A call has gone out for employee owned businesses (EOBs) of all sizes and sectors to take part in an unprecedented national research programme.

Ownership at Work (OAW) and the Employee Ownership Association (EOA) are launching the largest EO sector research project ever undertaken in the UK and need EOBs to step forward to become ‘Knowledge Partners’.

To ensure the success of the EO Knowledge Programme we need 150 EOBs to put their hands up to contribute a small amount of time and insight into their businesses.

If you would like to find out more, please contact us at oaw@employeeownership.co.uk.

Running over the next 12-15 months, this ground-breaking programme will seek to establish a new baseline for the economic, social and environmental impact of EOBs in the UK. To ensure the quality and credibility of the research findings we are targeting over 10% of the sector in the UK.

We will protect your time to ensure it is simple and efficient to engage with the Programme. By doing so, you will be contributing to three vital research strands:

  1. EO Performance project: Baseline research on EOBs’ economic, social and environmental performance, analysed against comparable non-EO businesses
  2. Good EO project: A benchmarking survey that aims to enable EOBs to routinely access EO-specific good practice insights
  3. EO Integrated Impact project: The development of a free-to-use model that enables EO businesses to measure and manage social and environmental impact of their ownership model.

There are significant potential benefits to the whole sector of the Knowledge Programme, including:

  • Better evidence including facts and data that demonstrate the impact of EO
  • EO-specific good practice data so EO firms can benchmark, learn and improve
  • To demonstrate any difference EO makes compared to other business types
  • To give a full account of EO impact on commercial performance and on employees, communities and the planet

OAW and EOA are in the process of identifying independent third party research partners to work us to deliver the Programme.  A number of EOBs have already become funding contributors to support the Programme, including: John Lewis Partnership, Mott MacDonald, Scott Bader, Howden Group, GLIDE, Gripple, Loadhog, Fieldfisher LLP and Make.