Dorset Chamber spoke to Liam Toms, communications and engagement manager at Grapevine about its journey to becoming an EOT. Here he shares his experience of how it has helped Grapevine to flourish.
The modern, somewhat trivial, anxieties experienced by SMEs often divert sight from more meaningful achievements. Search engine ranking and social media followers may simplify the measurement of performance, rarely are they an accurate indicator of how well a business is truly doing. Client retention and staff tenure can paint a clearer a picture.
Without the more public accolades, the size, or perhaps volume, of a company’s voice can feel diminished. Despite successes, particularly those more likely to be celebrated internally, a lack of voice runs the risk of pairing with a lack of confidence.
The latter can make progressive ideas such as four-day working weeks or B Corp status feel unattainable. When the priority of the day is protecting gains to date, simply finding time to consider how the future might look for your business can be a challenge.
I came to join the Grapevine team via an unconventional route. They were a client of the Creative Enterprise Bureau, based within Bournemouth University, which I set up and ran. It paired students and academic staff to collaborate on commercial consultancy projects.
Much of the work Grapevine tasked us with was helping to map the future of a company founded in 1991, which had rode the wave of advances in technology across its first two decades.
When I made the move to an in-house role at Grapevine, being less involved with client work, I had time to ‘look forward’ in my day. I’ve since heard this referred to as working ‘on’ the business, rather than ‘in’ it.
An emerging trend I’d noticed was employee ownership. One of our longstanding clients, Salad, a creative agency who have become strong advocates for EO within the local business community, made the transition in 2021. This felt right for them. I’ll admit, it wasn’t something I ever thought would be a consideration for us.
Yet, the day we were each invited into a meeting to hear plans for Grapevine to become an Employee Ownership Trust, I wasn’t surprised. It made total sense. Grapevine has always been about its people. It’s reflected how long staff stay with us. The personal relationships our staff have with clients and providing a consistent point of contact is core to our business.
It was suggested the weeks ahead would be ‘business as usual’, mostly to avoid disruption to our clients. In other respects, it’s been far from ordinary.
Our confidence in what we do has been renewed. We won ‘The Best Place to Work’ at the Dorset Business Awards, achieved Gold Partner status with our industry partner, Gamma. Most recently we became accredited as a Living Wage Employer.
Our first year of employee ownership coincided with an annual turnover increase of over 16% to deliver the highest turnover in Grapevine’s 32-year history. This enabled us to pay a profit share to all staff, 50% greater than the amount that was targeted.
Employee Ownership has helped us define our voice. It’s proving to be a great fit for our people-led business.
Liam Toms, communications and engagement manager at Grapevine