EO Explained: Onboarding New Employees

Continuing our series of articles explaining Employee Ownership (EO) we share tips for onboarding new employees into an employee owned business.

Insights on new employee on-boarding and why it is valuable to incorporate an introduction to employee ownership and its application within your business as part of the process.

Many EO firms struggle to integrate new hires into their EO ownership culture, particularly if they join from a non-EO company or their previous company was employee owned but applied it differently. This article offers actionable strategies to make onboarding more engaging, educational, and aligned with EO values.

Here we explain a few of the underlying principles.Reserved matters are items that require approval from the shareholder of a business, which in an EO company is the Trust.

Keep it Simple

Employee ownership is a simple concept.

If you want the concept to land and be understood, ensure that your explanation of employee ownership to new employees explains what EO is, and what it is in your company, in simple terms.

New employees have a breadth of learning to undertake, from where to get a coffee, how the hierarchy works, how to do the day job. If you want your EO ownership structure to make a difference, ensure the concept is explained simply, then everything else you want to achieve through EO can be built on this robust foundation.

Align to Culture, Values and Actions

Whether your EO is front and centre of everything you do, or quietly sitting behind day-to-day activities, the culture and values of your business are what makes it great.

Aligning individual actions to these can be empowering and create a workforce that works collectively rather than individually.

If your culture and values are intrinsically linked to EO, ensure this is embedded across all your onboarding materials. If your employees have been part of evolving your values post transition to EO, ensure you incorporate this fact into your new employee communications. This showcases how employee participation has helped to frame the culture within which they will be working and how employee participation is valued.

In some companies, their values are incorporated into individual appraisals. If this is the case in your company, ensure that there is a clear introduction to this in your employee onboarding and reflect on how this makes the company stronger.

EO Benefits

As with all explanations of EO to employees, avoid over-focus on the EO bonus and the financial benefits of profit sharing.

Yes, this is a much publicised benefit. But if you lead on this topic the only point that will remain from an EO introduction is that ‘we’ll get a tax free bonus’. The requirement to make a profit will be lost. The expectation of employee participation to deliver this will be lost.

The benefits of being employee owned for the individual extend beyond tax free bonuses. If you want participation and connectivity to the success of your business from your employees, don’t lead with financial incentives.

Wider benefits, both tangible and intangible can include:

• Greater transparency of internal communications on the business, its financials, its strategy;
• Participation in evolving how individual roles and activities are delivered
• Contribution to company activities, discussions and business initiatives;
• Opportunities to share views and insights to influence business decision making;
• Career opportunities across the business, such as becoming an employee trustee.

Be cognisant about what benefits have become normalised in your EO business. A new employee, whether joining from another company or in their first role, won’t know that the suite of employment benefits across the business have been identified through employee feedback, or as a result of EO, or have evolved since the transition to EO. Make this evolution of your benefits part of your benefit narrative.  

However, EO isn’t just about better employment benefits or EO bonuses, it is the opportunities that are more prevalent in an EO business that can provide individuals with greater career options, influence on business decisions and individual work satisfaction.

Onboarding Milestones

If you have clear ways for employees to participate or evidence their understanding and contribution to the business, ensure these are built into the probation period for your new employees.

If you have an employee council or voice, ensure the connection is made for new employees.

Ensure that these milestones are both provided to, and delivered by, each employee.

Onboarding during probation can too frequently rest as purely information provision to get an employee up-to-speed in their role. If you really want a new employee to see this as the start of a long-term career in your business, engage with them early with opportunities for them to contribute and participate, and incorporate delivery of these into the probation period.

Who, What, When

Who delivers your employee onboarding programme?

Line managers on the work; HR on employment practices; leaders on the wider vision. Who does everything else?

In some companies, employee trustees provide an introduction to employee ownership. The potential risk from this is that EO is seen as a trustee topic, not embedded into the wider business or championed by its leaders.

Consider having employee trustees share what EO is, and how the company came to become EO. But crucially ensure that EO in practice is not a trustee only explanation.

Use other employees to share their experience with the company, get them to tell their story, reflect on what it means to work here, and how they have been able to contribute and influence.

Beyond the Individual

Ideally EO should weave its way through all aspects of employee onboarding so that new joiners know that it isn’t a topic that sits solely with one small group in the business:

• Where is EO incorporated into your HR practices or employee appraisals?
• Why does employee voice, either through a formal forum such as an Employee Council or otherwise, make a difference to your business?
• How do your values play out within the individual roles within your business?
• How do leaders seek and use employee insights in their decision making?

Ensure those individuals who take part in new employee onboarding reflect and share their own positive views on EO and where it sits in their role as well as the role of the new employee.

Further Thoughts

Beyond enabling a new recruit to deliver in their roles as quickly as possible, onboarding should also give each individual the confidence to contribute, and the understanding to share, what employee ownership is and how it applies in your company.

By creating this confidence from the outset, further employee participation in your business has a better chance of being successful and delivering the benefit that EO could bring.

Onboarding new employees is an opportunity for the individual and the business. Remember they could become your biggest champion and cheerleader internally and externally, and what they hear at the outset will influence what they cheer about.

Conclusion

Employees onboarding limited to ‘how to do the role in this organisation’ misses an opportunity to engage with new employees when they are at their most enthusiastic and open to gaining knowledge about your organisation.

Miss this opportunity and it takes a lot longer to embed employee ownership understanding and participation by individuals.

However, remember that a lot of new knowledge is being shared. Keep EO explanations simple, align it to company culture and provide signposts on how to participate and contribute. Thereafter, ensure all employees take part in regular opportunities to reflect on EO and their personal contribution and give multiple ways to participate, refreshing expectations and opportunities along the way. Remember, EO is not a one time announcement, it's an ongoing journey

Onboarding is the start of their journey with you, not the end.

This insight was crafted from our own experience, plus views shared by our EO network.

Specific mention should be given to Dr Shelley Poole, Wellington HR Wellington HR for her outstanding insights on EO employees generally and specifically on recruitment to EO companies. Her session at the EOALive in Manchester in October 2026, plus her doctoral research that she kindly shared at that event, reinforced and supported the content of this EO Explained.

IDTs members have access to the IDT Toolkit which includes materials on employee on-boarding available through them to our EO clients. If you would like to discuss this topic further, do get in touch with one of our trustees or contact us at info@directorsandtrustees.co.uk