Shared resource for co-operative company handbooks

Attendees

Asa (Animorph), Hannah (Animorph), Molly (Dev Society), Kirsty (Dot Project), Sion (Calverts), John (Code-Operatives)

Agenda

Working session to run throughout the gathering. Continuing from the previous session at Spring Break 2021/Co-operative Company Handbooks where the outcome was to maintain a shared resource of handbooks, policy documents, employment agreements and other documents that co-ops are willing to share.

Intention was to work on the repository itself, the reality was excellent knowledge sharing and discussion! The maintenance work happened throughout the day.

Notes

Non-linear notes from the working sessions, sorted by speaker.

Hannah:

• Summarising previous session;
  • Intro to motivation behind starting Animorph company handbook, being first non-founder, learning by osmosis, defining the culture in writing to be consistent and specific. Fulfilling legal duties as an employer (selves!) to employees (selves!) and protecting the co-operative and the members.
  • The CoTech network is a valuable resource for learning and reference of how other co-ops approach policy and handbooks. For previous session I reached out to all members of the network and gathered findings into a repository; interesting spread of approaches from nothing existing in writing and not seeing a need, to fully fleshed out and publicly shared handbooks.
• Invitation to share co-operative stories.

Molly:

• DEV started as a small team and now has over 20 members
• Policies and handbook have developed as the organisation has grown
• Handbook relates to culture, ways of working, values and how the coop functions
• Policies/legal section started with statutory policies, which have been enhanced following input from coop members. Members are invited to submit proposals for changes via Loomio, which are then voted on and approved by the coop. Larger changes (e.g. those with financial impact) need to be assessed by the Board for feedback, but ultimately Member votes decide whether or not a policy is adopted
• Recent examples of updated policy include enhanced parental leave and claiming expenses for eye tests. Eye tests policy reflects statutory position. Parental leave policy is enhanced and involved a working group who then pitch the new policy to the team. Our original ambition was to create a gender neutral policy, however this has been put on hold as there are increased costs for paternity leave vs maternity leave for UK companies (due to govt policy).
• Some policies and principles are made public e.g. https://www.dev.ngo/join/pay-principles/
• We recently brought together the handbook and all our policies in the DEV OS.
• As a non-profit, any surplus is reinvested. We recently developed a 'betting table' approach to distributing surplus, where each member has an equal vote/share.

Kirsty:

• Dot Project started with 2 people and is now 13 and all working remotely. The handbook is an essential tool to passing on the culture.
• Member structure changed from beginning; Members, Associate Members, difficulty of getting everyone behind member duties. Still only two directors are the founding members and this needs to be addressed.

Sion:

• Calverts has employment agreements, policy, and letter of employment which together form a contract. Agreement is short, the headlines and key details, and the handbook has all the operational steps and policy.
• 10 month fixed term contract for new employees, working towards membership is a key part of it. If there isn't desire to become one, then the contract ends and that was always part of the agreement; solves the voluntary aspect as this is known from the start. If they and the co-op want membership, then immediately becomes a member contract.
• Member contract is rolling and the member responsibility is highlighted.
• Non-member contract is when need to work with people who won't become members, defined period of time to deliver a project.
• All members are directors, all have legal responsibility.
• Proud of the handbook as was key writer!
• Example of Suma where main job description is to be a member, specific roles are secondary.