Great question, there are so many reasons why you might want to become a Lush EBT Rep.

You will have the opportunity to make a real difference in protecting Lush's ethics while representing your colleagues, who are all beneficiaries, sharing questions, suggestions and ideas. This may be at a local level, a positive change you can make in a shop or something larger like suggesting how we could be raising the bar of our evolving ethical principles.

You will hone skills in communication, listening, presenting and how to ask the best questions. You will be part of an amazing community of EBT Reps, who are all incredibly passionate about employee engagement, Lush's ethics and what it means to be partly employee owned. Being a beneficiary of the Lush EBT means that everyone can contribute to the business by sharing their questions, suggestions and ideas with the EBT via their Rep, who will ensure it reaches the right place. 

Finally, Lush is full of wonderfully talented people and sometimes it may be hard to stand out from the crowd. But through being part of the Lush EBT and managing employee voice you will develop your skills in active listening, problem solving, networking, teamwork and much more while building global connections really helping to grow your professional profile at Lush. 

Our EBT Reps represent the beneficiaries, direct their voice to the right place, make sure everyone is receiving as much information as possible from the business and get the chance to hone their skills in listening, feedback and communication.

By being elected, their colleagues regard them as someone they can reach out to and depend on, what a lovely compliment!

To be an EBT Rep you must:

➜ Have a permanent contract with Lush

➜ Have been with the business for at least 6 months (consecutively)

And that's it! We've aimed to make the Rep criteria as inclusive as possible.

Every two years we hold Lush EBT Elections. 

This is an opportunity for all Lush employees to vote for someone who will embody Employee Ownership at Lush, champion Lush's ethics, and facilitate two way communication through employee voice channels. 

A vote is held in each shop, department, and across support teams in every Lush Group country.  From this vote, one person from each shop, department and support team will have the opportunity to join the other winners of this stage to be voted in as the EBT Rep for their business area. 

Every time a seat becomes available for a staff elected Trustee on the Trust Board, the EBT Reps in each market will then vote between themselves to select one person per country to participate in the vote for the next staff elected Trustee. 

Being an EBT Rep is an optional role that is done within a person’s regular paid hours at Lush. There is no additional compensation for Rep activities.

Most EBT Rep activity can easily be woven into everyday conversations, team meetings and organic touchpoints with their teammates. We sometimes refer to this as ‘Repping alongside your role’ and our elected Reps receive Top Tips to help them manage their time.  There may be times when there is more to do, meetings to attend or perhaps a Rep would like to organise an activity they will need more time for. 

Being a Rep offers lots of opportunity for personal growth and development while building knowledge, your professional profile and global connections at Lush. All reps are paid their regular wage for work done alongside their regular role.

Every time a seat becomes available for a staff elected Trustee on the Trust Board, the EBT Reps in each market will then vote between themselves to select one person per country to participate in the vote for the next staff elected Trustee. 

To be eligible to be an EBT Trustees you must:

➜ Be over the age of 18

➜ Have a permanent contract with Lush

➜ Have been with the business for more than 2 years.

This is due to legal requirements for Employee Benefit Trusts in the UK

Everyone employed by our Lush Group entities are beneficiaries of the Lush Employee Benefit Trust.  This is everyone working in our Lush Group countries: Aotearoa (New Zealand), Australia, Austria, Bahrain, Belgium, Canada, Croatia Manufacturing, Czechia, France, Germany, Hungary, Hong Kong, Macau, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Luxembourg, MENA, The Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Spain, Sweden, Taiwan, UAE, UK & USA. If you work for Lush in one of these countries you don't need to do anything to become a beneficiary of the Lush EBT.

Do you work for a Lush partner market?

Our partner businesses are jointly owned by our partners, some of whom are interested in seeing how the EBT works with a possibility that they do something similar in the future. There are two ways this could happen. In the past, we have had partners who wanted to sell their business and Lush UK bought it. If this were to happen with a partner country, then you would join the EBT. Alternatively, if a partner wants to retire, they may wish to set up an EBT or something equivalent in their country. If something is established for the benefit of the staff it would be a separate entity to this EBT.

As a beneficiary of the Lush EBT you will…

➜ Have a vote on any future Change of Control (where 50% or more of the company is proposed to be sold).

➜ Have access to a bonus scheme

➜ Have a vote on any proposed changes to the core principles of the Lush Ethical Charter or a future change of control

➜ Have a platform to be able to ask questions and share ideas and suggestions with the business, through your EBT Rep or directly through ebt@lush.co.uk

➜ Have access to an EBT Representative (Rep) to represent you

➜ Be able to hold Lush accountable to our commitments in the Lush Ethical Charter

➜ Receive regular, inclusive, transparent communication and updates from the business

As Lush colleagues do not own direct shares, they do not receive dividends.  

As we trade in so many countries and have so many employees across the Group, the process of paying dividends directly to staff would be an administrative burden for both the company and every individual.  Compared to companies our size, our Shareholders receive very modest dividends.  Once shared among our 12,500+ Group employees, the financial value of a dividend to the individual would be very low.  This is one of the reasons why we did not opt for a direct share ownership scheme.

Instead, the Lush Employee Benefit Trust helps to maintain the bonus culture that has always been a fundamental part of our culture and our mechanism for sharing the rewards of success company wide with our staff.  If you are an employee of the Lush Group, through the EBT we can promise that you will always have access to a bonus scheme so that when the business is performing well, everyone benefits from the rewards.

Opting for the option of securing access to bonus schemes for all employees over dividends is very common practice for Employee Owned businesses in the UK as it allows for tax and other deductions to be controlled through the normal administration of our payroll systems. 

The other nice thing about bonuses, is that they get paid to staff before interest charges, depreciation on investments such as new shops and factory equipment, amortisation and tax and are therefore calculated on a higher profit value.  Dividend is the last thing paid out of the business, meaning that is only paid if there is any profit left over after all other business needs have been met (including staff bonuses and tax) so there is more security in staff receiving bonuses that are protected through the EBT than dividends.

As an example, I’ve the last 4 years, only one dividend paid out in Lush which was in 2019. The value of dividend the EBT would have received as a 100% Shareholder, would have been £100k. Over the same 3 years, we have paid out over £30m through the bonus schemes that the EBT protects.

No, employees don’t have to invest any of their own money. This isn’t a share ownership scheme. If shares become available from any of the other Shareholders, the shares could be purchased by Lush Cosmetics Limited and re-issued to the EBT, which is something we may see happen in the future as our Shareholders wish to retire and sell their shares.

Our current Shareholders gifted 10% of their shares to the EBT to entrust everyone working for Lush with protecting our ethics and future independence of the business.

Lush colleagues do not own direct shares. The company shares are held in Trust on behalf of our staff in the Lush Employee Benefit Trust which is looked after by our board of Trustees.

We would like to see the % of shares that the EBT owns to increase over time and hope that the EBT will offer security to our staff that our values and ethics that make Lush the company we want it to be will continue to be safeguarded and never compromised.

Through the EBT and the platform it provides to our Employee Voice, every member of staff has a means of being able to share their ideas, suggestions and questions with the business while it remains independently owned, true to our Ethical Charter and appreciating the contribution of every member of staff. 

We hope that the EBT will continue to grow and become a key feature of our business and our people culture and that the work of the Trustees and the Employee Voice will help to ensure the business is continually moving in a positive direction and is helped led there by its employees.

There are two instances when all Group colleagues would formally be consulted and asked to vote on a company decision.

➜ If there was a proposed change of control (i.e. if the other Shareholders wanted to sell the company to an external investor).

➜ If there was a proposed change to any of the core principles in the Lush Ethical Charter.

Currently as a Shareholder, the Lush EBT would not be consulted to vote on management decisions in the business, however the EBT network of EBT Reps is a fantastic network reaching and representing every team in all 27 Group markets for Leadership teams to use to canvas opinion from staff on any subject. That could be a global company decision, or something more specific to your country or area of the business.  

We would like to encourage management teams to use the EBT and our network of Reps more to seek the opinion of staff on decisions that would benefit from the contribution of employee voice and opinion.

The Lush Employee Benefit Trust is a Shareholder of the Lush business.  Shareholders are the owners of the company, but aren’t responsible for the day-to-day management or management decisions in the company. 

Through the legal agreements between the Lush Shareholders and the EBT Trustees, The Lush EBT is given a formal say in the instance of two key events:

A future change of control.

If the company ever wished to sell the majority of the Lush Group company (Lush Cosmetics Ltd) shares to an external investor, the company would first need to seek agreement from you, our staff.  As defined in the legal agreements between Lush and the Trustee, the company would ask the Trustees to hold a vote among all Group colleagues to seek their agreement.  In order for the sale to go ahead, a majority vote must be reached (50% or more positive votes) in the majority of all Group markets (in 50% or more Group markets).  The Lush Group company cannot be brought or sold without your consent.

A change to any of our Core Ethical Principles in the Lush Ethical Charter.

If the company ever wished to make a change to one of the core principles of The Lush Ethical Charter, the Trustees would need to consult with all Group employees and gather their opinion to be shared with the company before any such decision could be made.

On both occasions, every Lush colleague in every Lush Group company will be consulted.

Aside from these two scenarios, as a Shareholder, The Lush EBT via the Trustees can also offer recommendations or suggestions to the business on behalf of our Group employees as beneficiaries, but they can’t enforce a decision and do not have a vote on any other decisions that are made by the management of the business.

The Lush EBT Network is also separate from the management lines in the business as it offers our staff as beneficiaries of the Lush EBT a direct channel to share voice and ideas directly with any area of the business, regardless of role or geographical location.

The EBT Network of Reps act independently to collate voice and ideas from our staff to pass on to the right person or team in the business that can influence change.

Reporting a breach to the Ethical Charter.

The Lush Ethical Charter is a legal document that for the first time, defines Lush's commitment to our ethical standards that we all live and breathe in every area of the Lush business.  The Ethical Charter is made up of 'core' and 'evolving principles'.  We would like every person working for Lush to help safeguard the Lush ethics. If you believe Lush is ever in breach of the commitments in the Lush Ethical Charter, details of this must be shared with the Lush EBT Trustees. 

This can be shared directly with the Trustees via the EBT Team at ebt@lush.co.uk or you can ask your EBT Rep to share on your behalf.  Please include as much supporting information as possible to share with the Trustees.

Sharing your voice and ideas with the business.

Our network of EBT Reps has been set up to create a direct channel for you to make a positive contribution to the business by sharing ideas, questions, concerns, suggestions or feedback on areas of the business you may not have had the opportunity to contribute to before, something over and above what your manager is able to assist with. 

It could be anything from sharing an idea or suggestion for a local campaign or product to sharing feedback on a company decision or asking a question about company performance. It could relate to your individual team or shop, or it may be a company wide issue you'd like to share feedback or an idea for.

The EBT Network will ensure your voice is directed to the relevant place in the business to be considered and for you to receive a response.  Depending on what area of the business it relates to, will depend on where your Rep directs it to.  It may be a manager, a local Leadership Team, the UK Leadership Team or the EBT Trustees. 

Signposting to a more appropriate channel.

Our Reps are in place to share your voice and ensure it is directed to the right place in the business.

They are not trained or expected to support with matters concerning wellbeing or typical HR issues such as disputes or grievances, but they can help to signpost you to appropriate channels to ensure you get the support you need. This might be your manager or our People Teams for example.

If you want to share something that indicates a breach to the Ethical Charter or something that might be in contradiction to our ethics, your query might be directed to the Trustees.

Absolutely not.  You are more than welcome to reach out to your local Business Area Reps and Country Reps directly in your market.  Anyone, anywhere in the Lush world can also reach out directly to the Lush EBT Coordinators at ebt@lush.co.uk.  Our job is to support you in ensuring your voice reaches the right person and is given the right platform to influence positive change and receive a response from the business.  Please reach out to the team from anywhere, anytime, in any language.

There are a few subjects that would be directed immediately to our EBT Trustees. 

➜ Concerns raised by a colleague that we may be in conflict with the Lush Ethical Charter.

➜ Matters that may be having a substantial impact on the wellbeing and care of our colleagues.

➜ Activity or business decisions that may pose a significant risk to the financial health, reputation or sustainability of the business.

➜ Reports from colleagues that they do not have access to a bonus scheme, as one of our commitments through the Lush EBT

Our EBT team also keep meticulous records of all contributions we receive through the EBT channel from our colleagues and ensure our Trustees receive an overview of all questions, suggestions and opinions and what the key topics are that our staff are sharing. The same view is also shared with the Lush board to share key themes and patterns in employee voice and opportunities to act on requests from our staff.

If you leave Lush, you don't need to do anything. Upon leaving, you cease to be a beneficiary of the Lush EBT. 

We all play a role in ensuring our values are protected through the Lush Ethical Charter. Our EBT Trustees have a role as guardians of the ethics to ensure that the company remains compliant with our commitments in the Lush Ethical Charter.

If you or someone in your team/constituency think that Lush is ever in breach of the Lush Ethical Charter it is your responsibility to report this immediately to the Trustees directly at ebt@lush.co.uk. There is a process in place that would trigger an immediate investigation by the Trustees and depending on the outcome of the investigation, there are a series of next steps to be followed to ensure a transparent and thorough investigation and remediation plan. This may include convening a committee of EBT Reps to decide on whether a breach has occurred or not.

The Lush Ethical Charter comprises two sets of principles. The first are our core principles. These are our non-negotiable, line-in-the-sand values. Ethics such as our commitment to fighting animal testing, have been the backbone of the business since the beginning and we do not ever see these changing. Our evolving principles are slightly different, these values are ones that we do see changing over time as science, technology and other factors may continue to evolve and allow us to raise the bar and develop these principles in response. 

This means that our core principles are ones where we can easily define whether a breach has occurred or not. With our evolving principles, a breach is hard to define and so we instead encourage our colleagues to help us to raise the bar and consider how we can better hold ourselves to these commitments.

Passionate about the business, our ethics, equal access of information for all and representing the voice of their peers, your EBT Rep will be a champion of engagement for your team!

Not only will your Rep add the element of human conversion to the sharing of updates and information shared directly from the business, they will stimulate conversation, opinion and ideas amongst your team on broader company topics. Having a Rep will provide a direct channel for your team to share ideas and suggestions with the business.

We believe every employee should feel that they have a stake in our business.

This increased level of engagement with company performance and direction along with having a voice in protecting Lush’s future independence and our ethics, will give everyone the opportunity to make a positive contribution to the future of Lush, regardless of their role or location.

You'll end up with someone in your team who is highly skilled in communication and listening, has a broader knowledge of the wider business and knows how to ask the right questions and where to direct them to, becoming a true ambassador of the brand, our values and our people.

Your Rep will be part of a vast network across the Group business (27 countries) alongside their fellow Reps and is a wonderful opportunity for personal and professional development for the right person.

We don't currently offer recharges for hours spent as an EBT Rep. The EBT is now part of the fabric of our business and should become a natural additional to each team across the business that delivers real benefits to you and your staff.  Due to the variability of the role and hours spent, it would also be impossible to budget! 

There are no formal guidelines on how many hours a Rep should spend on their role. The amount of time it takes to do the role will depend on a wide range of variables, such as how many people they are representing, what their current role is in the business or how engaged and knowledgeable their colleagues already are. Finding the balance might take a little trial and error as the EBT is still evolving and we are all learning together! The important thing is that it works for your team and delivers what your team would like from their EBT Rep. Perhaps you know another part of the business where they have found the perfect balance, if you do, feel free to reach out for some recommendations! 

As a manager we would love to have you involved in developing your EBT Reps alongside all other roles within your team! 

Our newly elected EBT Reps will have the opportunity to join a global on-boarding event hosted by central support teams and experts from across the business as well as other ad-hoc EBT meetings. As their manager, we would like you to ensure they have the opportunity to attend and provide the support they might need to give the session their full attention. 

There will also be upskilling sessions available throughout their length of term that they will be invited to.  We would love to see as many Reps attend as possible, particularly if the session is on a skill they would like to develop further.  Ensuring your Rep has the opportunity to join these sessions with widen their networking opportunities and develop their skills in representing the voice of your team.  More info on the role and responsibilities of your Rep can be found here.