In it together – why employee ownership is right for us

A core tenet of the dt-squad philosophy has been to become an employee owned company. This was one of the key founding principles and as we grow and become more successful we are moving closer to making the transition.

But why is this a founding principle and why is it such a great idea to become employee owned?

First of all what is the alternative – the most common ownership structure of a company is that of shareholders. The shareholders call the shots and the employees, for the most part, don’t have any real means or any right to exercise influence over key decisions made by the company they work so hard for.

At dt-squad, our employees are the company. They are the most valuable part of the equation and their hard work and commitment will drive our success. We know that this must be rewarded with a share of the company and through proper empowerment: the right to influence key decisions and the direction of the company going forward. In an employee owned business it is a legal requirement for each employee to have a say in how the business is run, and their ownership of part of the company entitles them to a share of the profits. This leads to even greater employee engagement, productivity and loyalty – all of which are very good things!

The protection and maintenance of our values and ethics as we grow is crucial – sometimes these fall by the wayside when greedy shareholders intent on extracting as much gold as they can lose sight of the original vision. The demise of Google’s ‘Don’t be evil’ motto and related legal battles with employees demonstrates the challenge.

Examples of success are out there for all to see – The John Lewis Partnership was formed as an employee-owned company in 1929 by a visionary of his time John Spedan Lewis. It remains to be seen whether dt-squad will become such an iconic British company – but what we do know is that through employee ownership we will protect our independence, values and moral code whilst giving our employees a real say in the direction of our journey and a share of the profits.If you’d like to know more about why we are on the path to employee ownership, please reach out to any of our team on LinkedIn or by email.