Margaret Elliott believes SHCA can provide a better level of service if staff have a stake in the business
This is from chapter 1, A New financial landscape: People Power from the Good Deals Almanack 2009
If staff have a stake in the business, it’s not only good for them but also leads to us providing a better level of service
For care professionals, low pay and limited benefits are often a fact of working life. But Sunderland Home Care Associates (SHCA), founded in 1994, has changed this by offering its staff a share in the business.
This article first appeared in last year's Good Deals 2009: The Social Investment Almanack. To make sure your organisation is featured in this year's Almanack email matt@societymedia.co.uk.
The SIP allows the company to use its pre-tax profit to buy shares from the EBT, to be allocated to the employees.
If kept in trust for a period of five years before they are passed on to the employees, they are free of income tax and national insurance contributions. Only employees can hold shares and they have to sell their shares back to the EBT when they leave, so maintaining the balance.
The present breakdown of shares in SHCA is 96,737 (82.7 per cent) owned collectively and 20,263 (17.3 per cent) owned by individuals. Over the period since it was launched, the share price has gone up from £2.60 to £6.60 per share, which means some employees hold almost £4,000-worth of shares.
This article first appeared in last year's Good Deals 2009: The Social Investment Almanack. To make sure your organisation is featured in this year's Almanack email matt@societymedia.co.uk.
...as Susan Boyle might have sung. On SocialEnterpriselive.com this week:
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