{"id":361,"date":"2020-01-24T16:16:23","date_gmt":"2020-01-24T16:16:23","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/guard-archaeology.co.uk\/wordpress1\/?p=361"},"modified":"2020-01-27T09:54:57","modified_gmt":"2020-01-27T09:54:57","slug":"guard-archaeology-digs-into-employee-ownership","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.guard-archaeology.co.uk\/GALNews\/?p=361","title":{"rendered":"GUARD Archaeology digs into employee ownership"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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GUARD Archaeology Limited is the latest business in Scotland to become employee-owned, with 32 permanent members of staff given a stake in the business.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Formerly part of Glasgow University, GUARD Archaeology started trading as an independent company in January 2011, owned by eleven employee shareholders. The majority shareholders wanted to plan for their eventual exit by considering succession options early.  They were looking for a solution that would allow them to step back but at the same time create an equitable and sustainable structure for the company going forward.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Commenting, John Atkinson, director at GUARD\nArchaeology, said: \u201cThe matter of succession had originally been in the back of\nour minds as something we would need to consider eventually, however, when we\nstarted exploring employee ownership as a potential solution, we were so sold\non the benefits that we decided to make the transition sooner rather than\nlater.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ronan Toolis, director at GUARD Archaeology, added: \u201cThe transition to an Employee Ownership Trust strengthens the long-term future of our company, and by retaining employee ownership we are maintaining the original ethos of the company.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

GUARD Archaeology was owned by several shareholders who all worked in the business, so it was important to staff that the company wasn\u2019t sold to a single buyer or that control of the company was moved out of Scotland where the bulk of GUARD Archaeology’s work is undertaken.  Employee ownership is an excellent business model which benefits everyone. The previous majority shareholders will continue with their day to day roles in the business for as long as is required, with the knowledge that the future is taken care of, while the rest of the employees are given a stake in the business and a role in how it is run.  This will hopefully increase job satisfaction and productivity whilst ensuring That GUARD Archaeology continues to deliver a high quality service.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

John Atkinson continued: \u201cProtecting jobs was\nalso an extremely important factor in our decision. Many employees have been\nwith the business for a long time and have played a vital role in its success.\nMoving into employee ownership gives the opportunity for job security to\neveryone who works here and enables them to have collective control of their\nfuture.  The staff are very excited about\nthe opportunities it will bring for the future growth of the business.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

An Employee Ownership Trust has been formed\nand holds 100% of the shares on behalf of the employees.  The transition to employee ownership was supported by\nCo-operative Development Scotland (CDS), with the process managed by 4-consulting,\nlegal services by Blackadders LLP, and accountancy services by RJ\nHart.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Head of Co-operative Development Scotland,\nClare Alexander, added: \u201cThe majority shareholders wanted a solution that would\nenable them to manage their succession long term, whilst ensuring that jobs\nwere rooted in the local area and the original ethos of the company was\nretained. The move to employee ownership solves these issues, while bringing a\nhost of additional benefits for all parties in the deal.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Statistics\ndemonstrate that employee-owned businesses consistently outperform their non EO\ncounterparts in terms of higher levels of profitability, increased productivity\nbrought about by higher levels of engagement and enhanced employee wellbeing,\nas well as improved business resilience during times of recession. Within\nScotland, there are now around 110 employee-owned companies operating, with\napproximately 7,500 employee-owners generating a combined turnover of\naround \u00a3950 million.  <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

GUARD Archaeology Limited is the latest business in Scotland to become employee-owned, with 32 permanent members of staff given a stake in the business.  Formerly part of Glasgow University, GUARD Archaeology started trading as an independent company in January 2011, owned by eleven employee shareholders. The majority shareholders wanted to plan for their eventual exit […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-361","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-2020-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.guard-archaeology.co.uk\/GALNews\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/361","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.guard-archaeology.co.uk\/GALNews\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.guard-archaeology.co.uk\/GALNews\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.guard-archaeology.co.uk\/GALNews\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.guard-archaeology.co.uk\/GALNews\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=361"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.guard-archaeology.co.uk\/GALNews\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/361\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":365,"href":"https:\/\/www.guard-archaeology.co.uk\/GALNews\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/361\/revisions\/365"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.guard-archaeology.co.uk\/GALNews\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=361"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.guard-archaeology.co.uk\/GALNews\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=361"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.guard-archaeology.co.uk\/GALNews\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=361"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}