition, but also has its own Baxi Partnership Investment Fund through which we can offer funding directly to organisations who need it and might struggle to raise investment from more traditional financial institutions. We also have a unique track record in this sector of taking partner enterprises onto our books to help take them through this challenging period in their evolution. To read more about funding solutions, or partner opportunities, click here…