Written Submission to the Scottish Affairs Committee
Inquiry into sustainable employment and employee ownership
March 2017
Prepared by Carole Leslie
carole@ownershipassociates.co.uk
07811 198045
Employee ownership and sustainable employment
Introduction
Recent growth in employee ownership
Champions
Policy Landscape
Nuttall Review
Models and Structures
Forms of employee ownership
Research statistics
Who fits?
Business Succession
Engage and reward employees
Start up
Rescue
Governance and employee voice
Governance
Employee Voice
Ownership Culture
Management systems and reward
Impact on employees
Obstacles and Barriers to Employee Owned Businesses
Funding
Tax Implications
Union Involvement in Employee owned firms
Scottish Enterprise Support
Conclusion
This report is in response to a request from the Scottish Affairs Committee to supply some background information on employee ownership in support of their inquiry into sustainable employment. My aim in this report is to give some insight into the development of employee ownership and its impact on the economy, the community, the business and the individual. The focus is on Scotland, with some reference to UK and international aspects. I must stress that any opinions expressed are entirely my own.
Employee ownership is a topic that unites politicians of all persuasions and it’s easy to see why. When employees have an ownership stake in their business, they have more reason to work harder and think of better ways to do things. Where everyone is aligned with the corporate goals, there is less room for adversity in management/workforce relationships. When external shareholders in conventional businesses receive their dividends, they will likely squirrel that into tax effective, possibly offshore, investments. When employees receive their bonus, chances are that it will be spent locally on goods and services. Importantly for the local and national economy, a firm owned by its employees is much more likely to remain committed to its local area than close down and relocate to chase cheaper wages, government incentives or more favorable tax regimes.
This report examines the contribution employee ownership makes to sustainable employment and represents my own views and perspectives having been immersed in the sector since 2002.
It is worth beginning with a clarification of what employee ownership is. There is no legal definition. It is generally accepted by the UK’s employee ownership movement that an employee owned company has a significant element of its ownership in the hands of the majority of employees. This ownership stake can be direct, by shareholding, or indirect via trust. What is key is that the ownership is open to all (or most) employees to participate in. For example, a company of 50 employees owned by 5 key executives, who may all be employees of the business, would not be considered to be employee owned. A company where a lesser amount of equity is available to employees, but is open to the participation of all employees, would be judged to be in employee ownership. Admiral Insurance in Wales has 22.7% shareholding in the hands of employees, and participation in the scheme is open to all 3000 employees. The owner of Hunter Adams in Aberdeen last year divested 30% of the shareholding to employees.
There is often some blurring of definitions about what is a workers’ cooperative and what is an employee-owned business. A true workers’ co-operative will be aligned with the seven International Co-operative Principles as defined by the International Co-operatives Alliance[4].
Most businesses that identify as employee owned would not describe their businesses as cooperatives. Most will have a hierarchical management structure (although flatter than usual), employees will not have actively agreed to “join” as such and it may not operate democratically, albeit there is likely to be more consultation and involvement from employees. Indeed, most employee-owned firms operate exactly like other private, for-profit, businesses; the only difference is that employees, rather than external shareholders, hold the shares directly or indirectly.
There is no one form of employee ownership although as detailed below, most structures fall into three main categories. There are also some more unusual hybrids developing, particularly within public sector spinouts. For example, Remploy was in UK government ownership until 2015. Now US outsourcer, Maximus, own 70% of Remploy’s shareholding with the remaining 30% in an employee trust. Civil Service pension provider MyCSP is an alliance of private firm Equiniti (51%), UK Government (24%) and an employee trust (25%).
Companies owned by employees have a long history in the UK. Perhaps the best-known employee owned firm in the UK is the John Lewis Partnership. This retail business has been employee owned since 1928. Ove Arup formed his employee-owned consulting firm in 1946. Global chemical company, Scott Bader, became employee owned in 1951 when the Quaker family owners wanted to establish a “third way” of distributing capital in the company. Philip Baxendale, fourth generation owner of the Baxi Heating Company, gifted his business to employees in 1983. Despite these firms successfully adopting the model, and flourishing, growth of employee ownership was piecemeal. There was some activity spurred on by specific circumstances, for example when the deregulation of bus services led to a number of employee buyouts of municipal bus services, and groups of miners buying their companies as the mining sector was run down. With few notable exceptions, such as Tower Colliery, these tended to be short lived, not because the model failed but because of market conditions.
The number of known employee owned firms in the UK had grown from 38 in 2006 to 89 in 2010, with a further 23 companies known to be in transition. These were almost exclusively private sector companies; usually family owned or owner-managed, that had adopted the employee owned model as a succession solution. Policy developments detailed below that led to the growth of public service mutuals and the tax reliefs for private sector businesses have helped increase this to an approximate number of 230 today. Unfortunately, there hasn’t been the same commitment to employee ownership from the current government and since 2013 growth can be attributed largely to the efforts of various bodies that champion the movement.
The Employee Ownership Association began to more actively push the agenda for employee ownership from 2006. Social Business Wales was active in using employee ownership as a means to sustain businesses in deprived and rural areas of Wales. Co-operative Development Scotland is the arm of Scottish Enterprise working in partnership with Highlands and Islands Enterprise that promotes employee ownership as a business structure that fitted with the Scottish Government’s growth and inclusive economy strategies. Indeed, the prevalence of employee owned firms in the Scottish economy, and higher awareness of the model, can be largely attributed to the focus and efforts of Co-operative Development Scotland. Mention should also be given to Baxi Partnership, a fund that emerged from the eventual sale of the Baxi Heating Company. This fund was used to support companies moving to employee ownership and invested in 10 companies, and advised around 50 without funding. From 2001 until 2012, Baxi Partnership was based in Scotland with the result that seven of the ten companies supported financially were Scottish based.
Pendleton[5] (2015) believes the financial crash of 2008 was a catalyst for heightened interest in alternative models for business. The need to deliver shareholder value in conventional models led to short termism and detached ownership. The long-term nature of the employee ownership trust model and its absence of external shareholders appeared to be an ethical choice. The fact that most employee owned companies retained many features of the conventional business model such as board of directors and professional management team meant that employee ownership was not too far removed from mainstream business models.
Until 2005, there had not been many employee ownership/co-operative models within the UK public sector. One notable exception is in the field of local authority leisure provision. Leisure trusts now provide 30% of the UK’s public leisure centres, employing almost 50,000 staff. Most of these trusts are charitable trusts, but many operate with more co-operative models. The largest is Greenwich Leisure that launched in 1993 and now manages more than 200 centres mainly in London and in 2014 achieved a turnover of £163m. Greenwich Leisure is a registered Society under the Co-operative and Community Benefits Society Act (2014) and is a member of Co-operatives UK.
The Coalition Government of 2010 to 2015 introduced the most significant changes in the political landscape for employee ownership. This was driven by three actions:
In 2012, the then Minister for Employment Relations, the Rt Hon Norman Lamb MP appointed Graeme Nuttall, a solicitor with London firm Field Fisher Waterhouse , as government adviser on employee ownership. Graeme had been active in the world of employee ownership for many years, and had been involved in drafting share ownership legislation in the UK and abroad. Graeme was tasked with identifying the conditions for encouraging employee ownership, and articulating what the obstacles might be.
The landmark Nuttall[6] Review was published on July 4, 2012. The review made 28 recommendations, and every one was accepted. The report also identified the key barriers to wider adoption of employee ownership; lack of awareness, lack of information and complexity around the model and process. Nuttall proposed a new business form specific to employee ownership; the Employee Ownership Trust.
This model was launched in the Finance Act of 2014. The Employee Ownership Trust was to be a vehicle to hold the shares of employee owned companies on behalf of employees for the long term. The most groundbreaking, and surprising fact in times of “austerity” was the announcement that shareholders selling a controlling shareholding to these Employee Ownership Trusts could do so free of Capital Gains Tax. There were other conditions attached. To gain the tax exemption the business has to demonstrate that the control was in the collective hands of the employees. An additional benefit of the Employee Ownership Trust is that employees can be paid an annual bonus, of which up to £3600 would be free of income tax.
This one piece of legislation was a game changer for the employee ownership sector. It raised the profile of the model, it provided a specific form for companies to adopt, and most importantly, ensured that employee ownership was firmly on the agenda of any business adviser who might be talking to a client about business ownership succession.
The Coalition Government did launch another initiative during the term of this parliament. The Employee Owner Status widely became known as the “Rights for Shares” law. This was a specific employment status introduced in the Growth and Infrastructure Act of 2013 whereby an employee could agree to forfeit certain employment rights, in return for a shareholding in the company. The employee ownership sector, proud of their reputation for enhancing employee rights rather than eroding them, distanced themselves from the initiative. The name was changed to Employee Shareholder Status. Uptake was low and in the 2016 budget the Chancellor announced a restriction on the Capital Gains Tax relief available via the scheme.
Employee ownership appeared to drop from the political agenda following the 2015 election. The ministerial post was not maintained. However, in June 2016, there were encouraging words for the sector from new Prime Minister, Theresa May, who committed to more mutual models in the economy and initially announced a desire to see employee representation on company boards. This is an idea rescinded in the December Green Paper on Shareholder Accountability, Executive Pay and Employee Representation. [7]
The Scottish Government White Paper, Scotland’s Future[8], published in 2013 recognised that the involvement of employee representation on board could help “bolster long term decision-making and improve industrial relations”.
The Employee Ownership Association, Social Business Wales, and Co-operative Development Scotland continue to promote employee ownership. Co-operative Development Scotland aims to increase tenfold the number of employee owned firms in Scotland in ten years. According to the 2015/16 Annual Report[9] Co-operative Development Scotland were advising 131 Scottish firms.
The most common legal structure for an employee owned company is that of a Company Limited by Shares. Within this, it’s generally accepted that employee-owned structures fall into three categories: direct, indirect and hybrid
The rights attached to the shareholding would detail how much influence the shares bestowed on the holder.
With this model, employees do not own shares directly. The shares are held in the Trust and employees are beneficiaries of the Trust. The Trust becomes the main or only shareholder in the business and holds the board to account. The Trust Deed would usually set out how the board should run the company i.e. the company must operate with a culture of partnership, or must invest 20% of profits in R&D work etc. Page\Park Architects, Shetland Vets and Aquascot operate with indirect ownership.
There are other trusts used in employee owned companies such as the Charitable Trusts common in the leisure sector.
The Hybrid Model allows the company to benefit from both Direct and Indirect shareholding. The Trust ensures a stable model for the long term, and allows employees to benefit from any capital growth in the firm. The share market is limited and therefore easier to fund and manage.
Amongst many companies with a hybrid ownership structure are Clansman Dynamics, Stewart Buchanan Gauges and Highland Home Carers.
It should be emphasized that these three categories are broad and can overlap. It’s quite possible for some of the shareholding to be held in different ways. For example, the vendor may wish to retain some shareholding. Gavin Stewart sold 80% of the shareholding to an Employee Ownership Trust. His reason to retain 20% was twofold: it reduced the amount of debt the company had to carry, and there is an expectation that the expected benefits of employee ownership will lead to an uplift in share value. An employee ownership trust can sit alongside a family trust if there is a desire to retain some of the business in family ownership. It’s also quite possible to apportion a percentage of shareholding for external investment and this might be useful if there is a requirement to raise capital.
There are other models of company form that would be recognised as employee ownership businesses. Some companies are instituted as a Company Limited by Guarantee where all employees are members. There are Community Interest Companies, Industrial and Provident Societies and Limited Liability Partnerships. All of these legal forms have been used for businesses that could be described as employee-owned.
The benefits of employee ownership and collaborative working models are well documented:
Margaret Ferrier MP asked specifically about absence and turnover in employee owned firms. As Scottish employee owned firms tend to be SMEs, these are figures that are not usually tracked and evidence is anecdotal. Most firms will report improvement in attendance and employee attrition. A report by the Employment Research Institute at Napier University (2013) found that employees in employee owned firms reported higher levels of wellbeing and fewer visits to the GP than reported in conventional firms. A public service mutual, Sandwell Community Care, reported that absence reduced from an annual figure of 22%, to 1% under the mutual model. John Lewis Partnership have a staff turnover rate of 3.4% compared to a retail sector average of 7.8%.
Employee ownership provides benefits to the worker, the business and the economy. It is widely accepted that more employee ownership is desirable. Awareness is growing, but the model is far from being viewed as mainstream.
Employee ownership can fit with any sector of business and any size of company. The smallest company I’ve worked with personally was 3 geologists and the largest was a 770 strong cash and carry business. John Lewis Partnership employs 90,000 staff. Sectors are diverse. There are professional services such as architects, law firms, environmental consultants and dentists. There are many manufacturing companies in employee ownership. There is growing interest in the hospitality and media industries. It is hard to think of a sector where some form of employee ownership would not apply.
There are four key drivers for a business to consider employee ownership:
The greatest opportunity to grow the employee owned sector lies in the business succession issue currently facing the UK economy. As baby boomers come to retirement age, many business owners are looking to divest their business. The financial crash of 2008 put a hold on many transactions that might have gone to market. The drivers for exit remain; many business owners want to realise their value in the business and retire but the economic conditions meant it was impossible or imprudent. As cash begins to flow more easily around the economy, these business owners are now looking for exit routes. A trade sale may not be attractive.
There is a particular attraction to employee ownership from the family business sector. Indeed, a scan of the Employee Ownership Association private sector members shows a number of former family businesses. Family businesses represent an important section of our economy and are increasingly facing a crisis of succession as it becomes less common for younger generations to grow up within the family business and many seek careers elsewhere. To many of these companies, employee ownership provides a means to preserve what is often an important legacy in the business, and protect what is often quite a unique culture and brand. The size of the opportunity is significant: 57% of family firms had no succession plan. The consequences of this are that only one third of family businesses survive to second generation, only 9% to third. [20]
The benefits to a business owner considering employee ownership can be summarised as:
Some businesses will gift or sell shares to their employees as a means to engage them in the business and align employees with the strategic goals of the organisation. This is often done by means of one of the HMRC approved tax effective share plans. The most common schemes in use are the Share Incentive Plan, which is designed for participation by all employees, and the Enterprise Management Incentive Scheme. This scheme can be used for all employees in smaller companies (fewer than 250 employees) but is more often used as a reward scheme for senior or key personnel.
Employees at Admiral Insurance are gifted £3600 value of shares each year under the company’s Share Incentive Plan. Entrepreneur Dean Hunter divested 30% of his shareholding into the hands of the employees of his HR consulting firm, Hunter Adams.
There are fewer examples of employee ownership being used as a model from company inception. Hydrocarbon accountants, Accord Energy Solutions Ltd in Aberdeen is one example of a business that set up as employee owned from day one. The founders financed the company originally with salary sacrifice. They saw employee ownership as a unique way to involve employees in an industry that was largely dominated by large corporates with quite rigid structures and little employee voice.
There is scope for employee ownership to be borne out of distress situations. If a company runs into trouble, the employees are often the people best placed to make it work. They know the business; they know how to accelerate production etc. However, often the employee ownership option is considered too late in the distress process; a buyer has been sought and not found, there is no further funding available, the workforce has been reduced. In these circumstances, it is very difficult for a group of employees to turn a bad situation around.
There have been suggestions that employees should have first option to buy the company in any sale but these proposals have not yet progressed beyond discussion stage.
The governance structure is the formal way that the firm allocates power and decision-making authority. In an employee-owned company, a robust governance framework will ensure that the employees’ ownership stake is properly respected. Accountability is fundamental. In a traditional firm, the shareholders hold the board to account. When the shareholders are a larger group of people, not all of them will have the knowledge and experience to assess the management skills of senior people and make a judgement on how well the company is being run.
The Trust structure provides an efficient means to do this. The Trust Deed will usually set out the purpose of the Trust i.e. the vision for the firm as an employee owned organisation. Trustees are appointed as “stewards” of the Trust; it is their role to ensure the company is being run in line with the Trust Deed. The Trustees usually have the same powers as shareholders; they can remove directors, change the board, and have power of veto over certain decisions.
Some employee owned firms appoint employees to the Board of Directors, usually on a fixed term and as a result of election by peers. This can work very well. It’s a powerful commitment from the company that employees have a voice at the strategic level in the organisation. It can mean that executives have to take particular care in considering the employee viewpoint when formulating proposals. For the employee, a term as an elected employee director can be a tremendous opportunity for self-development, as well as give a real insight into how the business works.
However, there are pitfalls. It is unrealistic to expect a front line employee to be able immediately to assimilate quite complex information and contribute effectively to boardroom discussions. Board dynamics are critical; the elected employee must feel able to speak freely without fear of repercussion from people who are essentially the “bosses”. Training and support can alleviate this and help elected employees become effective more quickly.
A robust governance structure is an imperative in an employee owned company. For the structure to work, employees have to understand the rights and responsibilities attached to their ownership, and be able to exercise these rights and responsibilities.
Making employee ownership “real” is a constant challenge for employee owned companies. How is employee voice heard and how do employees know their opinion is valued? Formal channels for employee voice include voting rights, employee surveys and representative councils. There has to be commitment from the company for these to function effectively. There are also informal channels such as “open door” policies or managers “walking the floor”.
A productive and engaged working culture is key to the success of any employee owned business. Indeed, having the right culture is more important than having the right model in many ways. This starts with recruitment and carries through from how people are introduced to the organisation via induction to performance management and exit.
Silcox (2009) found that an open, participative management style was key to a successful culture. She cited access to information and involvement in strategic planning as being contributors to a positive ownership culture.
Employee owned firms are less likely to have a wide pay gap between highest and lowest salaries. Indeed, many companies have rules on pay. For example, at chemicals firm, Scott Bader, the highest paid in the company cannot earn more than eight times the lowest. John Lewis Partnership operates with a multiplier of 75.
Not many employee-owned companies have complete transparency in pay. Page/Park Architects do share pay bandings with all employees but it is more usual that salary information is kept confidential. Some operate with remuneration committees to oversee general pay policy and agree pay rises and bonuses. This committee will often include a non-management employee representative.
In general, bonus payments are paid out on equitable, rather than equal terms. Some companies will distribute a bonus based on a percentage of salary, length of service or hours worked. It is a requirement of operating an Employee Ownership Trust that the trust bonus is distributed equitably.
When a business transitions to employee ownership there is little actual change for employees. Terms and conditions remain the same, the management doesn’t change, and the day-to-day job is exactly as it was before the ownership transfer. Employees usually welcome this continuity. If the business had a new owner then there can be a great deal of uncertainty regarding relocation, changes to ways of working and job security. A move to employee ownership means that the business will continue, and although it’s impossible to guarantee employment, as long as the business continues to flourish then the future is in the hands of employees.
The Nuttall Review (July 2012) identified three main barriers to increasing employee ownership:
There are some additions that can be made to this list:
Chris Law MP was particularly interested in how these transactions are funded. Funding is an issue for employee owned firms. The factors that deliver the outstanding business results are exactly the features that make employee ownership largely unappealing to mainstream investors. Majority employee ownership gives the business stability; it can be a deterrent for an investor looking to sell equity to an external party. Investors like a significant degree of control when they have cash in the business and that can be a challenge when there is strong employee voice hard wired into the firm’s governance structure. Many employee-owned companies take a long-term view and are less likely to focus on protecting dividends. An external investor may push for job cuts or reduced spend on training or R&D as a means to maximise returns on their investment.
There is a need for providers of patient capital that understand the differences when employees own the business. There are specialist lenders emerging such as Capital for Colleagues, a subsidiary of ethical investors Castlefield, and Co-operative Community Finance who lend specifically to employee owned firms. However, these firms offer only limited lending around £250k. There has to be greater understanding of employee ownership amongst mainstream lenders. Co-operative Development Scotland has been working with the main banks to promote awareness and raise knowledge levels. This has been helpful in solving issues that arise during transactions, but the general lack of openness to anything not resembling a traditional business structure is a problem. My own experience is that there is an issue around personal guarantees that many banks insist on when the company has an overdraft or loan facility. When a business is in collective ownership then there it wouldn’t be fair for one individual to take personal responsibility for the company’s finances. It can be quite tricky convincing the banks of this.
Most current deals are vendor financed. That means that the owner’s equity is replaced by debt, and the exiting owner is paid over a predetermined time from company profits. If a business owner is looking for a cash sum to fund another project, or is older, (and indeed many Scottish business owners work past the usual retirement age), waiting 5 – 10 years before receiving the value of their business means vendor financing is not attractive.
It’s relatively unusual for employees to fund a significant part of the deal themselves. West Highland Free Press employees had to raise funds to finance their employee buyout in 2009. Each employee had to find £5000 or the deal would not have progressed. I would advocate that employees should only invest what they can afford to lose; it doesn’t make sense to take on debt to fund the business on which you rely for an income.
Lack of funding can also be an issue for businesses looking for finance to expand or diversify. The nature of the employee ownership model often excludes external parties holding equity in the firm. Where the structure allows external shareholders, there can be a concern as to how closely the interests of the external parties are aligned with the employee ownership ethos.
The 2014 initiative to offer relief from Capital Gains Tax on sales to an Employee Ownership Trust is the biggest landmark shift in tax legislation pertaining to employee ownership in recent years. There are two prime stipulations to qualify for this tax relief:
It is usual that the company would apply for tax clearance from HMRC for approval for the transaction to qualify for the relief.
Under the same legislation, employees who work in businesses controlled by Employee Ownership Trusts can be paid an annual bonus; £3600 of which will be free of income tax.
Many employee-owned firms operate tax effective share plans for staff. The most commonly used scheme is the Share Incentive Plan. This allows employees to buy shares free of income tax, and to sell after a holding period, with no income tax liability. The company can claim Corporation Tax Relief for the costs of setting up the plan and for some costs involved in operating the Plan.
The employee owned sector has long argued for a “level playing field” for employee owned businesses. There tends to be more lenient treatment of externals shareholders with little recognition of direct or indirect employee shareholders. There does appear to be a lack of joined up thinking between the activities of HMRC in tax treatment of employee owned firms and the policies coming from the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy. An example of this is the Apprenticeship Levy. This is an initiative that will require firms with a wages bill of £3m and over to contribute towards a fund for apprenticeships. Bonuses paid from an Employee Ownership Trust will be included in this wage bill, whilst dividends paid out to external shareholders will not.
Trade Union Membership has not been a significant feature in many private sector employee owned companies. This is likely because most of these firms tend to have been SME, family owned or owner managed businesses and these organisations tend not to have union presence prior to the transfer to an employee-owned model.
However, unions are not against employee ownership. Stephen Boyd, Assistant Secretary at the Scottish Trades Union Congress (STUC), is quoted[21] as saying: “The STUC is generally supportive of employee and other forms of cooperative ownership as it broadens economic power, contributes to industrial democracy and helps overcome the current lack of ownership and control within our borders.”
Support from Scottish Enterprise, via Co-operative Development Scotland (CDS), has been invaluable in supporting business owners explore and implement employee ownership solutions. The organisation maintains a knowledge bank of resources that are available to facilitate discussion and decision-making. In addition to this, the range of services include :
Succession Review : CDS will commission expert consultants to undertake a review of succession options for the business. This project gives an appraisal of the business, an analysis of all options open, and examines the aspirations of the shareholders. If employee ownership is a possibility, the review gives some indication as to the suitability of models, process of transition and potential costs. The outcome is a report that the company’s owners can consider.
Transition support: If the company then decides to pursue employee ownership, CDS will fund up to 30% of the project costs involved in the business transfer process. This is particularly welcomed by smaller businesses that might otherwise find the cost of professional advisers prohibitive.
Awareness raising and education: CDS run a number of events designed to encourage business owners to consider employee ownership as a succession solution, or as a way to engage staff and improve business results. As well as the comprehensive resources produced in-house, the CDS team will signpost interested parties to sources where they can find out more whether that is expert advisors or other businesses who have adopted the model.
Professional Adviser Engagement: Lawyers, accountants and banks play a pivotal role in increasing employee ownership within the economy. CDS offer masterclasses and briefing sessions for advisers and will supply speakers for client events aimed at raising awareness for firms and their clients.
Employee ownership is a business model that brings many benefits to the business, the individual, the community and the local and national economies. It’s a model that finds favour with all sizes of company, all industry sectors and is found throughout the world. Employee owned firms outperform conventionally structured firms on just about eveyr business metric. Employee ownership secures businesses in their local area, providing a strong, stable platform for growth. Scotland is already leading the way thanks to the efforts of Scottish Enterprise, Highlands & Islands Enterprise and the community of employee owned firms who share their knowledge and experiences so generously. As found with the 2014 legislation, proactive political support can make a tremendous impact on uptake of the model. It’s so encouraging to see the interest in employee ownership from our elected representatives. Let’s see that interest translate into supportive action.
1
[1] https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/31706/12-933-sharing-success-nuttall-review-employee-ownership.pdf
[2] https://pure.strath.ac.uk/portal/files/31083372/FEC_37_3_March2014_BrownRMcQuaidRRaesideRCanduelaJ.pdf
[3] Scottish Family Business Association
[4] http://ica.coop/sites/default/files/publication-files/ica-guidance-notes-en-310629900.pdf
[5] http://www.parliament.scot/S4_EconomyEnergyandTourismCommittee/Inquiries/Andrew_Pendleton.pdf
[6] Sharing Success; The Nuttall Review of Employee Ownership July 2012 Department of Business, Innovation and Skills.
[7] http://www.telegraph.co.uk/business/2016/11/21/theresa-may-backtracks-on-putting-workers-on-company-boards/
[8] http://www.gov.scot/Publications/2013/11/9348/7
[9] https://www.scottish-enterprise.com/knowledge-hub/articles/insight/cds-annual-review
. [10] ‘Employee Ownership, Employee Attitudes, and Firm Performance: A Review of the Evidence,’ in Daniel J.B. Mitchell, David Lewin, and Mahmood Zaidi (eds.), Handbook of Human Resource Management (Greenwich, 1997).
[11] Mutually assured growth: Employee ownership and the UK economy
[12] Employee Ownership Impact Report
[13] Fit for Work: Health and Wellbeing in employee owned firms
[14] Fit for Work: Health and Wellbeing in employee owned firms
[15] http://ttplabtech.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/03/The_employee_ownership_effect_a_review_of_the_evidence.pdf
[16] The Human and Organisational Impact of Employee Ownership
[17] Making Employee Ownership Work
[18] Employee Ownership: Defusing the Business Succession Time Bomb
[19] Does employee ownership confer long term resilience Cass Business School
[20] KPMG Family Business Survey 2012
[21] The rise and rise of the employee-owned company, The Herald, 1st November 2015