Seetec employees go to polls as firm cements employee ownership structure

The company’s 2,500 employees will choose 10 representatives from a field of 20 candidates to serve on a new employee council. The new council will influence business strategy and sit on key committees including senior leadership meetings for across the business and the Group Executive Board. The employee council will also elect a representative to serve on the Seetec Employee Ownership Trust Board, which oversees the majority stake of the business owned by the company’s employees. 

Candidates are drawn from every part of the organisation and include frontline probation, employment and skills coaches whose day job is to unlock the social and economic potential of the people Seetec supports. The polls opened on 10 June and the successful candidates will be announced on 19 June. Both the employee council members and Employee Trustee Director will serve for two years passing their tenure to a new generation of elected employees in June 2022. 

The elections come less than six months after Seetec’s founder Peter Cooper transferred 51 per cent of the company into an employee-owned trust for the sole benefit of its employees. The company is now the 9th largest employee-owned company in the UK and Ireland and thought to be the largest such business delivering frontline public services. 

Seetec Group CEO, John Baumback, said:

“These elections are a critical milestone as we implement our new employee ownership structure, which puts the future of our business in the hands of our people. 

“It is Seetec’s employees who know the people they support best and understand what it takes to deliver life-changing services. These new structures give our employees influence as owners and a stake in the success created when Seetec delivers social value. I look forward to working with the employee council and the employee trustee director on the board to help strengthen our business and our offer to the people and places we serve.” 

Deb Oxley Chief Executive of the Employee Ownership Association (EOA), said:

“We congratulate Seetec on this important step towards giving employees a voice in the operational and strategic direction of the business. 

“Businesses that give employees a stake and a say build trust and shared responsibility, therefore uniting leaders and employees behind a common purpose. This leaves the business in a better position to flex and adapt – key qualities needed to help the UK Build Back Better.”