What is it?
Last week, The Oxford Symposium on Employee Ownership brought together EO advocates, policy specialists, decisionmakers, and expert practitioners from around the globe to share learning and experience.
Taking place at the University of Oxford for the third year running, it attracted 125 delegates from across 25 countries including Sierra Leone, South Africa, Slovenia, Ireland, Canada, and many more.
The event’s funded by the ESOP Foundation – the charity arm of the US-based ESOP Association – and was organised by John Hoffmire, Chairman at Cadence Innova, and eoa International Ambassador Graeme Nuttall OBE.
Who Attended?
Our CEO James de le Vingne attended alongside our Policy Lead Sam Blakeborough.
There were also plenty of eoa members in attendance, including Specialist Advisors Fieldfisher, The RM2 Partnership, and Baxendale Employee Ownership.
James and Sam had a great time catching up with colleagues, friends, and partners including eoa Chair Christopher McDermott, Ann Tyler, Robert Postlethwaite, Sarah Anderson, Sam Boustred, and former eoa Chief Exec Deb Oxley, Ewan Hall from Baxendale Employee Ownership, Jaspal Pachu from CMS Corporate Law, Gerry Young from RVE Corporate Finance, Co-operative Development Scotland, Cwmpas, and many more.
What Was Discussed?
Across the symposium, conversations focussed on government policy and how different models are evolving in the different represented nations – and, importantly, what we can all learn from each other.
It was all about crowdsourcing ideas and innovation in the room.
Day One
The key theme for Day One was centred on the potential risks of abuse of the various models of employee ownership.
In the UK, the risk associated with abuse lies in valuations and governance, specifically that a business owner can sell a business and still be in full control of the EOT(although we are hopeful this will be resolved via the EOT consultation – the outcomes of which is still pending).
It’s interesting to compare this to the ESOP model in the US where the Department of Labour (which governs all ESOPs rather than the equivalent of the UK’s Department of Business and Trade) which has been known to sue businesses who abuse the model.
Further north, in Canda, the government has introduced an EOT model with tax advantages similar to those in the UK. But where it differs is you can have a personal and a collective share account – thereby enabling employee owners to benefit during their time with a business via profit distribution (collective account) and providing a retirement fund via their personal share account (depending on the performance of that business).
If you’re thinking this could be a great addition here in the UK… so are we!
Elsewhere, Slovenia is utilising cooperatives instead of trusts as the owner of shares on behalf of employees.
Regardless of geography, it was apparent by all that no single model is perfect. The UK led the charge with the introduction of the EOT back in 2014, but other countries have spotted loopholes and legislated against them. Now we’re in a position to fold those learnings back into the model we pioneered a decade ago.
Day Two
The second day focussed on key themes including the growth of EO, the role of an association, getting the press involved, and who needs to be playing what role and at what time.
Unsurprisingly, this is where our Chief Exec, James, shared his insights.
Although there’s updates and potential exciting developments in the pipeline, we have to keep our lips sealed on a few things.
But what we can say is that it was evident that employee ownership is being recognised as a driver to challenge some of the most pressing issues in the world – from pay disparity and inequality to sustainability and beyond. The impetus for growing EO is about tacking these issues globally.
What’s an ESOP?
An Employee Share Ownership Plan (ESOP) is the main model for employee ownership in the US.
For the last fifty years, it’s been leveraged predominantly as a succession model. Although there are some key differences, it’s similar to the direct share model many of our members (such as Gripple) utilise here in the UK.
In essence, an employee joins a business, buys shares with the value of those shares tied to business performance. Then, when they retire or the business is sold, they benefit from those shares.
To date, the US boasts 10 million employee owners across 6,500 ESOPs.
Going Forward
We’ll continue to share our experience with our international partners to drive EO around the globe.
At the same time, we look forward to taking what we learn from partners to strengthen the sector on our home turf.
The UK is in a privileged position with the world-leading vehicle of delivering EO through the EOT.
We remain an important trend setter when it comes to EO, but we have plenty to learn from our international friends and partners. And that’s an exciting position to be in!
[image shows: Howard Dawber, Deputy London Mayor, James de le Vingne, CEO of the eoa, and Graeme Nuttall OBE]