July 3: Employee Ownership Day in the United Kingdom

On July 3, the United Kingdom celebrated Employee Ownership Day. The president of the Employee Ownership Association of the UK (EOA), Iain Hasdell, said "employee-owned companies now account for over £30 billion [47 billion USD] of UK GDP." A group of employee ownership organizations released The MoralDNA of Employee Owned Companies, a preliminary report of an ongoing study of 829 employee-owners at 14 companies by Roger Steare and colleagues. The report finds that "the cultures of employee owned businesses are much less hierarchical and more collegiate than others" (p. 6) and that "90% of people working in employee owned companies experience high-performing visionary, affiliative, democratic and coaching leadership styles," compared with 59% among a comparable group of non-employee-owners. The study also found higher rates of commitment, improved recruitment, and longer-term decision making.

Graeme Nuttall is the author of the report that served as the basis for the UK government's push to promote employee ownership, and his law firm, Field Fisher Waterhouse, partnered with EOA, Prospects, and the UK's Chartered Institute of Public Finance and Accountancy to release a second report on employee ownership in public services.