RISE Mutual CIC awarded Rising Star of the Year in UK EO awards

RISE Mutual Community Interest Company, headquartered in Camden is one of five winner at the UK Employee Ownership Awards 2016

RISE Mutual CIC awarded the title of Rising Star of the Year at last night’s UK Employee Ownership Awards. The awards, delivered by the Employee Ownership Association (EOA), celebrate the success of the employee ownership sector, and in 2016 are sponsored by leading EOA member, Baxendale.

Presented as part of the EOA Annual Conference, the award recognises the achievements of businesses that have recently made the transition to the employee ownership model, and are already celebrating the success of the structure.

The award, endorsed by the championed retail giant, the John Lewis Partnership, recognises the success of an organisation that has become employee owned no more than 3 years ago. The judges recognised that, even these first three years, RISE is thriving within its sector, and has engendered a strong, successful culture of employee ownership.

Deb Oxley, Chief Executive of the EOA said

“I’m delighted to declare RISE the winners of this year’s Rising Star Award. It is fantastic to see the immediate and significant benefits that RISE are experiencing through the new company structure. They are an excellent example of the better business that can be achieved through employee ownership, even in the early days of adopting the model.”

RISE is proud to own the status of the first employee owned mutual in the UK delivering probation services, and has seen a 3% increase in operating profit, retained and increased its staff by 43 employees with 7% progressing into more senior roles since making the transition to employee owned. The company has won 65% of the contracts that it has bid for, and gained an 85% satisfaction rate on the programmes it runs.

Kuljit Sandhu of RISE Mutual CIC said: “We’re just thrilled because this has been two years in the making and is a testament to the hard work of all our staff, we can’t wait to go back and tell them. It’s a really challenging environment working in criminal justice so this is great recognition of our team’s achievements, which will encourage them to find new and innovative ways of working.”

Ewan Hall, Director of Legal, Baxendale, said: “Congratulations to Rising Star of the Year, Rise Mutual CIC, which celebrates its drive to engage its staff and harness their knowledge to innovate services for the rehabilitation of prisoners.

“Employee ownership is at the core of what we do so we’re proud to sponsor the UK Employee Ownership Awards, run by the EOA, for a second year and delighted to celebrate the stories of success. The awards hold a special significance as the successor to the Philip Baxendale Awards, which grew over 10 years from our internal celebration of success into a national celebration of the UK’s employee owned sector.”

A full list of the UK EOA Awards is available to view here.