Listen: In this episode of the Employee Benefits podcast, Katrina Ritchie, people and culture director at Gripple, discusses how the organisation’s employee-ownership model helps to build engagement and motivation among staff.
Ritchie discusses the benefits that come from operating this model, especially those that cover employee welfare and include social outings, such as theatre and seaside trips, as well as putting employees forward to climb Mount Kilimanjaro.
During the Covid-19 pandemic, the organisation put various support mechanisms in place that it still offers to staff today, to ensure their mental and finanical wellbeing is looked after.
At a glance
Gripple is an employee-owned manufacturing business with six factories in Sheffield and 14 establishments worldwide. It makes products for the construction, civil, solar and agricultural markets.
Some of its typical job roles are production operatives, sales, engineering, product designers, finance, marketing, product management, IT, digital transformation, legal, learning and development.
Gripple has 950 employees, with an average age of 34. Its average length of service is 6.8yrs.
Primary business objectives that impact on benefits for the coming year:
- To hit sales targets.
Career history 
Katrina Ritchie joinged Gripple in March 2000. She previoulsy held the position of internal export sales for the first 13 years of her career with the organisation.
“[I am] proud to build the people and culture department from scratch and to be the first female director,” says Ritchie.