The team at Houlder was delighted to be part of the UK Employee Ownership Day (EO Day), run by the Employee Ownership Association (EOA), on Friday 29 June 2018.

Houlder’s Employee Ownership Status means each member of our team has a very real stake in the company’s long term sustainable growth. Since 2007, the company has operated an Employee Benefit Trust in which shares are held collectively on behalf of employees.

Formed in 1987 and employing over 100 staff, the employee owned marine and offshore engineering company is proud to celebrate employee ownership alongside others in the sector. Rupert Hare (pictured), CEO for Houlder explains;

“We are an ambitious SME, but remain keen to ensure we plan for the long term. Being owned by our employees  means our talented professionals have an incentive to stay with us. In an industry that has a reputation for short term contracts and temporary project teams, Houlder is able to provide consistency. We know this is something our clients value.”

Deb Oxley, CEO for the Employee Ownership Association, said:

“Companies such as Houlder are great examples of the economic and social benefits that can be achieved in an employee owned environment. The EOA is proud to lead the sector-wide celebrations of employee ownership on EO Day 2018, as part of our activity to raise awareness and move employee ownership further into the mainstream of business structures.”

With numerous events running across the UK and the involvement of thousands of employee owners and other partners, EO Day is an integral part of the EOA’s events calendar and was introduced to raise awareness of employee ownership as an economically strong and balanced business model.

The benefits of employee ownership have been proven in EOA-led research, and include improving employee health and wellbeing, increasing productivity and fostering creativity and innovation across an array of industry sectors. In addition:

• UK employee owned companies contribute over £30 billion to the UK economy annually
• Employee-owners have higher levels of job satisfaction, feel a greater sense of achievement and job security, and are more likely to recommend their workplace than employees in non-employee owned businesses
• Employee owned businesses operate in a range of sectors including healthcare, social care, education, transport, manufacturing, retail and professional services.

You can read more about Employee Ownership Day and the Employee Ownership Association here.