The EOA works with a broad range of partners to support our work to grow the number of individual employee owners in the UK to at least 3m by 2030.
Crucially our work with partners includes providing insight into the sector and its growth, support businesses with choices at the point of succession and influence opinion formers and the government collectively on future policy.
Read our partner newsletter – first edition July 2019
The EOA works with Prof Andrew Robinson (University of Leeds) & Prof Andrew Pendleton (UNSW) of the WRCEO, to publish the White Rose (WREOC) Survey, which charts the growth and characteristics of the UK employee ownership sector.
Data from the White Rose Centre for Employee Ownership survey shows there are 370 employee owned businesses in the UK with over 60% of conversions to employee ownership happening since 2014.
The sector experienced growth of 17.2% in 2017 and 18.5% in 2018.
The EOA works with RM2 to publish two key pieces of data:
– The Employee Ownership Top 50 – the UK’s largest employee owned companies. This tracks the performance of the largest employee owned businesses in the UK
– The EOT Survey – a measure of the growth and performance of businesses that have adopted an Employee Ownership Trust since they were introduced in the Finance Bill of 2014.
For over twenty years RM2 has been advising successful private companies on equity incentives for employees. They help business owners sell their company and benefit employees using Employee Ownership Trusts.
Read about the Top 50 Employee Owned Businesses on our evidence page>>
In 2018 partners concluded the Ownership Effect Inquiry with the launch of the report The Ownership Dividend – the Economic Case for Employee Ownership.
The inquiry and report was delivered in partnership with financial support of John Lewis Partnership and the eaga Trust, leadership of Baroness Sharon Bowles and the academic rigour of Cass and Alliance Manchester Business Schools. The action plan continues to shape the work of the EOA and its partnership projects.
The report concluded that the Ownership Dividend can deliver a more productive and inclusive economy in three ways:
• More engaged employees – via more inclusive, transparent and effective models of corporate governance and employee engagement which better involve, motivate and financially reward individuals through their ownership stake
• Improving productivity – via more businesses unlocking the enhanced performance and productivity powered by the increased personal endeavour and discretional efforts of employees acting with greater common purpose once they become employee owners.
• Resilient regional economies – via a more sustainable and resilient business model that root jobs locally by providing an effective business succession solution, business independence and the ability to plan growth and investment over the longer term.
Co-operative Development Scotland plays a key role in on the EO Sector group which brings together the knowledge or key partnerships, insights, opportunities and issues for employee ownership in the UK.
CDS is a great example of where government intervention in growing employee and worker ownership has worked to bring employee and worker ownership into the mainstream offering valuable best practice and also stimulating a UK-wide conversation on EO.
Co-operative Development Scotland (CDS) is the arm of Scotland’s enterprise agencies that supports company growth through collaborative and employee ownership business models.
It helps new and existing co-operatives to grow and develop with a range of advisory services, as well as raising the profile of co-operatives as a viable business model through the media and events.
Wales Cooperative Centre plays a key role in on the EO Sector group which brings together the knowledge or key partnerships, insights, opportunities and issues for employee ownership in the UK.
WCC has recently launched the Think Employee Ownership campaign which aims to get businesses to think about EO at the point of succession.
Wales Cooperative Centre helps to strengthen and empower Welsh communities by supporting the growth of co-operatives and social enterprises, and by collaboratively delivering projects that provide skills and tackle exclusion.
Chartered Banker has worked with the EOA on awareness raising which has included an article in its publication and a webinar which explored the impact of employee ownership on individual employees, who through high levels of empowerment and meaningful influence, tend to offer additional discretional effort that drives the productivity in a business.
The Chartered Banker Institute is the largest professional body for bankers in the UK, with more than 30,000 members. Our impact and influence continues to grow, with members and students in 87 countries worldwide.
Access to finance is a key topic for businesses growing as employee owned businesses or transitioning to employee ownership.
The Employee Ownership Association and Co-operatives UK are calling for the UK Government to invest in an intervention and make it a national policy objective to support a voluntary expansion of employee and worker-owned businesses.
The campaign #1MillionOwners campaign calls for £2.17million to be allocated over the next three years with an ambition to create one million worker and employee owners by 2030, addressing some of the challenges currently facing the UK economy.
The investment would help five local enterprise partnerships (LEPs) pilot an intervention to address the biggest barriers to employee and worker ownership.
Co-operatives UK is a politically independent, not for profit association that unites, develops and promotes thousands of co-ops across the UK. From high street retailers and community owned pubs, to agricultural producer organizations and worker owned businesses, co-ops are everywhere and together they are worth £36.1 billion to the UK economy.
Read about and pledge to support the EOA and Co-operatives UK campaign – #1MillionOwners
Read the joint opinion piece by Coops UK’s Ed Mayo and the EOA’s Deb Oxley>>
The EOA’s work with the ICAEW began back in 2017, first delivering a webinar and some articles.
As well as the ICAEW providing a representative on the Ownership Effect Inquiry panel and being part of the launch of the Ownership Dividend report, work between the two organisations has continued in 2019 with a cover feature in Corporate Financier publication and an agreement for the EOA’s Chief Executive Deb Oxley OBE to deliver keynote address to the ICAEW Annual Reception of the Corporate Finance Faculty in November 2019.
The ICAEW and EOA are now exploring the delivery of some roadshows targeting accountants in the regions later in 2019.
The ICAEW are leaders in accountancy, finance and business, ICAEW Chartered Accountants work with organisations to look beyond the next quarter and take the long view on key issues – to help them achieve more than they’d imagine.
One of the barriers to the growth is the awareness and knowledge of employee ownership as an effective succession solution in the advisor market.
Read ICAEW’s Corporate Financier article on employee ownership>>
Activity at the beginning of 2019 year has included the Guide to EO being actively distributed through the FSB Legal Hub and an article about employee ownership has been published in the FSB’s publication First Voice. This activity has generated a number of enquiries from businesses about employee ownership.
New activity has now been agreed with FSB, with a number of seminars being planned for quarter four 2019, to help support businesses on their thinking around succession – with employee ownership explored as one of the options.
The FSB, Federation of Small Business, offers its members a wide range of vital business services including advice, financial expertise, support and a powerful voice in government. Its mission is to help smaller businesses achieve their ambitions.
The growth of employee ownership at the point of succession for SMEs is the most significant growth area for employee ownership.
Read the latest First Voice article on employee ownership – January 2019>>
Activate Business School, Grant Thornton and the Employee Owner Association have
collaborated in developing modules specifically for employee owned organisations.
They have worked with EOA members to understand the different skillsets of leadership in an employee owned businesses which has included which has included attending the EOA’s Regional Networks, with a launch expected late 2019.
EOA member Grant Thornton is one of the world’s largest professional services networks of independent accounting and consulting member firms which provide assurance, tax and advisory services to privately held businesses, public interest entities, and public sector entities.
Activate Business School is a subsidiary of the Activate Learning Group which has over 1,000 employees supporting 16,000 students in our colleges and schools. It has a 50-year heritage of delivering training and education, we combine the integrity of an educational institution with the agility and rigorous quality control of a commercial training provider.