When Ison Harrison became 100% employee owned in 2021 it had a transformative impact. At all levels of our law firm, we have seen profound changes for the better, and we want to share our success with others.
This is why we are celebrating the upcoming Employee Ownership Day (EO day) on 20th June, and why we are on a committed journey to helping other organisations enjoy the same achievements that we have.
This year’s EO Day is a great way to explain the various benefits of becoming employee owned, and 12 months on from last year’s event, we can provide more real time insight into our experiences of being one of the first law firms to become 100% employee owned. Our journey to achieving this status started in 2019 with owner-level discussions and developed rapidly to a research and consultative process. This quickly received universal approval from our employees and we haven’t looked back from there. We arrive today as a dedicated advocate of employee ownership and can attest to the credibility of the many potential benefits you hear about employee ownership. These include:
- Preserving the owner’s legacy
- Employees having ownership and influence
- A more seamless transition to new ownership
- Job security for employees
- Financial rewards for employees
- A contented, engaged and motivated workforce
- Improved productivity
Our journey as an employee-owned business
At Ison Harrison we have enjoyed all these things and are happy to use EO Day 2025 to shout about them. In the first two years of being employee owned we were able to reward employees with generous tax-free bonuses at all levels of the organisation. In the third year we recorded record turnover, with a 16% increase on the previous year. At the end of this third year we carried out an internal staff survey which returned findings that 90% of respondents were happy that communication, employee engagement and staff recognition had all improved since our organisation had become employee owned. 2024 ended with Ison Harrison being shortlisted by the Employee Ownership Association as the EO Business of the Year.
We haven’t stopped there, however, and in 2025 we have set-up a dedicated microsite called ‘The Employee Ownership Advisor’. This is a new arm of the business which is committed to sharing our story and our experiences of becoming an employee owned business. We have enjoyed this journey so much and have gained so much positivity from it, that we felt compelled to help others achieve the same things. We can use lived experiences to support other businesses through the pitfalls, obstacles and complexities of the process, while also helping with the critical phase of securing employee buy-in. We are living proof of the benefits of employee ownership and our microsite is a comprehensive learning resource to help other businesses experience these same successes.
How we are celebrating EO Day 2025
It has been quite the ride for our business and it is therefore no surprise that we are very happy to shout from the rooftops about employee ownership. EO Day on 20th June is the perfect opportunity, and we have decided to coincide our annual staff barbecue with the event and make it an EO celebration day. We are also taking on the #eoSmile challenge and staff from each branch will be nominating someone who makes them smile.
Since becoming employee owned Ison Harrison has gone from strength to strength, and we have every expectation that a stable organisation and a fully committed workforce will help us maintain that success in the future.
Join us on the day and let’s make sure more people know about the exciting positivity and enriching experiences of employee ownership.
