#WeGoBeyond For Our Current and Future Partners
This month the co-owners (we call ourselves Partners) at Baxendale are celebrating a special anniversary – 40 years since our founder took his family-owned business into employee ownership – a factor that is absolutely key to our being a Certified B Corp.
Explaining the history of Baxendale is always a challenge – ‘How did a specialist health and wellbeing consultancy start its life as a family-owned foundry, manufacturing gas lit lampposts in the 19th century?’
This connection can all be attributed to Philip Baxendale. It was his commitment and belief in fairness, shared wealth creation, participation and fulfilment that led to his decision in 1983 to transfer his family business ‘Baxi’ (by then the leading boiler maker in the UK) to his employees – via an Employee Benefits Trust.
In 2000, having sold its manufacturing activities, the Trust transitioned into a capital fund and consultancy service initially specialising in supporting employee ownership. Over the years we have expanded our focus and while we still support employee ownership (principally via our sister company – Baxendale Employee Ownership), Baxendale Advisory supports services and structures that foster wellbeing more broadly.
From our origins as a leading manufacturer to the consultants we are today, the Employee Benefits Trust at the heart of our Partnership has given our co-owners a voice, a right to information and a share in the wealth we create for four decades.
From the moment a new Partner joins us, they become a co-owner in the business. This allows us all to own and control the work we do, the impact we have and take on projects which fit with our personal passions and priorities.
Cultivating a positive work culture is our principal objective as an organisation. We are constantly striving to create an environment where everyone is comfortable voicing their opinion and everyone takes a shared responsibility for the future of the company.
But it’s not just today’s Partners we consider. In fact, our Trust Deed mandates us to make decisions in the interests of our current AND future Partners.
This long-term approach translates into everything we do, not least the way in which we build long-term partnerships with our clients. We develop trusted and meaningful relationships to get to know our clients, understand their challenges, and address them together. And as a result, 100% of our health and care clients rate themselves as very likely to recommend us to a colleague or another organisations if they needed similar support.
