Employee Ownership Day

Cullinan Studio is proud to celebrate employee ownership alongside other staff-led businesses across the UK as part of the first annual Employee Ownership Day on Thursday 4th July. A series of events and activities are taking place across the UK and a national conference is being held in London to raise awareness of employee ownership as an economically strong and balanced business model responsible for increased productivity, employee health and well-being, and innovation.

Our founder, Ted Cullinan, established us as a co-operative architectural practice in 1965. We have adopted and developed a culture of social responsibility and shared value as an integral part of our business, which is the creation of beautiful and useful buildings. The direction of the practice, people's responsibilities and share of the income are by agreement with the collective membership. Age and experience demand that both responsibilities and rewards are not equal but rewards are confined so that no member earns more than three times any other.

Cullinan Studio (formerly Edward Cullinan Architects) in 1977

We aim to support other professionals who wish to practice in a co-operative way in what can be a difficult process, changing from traditional partnership to shared ownership; we have offered our experience to a wide range of practices from small groups to larger practices.

Employee Ownership Association CEO Iain Hasdell said: "Companies such as Cullinan Studio are great examples of the success and engagement that can be achieved in an employee owned environment. I am delighted to work on their behalf to celebrate Employee Ownership Day, and make it easier for other UK companies to follow their lead into employee ownership. And to have their support for our target of 10% of UK GDP to be generated by employee owned business by 2020."

Benefits of employee ownership proven in EOA research include increased employee health and well-being, increased productivity and innovation and:

• UK employee owned companies have a turnover of around 3% of GDP (over £30 billion) pa.
• There has been a 10% increase in the number of companies converting to employee ownership.
• 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.