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The John Lewis Partnership[0] in the UK (which owns a chain of department stores[1] and the supermarket chain Waitrose[2]) has more than 80,000 employees and op
by M2Ys4U 6y ago
The John Lewis Partnership[0] in the UK (which owns a chain of department stores[1] and the supermarket chain Waitrose[2]) has more than 80,000 employees and operates like a cooperative.
Technically it's a Public Limited Company (albeit one wholly owned by a trust for the benefit of its employees), but it does run an internal democratic system.
Profits are distributed to employees as bonus, which is a uniform percentage of their salary. 2021 is the first year they won't distribute a bonus (because of Covid), but historically it's been between 5% and 20%.
[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Lewis_Partnership https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Lewis_Partnership
[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Lewis_%26_Partners https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Lewis_%26_Partners
[2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Waitrose https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Waitrose
- emodendroket 6y agoThat’s cool but isn’t it similar to the incentive pay programs or RSUs/ESPPs offered by traditional employers? Not to mention that once the company is large, it’s hard to feel you have that much control over the success of the entire company.
- M2Ys4U 6y agoEmployees of JL don't own any shares. They cannot be bought or sold or given to employees. 100% of the shares are owned by the Trust. That also means that every employee effectively has the same stake in the company - those high up in management, for example, don't have a lop-sided number of shares compared to those on the (both literal and metaphorical) shop floor. JL employees also elect colleagues to hold the management to account, and appoint people to the Board and Trust. How many "traditional employers" allow that to happen?