Employee-owned businesses are totally or significantly owned by their employees. Smile Together became an employee-owned community interest company (CIC) in 2016 to give our employees, as shareholders, a genuine voice in the business and its future development. We’ve positively thrived together in this environment, delivering our patient care to those who need us most across Cornwall and the Isles of Scilly and reinvesting 100% of our profits back into patient facilities and local communities.
Our Shareholder Impact Board (SIB) of elected representatives proactively engages with our employee-owners and the chair of SIB has a seat on the Smile Together Board. Paula Souto, Senior Dental Officer and SIB Rep says: ‘As an elected representative on our Shareholder Impact Board I engage with and represent my colleagues at the most senior levels of the business whilst being involved in business strategy and direction. It’s a fantastic position to hold and I do so with great pride.’
Smile Together has been an active member of the Employee Ownership Association (EOA) since 2016 and we have proudly presented at many EOA national conferences and regional networking events, both in person and virtually. Our employee-owners have attended various EOA events, we’ve been regularly commended in the annual EOA awards and participated in online activities (we were the #EOisTheAnswer 2020 Twitter Quiz Champions) and contributed our EO Story as part of an EOA series celebrating employee ownership.
Smile Together prominently featured in the Employee Ownership Association Podcast: The three pillars of ‘Good EO’. This podcast is all about good employee ownership – ‘Good EO’ that helps businesses build an excellent employee ownership culture through the three key pillars of good communications and engagement, good leadership, and good governance.
The economic contribution of employee ownership in the UK is significant and is growing. Employee ownership delivers 4% of UK GDP annually. As we’ve demonstrated in our EO CIC, employee-owned businesses achieve higher productivity and greater levels of innovation, are more resilient to economic turbulence and also have a more engaged and fulfilled workforce.
We’re a committed, engaged and friendly values-based team of employee-owners that puts our patients, our community, one another and increasingly our planet first.
