EO Day case study Turley

For EO Day co-owners from Turley’s 12 locations are taking a half day to help 10 charities at 10 locations to celebrate its 10^th company conference year.

The list of activity includes supporting Southampton’s Naomi House and Jacks Place by sorting donations, a beach litter pick with the Marine Conservation Society in Scotland, helping the London LandAid Grenfell Tower Appeal and Crisis with a Triathlon and ‘bring a dish’ event to help fundraising as well as helping a night Shelter in Bristol, a reading scheme in Birmingham, The Cardiff Autistic Society, the Christie in Leeds and Manchester and the Belfast Alzheimer’s society.

Turley is one of the UK’s independent planning consultancies established more than 30 years ago which started with one man and now employs 230 co-owners at a network of 12 offices with a turnover of £22 million.

Its expertise in planning and property honed over decades helps them to develop creative strategies to get the best outcome for clients for all types and scales of development throughout the UK planning system for private and public sector clients.

Turley operates in key development sectors including residential, commercial, logistics, retail and leisure, energy, infrastructure, health, education, sports and stadia.

As a 100% employee owned business, Turley feels its ethos, values and expertise helps to “create places of quality that deliver development value through the intelligent and expert application of the UK planning system”.

Turley had a clear drive for becoming employee owned 21 years ago to share benefits with all, support independence and longevity, provide leadership succession and instigate the operation of a medium term share option scheme.

The company continues to innovate as the company evolves – recently it revamped its leadership model as part of succession planning to support Rob Lucas’s decision to step down as Chief Executive after a highly successful 31 years with the company.

At the same time, Turley welcomed Sir Michael Bear as it’s new Chair and he brings a wealth of experience to Turley from a distinguished career in property and construction, including executive and non-executive positions at Hammerson and Arup.

Chrysta Poppitt, Senior Director of HR, said: “We started our new leadership model in January this year and we ended our company formal board.  Our new leadership model plays to strengths and empowers teams.  It’s innovative for a professional services company and aligned to an EO culture.”

Turley has recently elected co-owners to its Employee Benefit Trust and it shares its financial updates monthly via the Intranet and local discussions.

Under the business strategy of giving the Freedom to Flourish Turley set out to give co-owners greater flexibility to support life balance.

Its one company ethos means co-owners exercise strong stewardship and they invest in what they own, take pride in ownership and protect and enhance the company.
Chrysta said “We have an annual company conference and invite contributions from across the business and it is led by a team of co-owners. We also run Tiny Pulse our fortnightly co-owner engagement survey and have a series of realiser teams  comprising of co-owners at all levels which include innovations, inclusion and diversity, knowledge and  information, charitable trust, business development and line management.

“Our impact on the communities that we work in is also important to us which is why we are supporting charities in our localities and we also sent a team of co-owners to Sierra Leonne and Dominican Republic each year to support planning and building construction.”

It is these realiser teams that have helped to drive innovation and efficiencies adding to both savings alongside growing its turnover. Earlier this year its line manager programme focused on commerciality and together with co-owner stewardship its profit increased and the company noted a third month of record invoicing.

Over the past 12 months ideas from employee owners have helped to drive 17% reduction in central costs.

Chrysta added: “We have invested wisely in our people to ensure that we consistently deliver quality work and good business outcomes. Leadership; responsiveness to clients’ needs; building mutually-beneficial relationships and being trusted advisors are central strands of our approach.

“In summary, we have been reinforcing the entrepreneurial spirit of the company’s founders.”

Turley has market-leading expertise in planning, design, heritage, economics, engagement and sustainability.

Visit www.turley.co.uk for more information, or visit @turleyplanning on Twitter.