At the end of each year, we ask co-op and mutual leaders from around the world to reflect on their organisation and sector – and this year, on the UN International Year of Cooperatives theme: Co-ops Build a Better World. Read the December 2024 Q&As here.
This rapidly growing employee ownership sector, which has grown from 1,000 businesses in 2022 to exceeding 2,000 in 2024, hardwires growth into the economy, increasing wellbeing and prosperity for people and communities, including:
- Supporting CleanTEC to share ownership and success with 1,250 employees in stark contrast with this industry and others in the foundational economy where low pay, and undesirable employee rights contribute to the UK’s working poor.
- Anchoring sustainable farming practices with Riverford Organic Farmers rooting jobs and innovation in the many communities in which the business is based.
- Turbo charged innovations in the medical sciences and advanced manufacturing sectors through businesses such as Pennine Healthcare, not just affecting employees and the business, but important innovations that can change people’s lives.
As EOBs embed and evolve great EO practices, they drive up performance and investment – they deliver an average 20% performance increase, 43% revenue increase, and are 50% more likely to invest in R&D.
While employee owners are benefiting from higher wages and profit share – EO payments put an average of £2,729 in the pockets of employees in 2020 – enhanced business knowledge, and wellbeing, and from an average of 12% higher investment in training and skills.
As we grow employee ownership, we grow good jobs, rooted in communities resiliently for the longer term.
What would you like to see happening 2025 in terms of a co-op and EO economy and how is your organisation working toward that?
The year ahead is the next phase of growth for employee ownership and other mutuals and co-operatives. EO growth aligns with government missions, and we are committed to collaborating with the mutual and co-operative trade associations and our collective networks to ensure lasting and meaningful impact from the government’s commitment to double the size of the co-operatives and mutuals sector.
There is a huge shift in our focus at the EOA working with the EO sector. We are no longer working to simply make the case for more employee ownership.
The very nature of employee ownership is to improve and ‘up your game’ and we have a decade of experiences, insights and stories that are developing and evolving, meaning we can lead the conversations on where employee ownership can drive positive outcomes – we will start this activity in 2025 with a white paper on employee ownership in the care sector.
Beyond the UK, the EOA will expand its work to support the global growth of employee ownership
by sharing our growing body of research evidencing the benefits and best practices of EO, with our international ambassador Graeme Nuttall, building on conversations in Australia, the United States, Canada Denmark and Ireland.
