AS a member of an organisation which is currently working towards Investors In People with the help of the Glasgow Development Agency, I took great interest in your feature, Better people, better business (May 14).
It was interesting to see the potential enhancement to corporate performance detailed in this feature, but disappointing that there was no realisation that employee financial stakes can reinforce this process. This very point was made at a recent seminar in Glasgow (hosted by the DTI under the European Presidency) on Working for the Future.
Employee participation tends to be looked at either from an industrial-relations perspective or from a financial-investment view, and ne'er the twain shall meet.
There is growing evidence in the UK and USA that employee financial stakes along with participative management styles, exemplified in IIP and the Partnership approaches at Scottish Power and Hyder, can significantly enhance corporate performance. City fund managers, as evidenced in the Cross Report, are actively seeking investment opportunities in knowledge companies whic use employee stakes as a way to tie in key human assets.
The Enterprise Network has never been particularly proactive in terms of employee stakes, viewing them as a last desperate option in a crisis situation. Employee shares can help balance the branch-plant nature of the Scottish economy by retaining an element of local ownership and control.
In the light of the announcement that more inward investment is heading back east, perhaps Scottish Enterprise might like to think about its approach to employee participation in all its varied forms.
Hugh Donnelly,
Executive Director,
Employee Ownership Scotland,
Building 1, Unit D8,
Templeton Business Centre,
Glasgow.
May 14.
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