We are building a bank of case studies of worker co-operatives to inspire more people to start or convert to a worker co-op. This is a quick guide on how to write a case study for us.
We think providing a libary of structured case studies will make it easy both for individuals to write one if they have never done it before. But also following a set structure will make it easer for people reading them to compare and contrast between the different case studies.
How to write a case study for workers.coop
We created a form here to make it easy for both you to fill in the info but also for us to convert it into a resource. We’ve done an example case study on worker.coop, I’m sure you can do something better!
First the Quick facts
Before you submit make sure you have some basic info to hand these will appear in a quickfacts table
Name of co-op
Email contact – this will not be published but to check details and request a photo/image
Website
When was your co-op founded
Industry – there is a drop down list, just go with the closest match
Turnover – no need to be specific, the aim is to give people a sense of your size
Number or workers – include everyone you deem a worker, whether they are employees, self-employed of volunteers
Number of members
Who are your members – drop down list, just pick the closest match
Governance
Collective – All members are Directors
Elected Directors – Traditional Membership Electing a Board / Management Committee
Sociocracy – Although you may have a Board of Directors they are within a sociocratic structure
Other – please do explain!
Pay
Equal pay – All members on the same hourly rate
Variable pay – typical market based pay
It’s complicated – Variable pay but not typical market based pay
Legal form
Company
Co-operatives Society
Limited Liabillity Partnership
Tell us a story
The rest of the case study is set-out in paragraph form so give as much or as little detail as you want. You can always come back to this case study in the future and update it with us
Who are we? – Give us a quick intro into your co-op, where are you based
What do we do? – What products and services do you sell, why people should do business with you etc.
How do we operate? – Expand on the quick facts, do you have a Board, how are they elected, do you have managers, or how do you make decisions etc
Where did we come from? – What’s your origin or founding story, why did you start, how did you start.
Why are we a co-op? – Share something that makes you different, achievements or impacts you have made, why you are proud to be a co-op
Lessons learned – Share something you did badly that you have learnt from, or something you would do differently if doing again, or a top tip for someone just starting out on their journey
That’s it!
Just submit the form and we will be in touch.
Other Content:
Alongside the case study if you are willing to provide anything else just email us: solidarity@
Your logo
A photo of your shop/office/members
Do you have any guides, how-to, internal policies you’re willing to share?
Here you will find the collection of files in the New Member Pack which you can download. Aimed at new members of the federation, this includes the workers.coop Handbook, a Who’s Who, the Glossary of terms, and Beginner’s Guide to our digital platforms and One Pager on our digital platforms.
workers.coop co-host, encourage and support others to host Local Co-op Meetups in their town, city or region. This is in line with our commitment to promote worker co-operatives and run different types of events. So far there is the Glasgow Co-op Meetup, Edinburgh Co-op Meetup and Leeds Co-op Meetup, which are organised locally.
While aimed at worker co-operators, we have found that these meetups work brilliantly as open events to bring together different co-operative and community-based audiences, allowing mutual support and networking.
If you’re a worker co-op, employee-owened enterprise, large organisation or charity who wants to support democratic and worker-controlled business by co-hosting, organising or providing funding towards an event, get in touch. Particularly cooperators in Birmingham, Manchester and Suffolk, where meetups are in the pipeline!
Below we outline key elements from what has worked best in our members’ experience, some practical things to consider as well as suggested formats for running the event.
Key elements
Open
Local Co-op Meetups are aimed at worker co-operators and employee-owned enterprise members, but we have found them to be most successful when open to other types of co-operative such as housing, multi-stakeholder, consumer, society, CIC, etc. We’ve found this helps to ensure numbers of attendees, increases knowledge and experience in the room, strengthens local connections and increases opportunities and networking.
Knowledge pool
Running an open, free, public event and including all types of co-operatives has shown us that this often results in a wide level of knowledge and experience amongst participants, who are then able to answer questions. We have found those attending are able to direct, signpost, and advise those attending who are new to co-operatives or looking to start a co-op, without requiring paid staff or a facilitator.
One off or Recurring
Whether you run a one-off event or recurring event will depend on your circumstance. For recurring events, members have found that choosing a recurring consisent time aids attendence and enables drop-in. For example, the Glasgow co-op meetup takes place on the third Friday of every month, whilst the South Birmingham Co-op Meetup used to reccur every 3 months. Most meetups take place in the evening on a workday, so people can drop by after work.
Practical considerations
Event promotion
We can promote your Local Co-op Meetup on our Events listing on our website, just give us the details, and we can include it in our Newsletter that is sent to our mailing list.
Location
Where else to host a co-op meetup than in a local worker co-op cafe or event space? Other options might include approaching a large local housing co-operative, as the one in Edinburgh does, or hosting it in a cafe, community building or hall that has bookable room space. The more central location the easier it will be to get to on public transport, but this will entirely depend on your context and could rotate. This will also depend on your local group’s capacity for room hire, or whether you’d want to ask participants for a donation to put toward this.
Funding
It might be worth approaching local organisations in your area that you know might have some funding available for supporting co-operative activities! This could be spent on room hire, refreshments or food for the meetup, etc. We sadly can’t provide this ourselves due to our very limited resources in our first year. However, currently local groups are organising their local meetups without financial support that we know of, if you meet up in a cafe or bar for instance you can buy drinks there to use the space.
Worker Co-op Codes
If you’d like a stack of Worker Co-op Codes to have at the event, email <sion@principlesix.coop>, or download and print yourself.
Suggested formats
Worker cooperators have differed in how they have organised local meetups. This could be a loose, informal and conversational event, or one with an agenda or more structured format. We will upload suggested formats in due course, but briefly:
Informal
Attendees turn up, tend to be more milling around and speaking with whoever is there, conversation and networking is unstructured and played by ear.
Structured
Instead, the group might like to prepare and share an agenda ahead of time with a plan of what will be discussed during the meetup, with people sitting around a table. Alternatively, there might be no agenda as such but an organiser who has planned a schedule and contents, such as a go around and introductions from attendees, or conversation around a particular matter. This is how the South Birmingham co-op meetup was run, for instance.
For help to organise an event in your area email sam@workers.coop, or if you are in Scotland louise@mediaco-op.net.
Welcome to this explainer on our digital platforms. This guide will tell you how to register for our member Single Sign-on making it easier to access all our different platforms. We will also explain what these platforms are and how we use them.
workers.coop aims to be transparent in what we do and how we do it, so all files are stored centrally in NextCloud and all members discussions take place on Discourse. Check out our Communications Policy for more information.
Single Sign On (SSO)
We believe in open source technologies and our SSO makes it easier to link all these different platforms together. So you only need to remember one password!
We recommend sticking with one email address across platforms. NB if you’re having any trouble, check which email you’re using!
Step 1: All new members are sent a special link to create an SSO account and this can be shared with all members of your co-op. If you cannot find this link please contact John or Sam and they will send it you.
Step 2: Click on the link, it will take you to: auth.workers.coop where you can fill in you details and once submitted you will receive an email which you must click on to confirm.
Step 3: When you click on the email button to confirm or whenever you log-in to auth.workers.coop you will see our “applications” we may add more of these in the future.
Step 4: All our platforms or “applications” have similar processes, if you do not already have accounts when you click on the icon’s you will be taken to that platforms home page.
Click on the black “sign-in” button usually in the top right, don’t create a new account (you seeing a pattern). Click on the Login “with Open ID Connect”.
is our online space. Some is accesible by anyone other bits are member only. Its where most of our communication and organising take place. So if you are not sure what is going on, log-in and check it out.
Looking at the left hand side you will see all the different categories:
Member discussion – This is where we ask for feedback, share member only content and working groups organise their work and make decisions between meetings.
News and annoucments – These are public facing annoucements, lots of events posted here
Jobs and P6 – A place check if you are looking to share job vacancies or trade with other worker co-ops.
Questions – Whether questions about workers.coop or questions about worekr coops post them here
Peer Networks – This is a members only space to learn, share and commiserate with people in similar roles or co-ops.
Messages and Personal Chat – For group and personal messaging
Groups – To access our different working groups, and if you don’t see all this content you may not have been set as a member, if so request access via the Member Group.
This is where we store all our shared files, its like Google Drive or Dropbox. All members can access certain files from the Group folder “member”. Some however are restricted to particular working groups and can only be accessible if you are a member of that group. See this guide for how to use Nextcloud.
The ‘Guides and Handbook’ folder contains our How Tos, Guides, Policies and Templates.
The ‘Logo and Visual ID’ folder contains logo artwork.
Meeting minutes and agendas can be found in the ‘Meetings’ folde, we are very open and transparent in our decision making.
If all this is a lot to take in or you get stuck, Sam is very happy to walk you through the process so book in a chat anytime book here.
Dedicated to people around the world who are taking control and ownership of their working lives.
The purpose of this code is to help people set up, maintain and renew strong worker cooperative enterprises. It sets out what workers should expect, and work together to achieve, as members of a co-op.
We are a multi-stakeholder Co-operatives Society made up of two types of members: Member Co-ops and Worker Members. We have a Board of Directors, but day-to-day management and delivery takes place through sociocratic structures. We have seven working groups delivering activities on behalf of the co-op made up of over 35 worker members.
Where did we come from?
Although the idea of a federation specifically for worker co-ops had been around for years. We were inspired to start at the May 2022 “Worker Co-op Weekend” and incorporated in October of that year. The Worker Co-operative Council of Co-operatives UK became our founding members and interim Board of Directors.
Why are we a co-op?
We believe in a world where everyone has access to rewarding, meaningful and sustainable work. Made possible by an interconnected and highly inclusive worker cooperative movement.
Lessons learned
As an organisation, be mindful to not go at the speed of the slowest, or to race ahead with the fastest. Take enough people with you.
Calverts North Star Press is a worker co-op in graphic design and commercial printing, based in Bethnal Green, east London.
What we do
Expert print designers creating high impact publications, visual identities and brands. We’re also London’s leading boutique print manufacturer, producing digital, offset litho, giclée and risograph print in house. Working with a large network of binders, finishers, and paper engineers, our mission is transform creative ideas into perfect printed objects.
Calverts collaborated on the development of the first fully recycled graphic quality papers to be marketed in the UK, and use vegetable oil based inks. We work with clients to deliver print and design that’s socially and environmentally responsible, as well as beautiful and effective. We’re Forest Stewardship Council FSC® certified, and hold ISO14001 environmental certification.
Calverts employees own and control the enterprise in common, putting into action the cooperative values of equity, solidarity, democracy, self-help, self-responsibility and equality. Like Suma and Unicorn Grocery, we are an equal pay co-op. All workers get the same hourly rate, from the cleaner to the finance officer. Our full time hours are 35 per week, with 7 weeks’ paid holiday a year and good policies on flexibility and unpaid time off, so people can work their jobs round their lives instead of the other way round.
It typically takes 10 months for a new Calverts worker to be inducted into membership, which is open to anyone contracted to work 14 hours a week or more. We run the co-op collectively, in other words all members are also directors. Individuals have a high degree of job autonomy and accountability within work teams. A monthly full meeting is used to review finances, as well as strategic, whole co-op and membership matters.
Calverts came out of an industrial dispute and worker takeover of a bohemian arts press called IRAT services, in 1976. The workers engineered a confrontation with the private owner, while setting up the co-op to be ready to occupy IRAT’s workshop in Clerkenwell, central London. With no capital – only goodwill from customers and suppliers – the founders had no wages for the first six months. Key turning points were getting recognition and support from the printing industry’s craft union, the National Graphical Association, and borrowing £500 from ICOF to buy some of the former owner’s printing kit.
The founders called the new co-op ‘Calverts North Star Press’ after the North Star pub in Finchley Road, where the first co-op meetings were held, and Elizabeth and Giles Calvert, radical printers from the 1640s, whose workshop was close to Calverts first premises.
Through periods of growth and glory, as well as moments of crisis and reorganisation, Calverts has transformed itself from a basic skills community printshop into an industry leader and high end producer, through continuous upskilling and reinvesting surpluses in better tech.
Like many co-ops and collectives from the 1970s period, Calverts and its members were part of a growing ‘movement of movements’ that needed its own means of production to produce information and propaganda – the womens’, LGB, ecology and anti nuclear movements; Anti Apartheid and anti racism; and above all a revitalised workers’ movement, which was rediscovering worker co-ops.
What we learned
Solidarity will get you through times of no money, better than money will get you through times of no solidarity.
Skill sharing and flexible working across teams is the key to resilience, high productivity and individual worker development. Calverts has never made a forced redundancy.
How you start out is very likely how you’ll go on. For instance, it’s much easier to begin as a collective, flat equal pay co-op and stay that way, than it is to start unequal and try to equalise later.
Being a worker co-op is a powerful selling point, if you know how to project it smartly and authentically.
Worker co-ops aren’t walled gardens of peace and equality, but to be more efficient than private businesses, dispense with disciplinary management and provide truly decent jobs, we have to be continually breaking down divisions of labour, status and reward rooted in gendered, racialised and other codes such as working class v middle class, intellectual v manual, college v school educated, technicians v administrators.
For a mainly B2B trading enterprise, word of mouth marketing has proved by far the most cost effective way to get more and better business – but being a good word-of-mouth marketer takes skill and discipline.
Customers can be your friends, but trade suppliers are family.
Worker cooperation points towards the possibility of a better world, but we’re still capitalist enterprises. Even without internal bosses or outside owners, we give a big chunk of our labour value to landlords, financiers and trade creditors, and still trade for profit. One day, when we can produce everything in response to peoples’ real needs, in full association and under community direction, we might be able to say we’ve gone beyond capitalism.
We are a worker-owned agency that designs, builds and supports websites for purpose-driven organisations. We believe in making things better together. We’re based in the UK, Italy and Sweden.
We’re agile, reliable and responsive. We love open source software, and we’re a worker co-op because we believe that’s a fairer way to do business. We take our work seriously and deliver great results, but we know how to have fun, too.
What do we do?
We are a tight and dedicated team of digital strategists, designers, developers and project managers. We work with organisations that value environmental sustainability, social responsibility, equality and human rights and share our vision of a better world for everyone. We are a company with a conscience.
Every project is different, but the building blocks remain the same: with a shared understanding of your strategic objectives and user needs, together, we can create something special.
The workforce at Agile Collective consists of employees, members and directors, with individuals who work with us on a less formal basis classed as freelancers or contractors.
Employees
An employee is anyone with an employment contract at Agile Collective. All members and directors are employees of Agile Collective, but not all employees are members or directors.
Members
As a worker co-op, members ultimately own and control Agile Collective. We hope that all employees will want to become members.
Directors
Directors are legally responsible for the company, but otherwise there is no discernible distinction between director members and non-director members. Only members can become directors.
Freelancers and contractors
We also work with a number of freelancers or contractors from time to time. Freelancers and contractors are not employees and cannot be members or directors.
Our governance
We use principles and practices of Sociocracy to manage the company on a day-to-day basis.
This consists of two main elements:
Circles (similar to departments) with a defined remit and powers
Decision-making within circles based on consent rather than consensus
Circle Structure
Our current circle structure is flat, with all circles reporting directly to the General Circle, which in turn reports to the Members Circle.
When we started to use Sociocratic principles we found that the quality of our work and relationships improved dramatically.
You can find resources on Sociocracy on our website.
Where did we come from?
Like all the best projects we were born out of a lively pub discussion amongst kindred spirits. Four of our founders (Finn, Luke, Jed and Aaron) had a cooperative web agency they wanted to expand. Richard was a freelance project manager, designer and developer looking to find additional developers to work with. Hedley, who came up with our name, had worked with Richard on some Drupal-based projects and wanted to find more Drupal enthusiasts to work with.
They immediately hit it off over beers and open source conversation at the Oxford Geek Night in the Jericho Tavern. It was techy, designery, problem-solving love at first sight. Within three weeks, Agile Collective was a registered cooperative with six worker members.
We all brought our existing clients with us, including many clients in the environmental sector, such as Eden Project, and several colleges within the University of Oxford, and so were able to hit the ground running. Since then, we’ve never looked back (apart from at our project retrospectives).
Why are we a co-op?
We love the worker-cooperative model.
It made total sense to us when we set up.
Those who do the work own the business. It’s a simple idea but a very powerful one.
Working as a co-op, we can live the change that we want to see in society. We’re a democracy and we embody openness.
These core values come through in our work, the way we work, and the organisations we work with. We’re very fortunate to have worked with some incredible ones over the years, helping them to improve their digital presence and achieve their missions.
We’ve built sites for and worked with Oxfam International, UNICEF, WHO, Action Aid International, Freedom for Torture, War on Want, Co-operatives UK, the Fundraising Regulator, LocalGov Drupal, Ethical Consumer magazine, British Association of Social Workers, Child Poverty Action Group, councils from Croydon to Cumbria, and many more.
The model also means that we can more easily adapt to suit the broader economic and social environment.
For example, we are doing more work around accessibility and usability at the moment because our members have demonstrated there is a need for this that aligns with our mission. The cost of living crisis has meant that clients’ budgets are tighter but at the same time they want to ensure that every penny is creating value for their users; as such we are being more and more for consultancy in the areas we are experts in. We’ve also been more easily able to adapt to UX principles and design thinking and generally keep on top of the changes in our industry in an agile way (pardon the pun).
Lessons learned
One of the most important things we’ve learnt is to stick with your principles and don’t be afraid to shout about them.
In our early days, we were asking questions about the ethics of who we worked with but our processes weren’t well defined and we took on some work for MTV Russia. We admitted it was a bit of a stretch but felt that MTV had had an important role in music and popular culture in the 1980s and we went ahead. It quickly became clear it wasn’t the right client for us. The developers struggled and found it quite stressful.
For example, seeing so many adverts pop up all the time wasn’t what got us (or gets us) going. Since then, we’ve been much more strict about the ethics of those we work with.
We’ve also learnt that talking to clients (and potential clients) about who we do and don’t work with should be a central part of fulfilling our mission. Recently we met a potential client that had links to big pharmaceutical companies. We explained to them that this might be an issue for us. By being a cooperative we don’t have such a pressure to make a profit that is taken out of the company; this gives us more autonomy, and so influence than other startups. Supplier pressure, just like consumer pressure, can be an important tool
Someone once asked us “If I’m BP and I come along with a huge project and I want you to do it, you’d turn me down?!”
Without any hesitation we told them “yes”. The disbelief that they registered shows that we have a long way to go to show just how liberating and powerful being a worker coop can be.
