By Joe Waller – Director & Architect, Aire Logic
The decision to become employee owned wasn’t driven by a single factor, it was a combination of values, timing and a belief that there was a better way to build a technology company.
At the time, Aire Logic was growing successfully. The business was generating strong returns, and we were being approached by potential buyers and investors, as many companies like ours are. But none of those routes felt quite right.
Traditional investment models tend to optimise for shareholders and founders, but we felt there was a gap when it came to staff, and more broadly, to the communities our work impacts.
We wanted a model that aligned better with the kind of organisation we were trying to build. One that delivers tech for good, is fair to the people who create that value, and is sustainable over the long term.
Employee ownership offered that.
It allowed us to prioritise independence, make decisions with a longer-term perspective, and create a structure where the people doing the work have a genuine stake in the outcome. Not just financially, but in terms of influence, accountability and shared responsibility.
Looking back, the ambition was quite simple. To build a company that balances what’s good for society, good for staff, and good for the business. Four years on, that still holds.
What employee ownership looks like in practice
For us, employee ownership isn’t just a legal structure, it’s closely tied to how we operate day to day, particularly through a low hierarchy model.
We’ve tried to minimise management layers so that there’s a short distance between people working on projects and those leading the organisation. That creates a more open environment, but it’s also supported by very practical mechanisms.
We have high levels of transparency, for example, colleagues have visibility of financial performance that would typically sit at board level. We also use tools that allow teams to surface risks, share progress, and contribute ideas across the business.
There are structured ways for people to shape decisions too.
Through staff surveys, staff councils and our internal suggestion platform, anyone can put forward ideas, debate them and influence outcomes, whether that’s something strategic or something operational.
Alongside that, we actively create space for people to pursue ideas. Through initiatives like ‘Airetime’, colleagues can use time to explore new concepts, contribute to social impact work, or develop solutions that align with our purpose.
What all of this does is reinforce a culture where people feel they have both a voice and a responsibility.
That culture of trust and shared responsibility is perhaps best understood through the lived experiences of colleagues.
As Emma, PR & Marketing Director, reflects: “Aire Logic is like nowhere I’ve ever worked before. The culture and trust in an employee-owned business is completely different from a traditional consultancy.
“We’re not beholden to profit-driven shareholders, which means people are treated with real care and compassion.
“I joined after being made redundant during maternity leave.
“The company waited for me to finish my leave, supported me through childcare challenges, and even when I needed extended sick leave shortly after joining, I was fully supported without pressure to return. I don’t know another company that would treat a new starter like that, and the care and consideration they show all employees helps to make this an incredible place to work.”
This kind of experience illustrates how employee ownership translates into tangible support and shared accountability in practice.
It also changes behaviours. People tend to be more direct, more engaged and more willing to challenge. That can be uncomfortable at times, but it’s also where better decisions tend to come from.
People, purpose and impact: enabling tech for good
At its core, employee ownership strengthens our ability to deliver on our mission on using technology to create meaningful, positive outcomes.
Because the people delivering the work are also owners of the business, there is a stronger connection between what we do and why we do it. That shows up in the kinds of projects we work on, the decisions we make and how we measure success, including our willingness to support initiatives where the primary return is societal rather than financial.
For example, we have invested in not-for-profit innovations such as the Lancaster Model, an evidence- based approach to health needs assessment for children and young people.
Supported by digital tools, it helps identify needs at key transition points, enabling earlier intervention and more tailored care.
Projects like this reflect a conscious decision to support work that can improve lives even where there may be limited commercial return. We have always focused on areas where technology can make a meaningful difference across health, social care and public services, and employee ownership reinforces that focus by allowing us to prioritise long-term impact.
When ownership is more widely distributed, there is a natural tendency to consider the broader implications of decisions, not just commercial outcomes, but ethical and social ones as well.
For us, that creates the conditions to take on the right work and deliver it responsibly.
Resilience today, responsibility tomorrow
One of the most tangible benefits of employee ownership has been the way it supports long-term thinking. We’re not driven by external shareholders, which means we can focus on building a resilient, sustainable organisation. One that invests in its people and makes decisions with the future in mind.
Clients respond to that. There’s a level of trust that comes from working with a business whose incentives are aligned with long-term outcomes rather than short-term returns.
That’s not to say the model is perfect. Like any approach, it comes with challenges, particularly when it comes to balancing different perspectives, navigating complex decisions, or ensuring fairness in a diverse organisation. In many ways, those challenges are where the model becomes most interesting.
Looking ahead, the focus is on continuing to evolve. We’re still learning about how to distribute decision-making effectively, how to maintain culture as we grow, and how to ensure employee ownership delivers on its full potential.
If there is a broader ambition, it is to contribute, in a small way, to a different model of how technology businesses operate.
Technology tends to centralise power and value. Employee ownership is one way of redistributing that, not perfectly, but meaningfully.
We like to think that if the water companies had been employee owned then they wouldn’t have chosen their “Debt-for-Dividends” Financial Model, or if Fujitsu was employee owned, the issues faced at the Post Office would have surfaced more quickly and honestly.
So as information technology continues to concentrate power and wealth, we hope to show that employee ownership is a good response to that societal challenge.
On Employee Ownership Day, that feels like an important conversation to be part of.
Because ultimately, employee ownership isn’t a milestone we’ve reached, it’s a long-term commitment to building a fairer, more sustainable and more purposeful way of working.
