Employee Ownership Explained
What is Employee Ownership?
Employee ownership is a form of company ownership in which the majority or a significant part of the company is owned by or on behalf of its employees.
Reportedly the fastest growing form of business ownership in the UK, employee ownership has seen an increasing number of business owners who are looking towards retirement and succession planning changing their structures to enable their employees to take over the ownership of their business. It’s not just those looking to retire who are attracted to this form of ownership; entrepreneurs creating new businesses are seeing the advantages that e
mployee ownership can bring to business growth. Whilst large businesses such as John Lewis and Arup are high profile examples of successful employee-owned companies, there are a large and growing legion of smaller companies – in diverse sectors from manufacturing to professional services – that are also employee-owned.
Between 2014 and 2016, the combined sales of the Top 50 employee owned companies have increased by 10.2%, compared to UK GDP which grew at just 7.7% over the same period. Added to this, they are shown to benefit from greater resilience when times are hard with productivity growing year on year. Employee-owned businesses invest heavily in employee engagement, engendering a culture of collective responsibility by involving staff in decision making, giving them a powerful voice and sharing success more widely. Read more…