Following our August 2026 Employee Ownership Trust – Virtual Knowledge Share, Chloe Richards the Email Marketing Strategist and Employee Trustee at I-COM, and featured speaker of our event, tells her journey joining an employee owned business post-transition and how becoming a trustee completely changed how she experienced the business.
This interview forms part of Stephens Scown’s Employee Owners Knowledge Sharing series, where we invite leaders, trustees and employee owners to share practical insights on employee ownership.
Before you joined, what did you assume Employee Ownership meant?
Before working somewhere employee owned, my idea of EO was fairly surface level. I assumed it meant a nice bit of extra financial upside somewhere down the line and maybe a slightly more democratic feeling workplace. I didn’t really understand the mechanics: the trust, the deferred consideration, the governance structure sitting behind the scenes. A lot of people outside the EO sector picture it the same way. A perk, rather than a genuine ownership model with real responsibilities attached.
When did EO became real for you?
I-COM has been EO since 2019. From everything I’ve been told, the transition was explained in great detail at the time and created real celebration internally. Then COVID hit, and understandably, EO stopped being the focus while everyone concentrated on getting through it.
By the time I joined, EO wasn’t mentioned in onboarding. I knew, in theory, that I’d joined an employee-owned business. It just didn’t feel like one day to day. The gap between being EO on paper and EO feeling lived in was the thing that stood out most to me in those early stages.
I-COM reached the halfway point of paying off the deferred consideration, and the leadership team recognised they needed to restart the focus. As part of that refresh, they asked whether people who hadn’t been involved before might want to stand as trustees. There was a proper internal campaign, posters, a speech, a vote. I put myself forward, won, and became one of I-COM’s employee trustees.
What’s changed most in your day-to-day?
Becoming a trustee gave me the chance to fix the things I felt were missing. I asked myself a simple question: what did I not know stepping into this role, and how do I make sure other people don’t feel the same gap?
From that question, a few things took shape:
- Monthly drop-in sessions so there’s a consistent, predictable space for anyone to come and ask questions or raise concerns
- An anonymous suggestion box because not everyone has the confidence to put their name to a question, and accessibility matters more than ego
- A financial dashboard presentation that lays out loan progress, profit share and the COVID loan in plain terms, rather than leaving people to guess
- A biannual survey focused purely on EO sentiment and understanding, which we’ve run for the last 18 months. The results have shown us, in black and white, that consistent effort moves engagement and confidence over time
- An EO overview for new joiners, which I deliver alongside fellow trustee Kate, so nobody starts the way I did
Everything I’ve built into the role is something I wish had existed when I started. That’s the value of a trustee who isn’t a director. You bring a boots-on-the-ground view, not a leadership one, and not being part of the furniture gives you a perspective that’s genuinely hard to manufacture from the top.
What’s surprised you most?
The biggest surprise has been how much of a leadership accelerator EO can be, if you choose to engage with it. Stepping into the trustee role wasn’t something I had huge confidence in at the start. Talking to other EO businesses, training other organisations, sitting on panels and roundtables: none of that felt like natural territory for me, and now it does.
You don’t always notice how far you’ve come until you’re explaining something to someone else and realising you actually know what you’re talking about. The role has given me skills and confidence I don’t think I would have built in the same way otherwise, and a much stronger belief in my own judgement.
What would you want someone new to EO to know?
If you’re in a business about to go through this for the first time, here’s what I’d want you to hear. It’s completely normal for EO to feel theoretical at first, even invisible at times. Consistency is what makes it real:
- Regular, scheduled communication so people know where to find information
- Multiple ways for employees to ask questions, including anonymous ones
- Leadership that keeps coming back to EO even as other priorities compete for attention
And if you get the chance to take on a more active role, whether as a trustee or otherwise, approach it with a beginner’s mindset. You don’t need to walk in as a finance or governance expert. Some of the most useful things I’ve contributed came directly from not knowing the answers myself and working out what would have helped.
Looking ahead, I want EO to be even more visible and more widely understood, both inside I-COM and across the broader community. A big part of why I co-founded the EO Community Catalyst is because every conversation with another EO business teaches you something new about what’s possible.
Next steps
The biggest of thanks to Chloe for sharing her experience with such honesty, to help and inspire others.
Stephens Scown hosts the Employee Ownership – Virtual Knowledge Share monthly to help create a community space for employee owners, and those looking to transition. If you are interested in joining future sessions, please visit our Events page.