CCH Employee Resources
A summary of CCH's relationship with Obran Cooperative.
April 5th, 2022 Announcement Day Message
Your Welcome Packet
A single pdf file summarizing your relationship with Obran as a CCH employee. For those of you who were working with CCH on April 5th, 2022, these are the same materials you received during Nick's announcement.
Frequently Asked Questions
What exactly is happening?
Obran Cooperative has purchased CCH from Nick Smallwood, and we're inviting you to become worker-owners at Obran! This is a transition of ownership, not management. Management staff will stay in place, and everyone's job will stay the same. This includes Nick, who isn’t going anywhere.
The change that is happening is in who owns the business and the profits that come from it. Obran is a worker-owned cooperative, which means that you, as a worker at CCH, can join the other Obran employees in becoming cooperative members and owning the company. Becoming an Obran Cooperative member means you will be entitled to the rights and responsibilities that ownership brings (e.g., profit-sharing and voting in elections).
Why is Nick selling the business?
Nick has helped to build something really special here at CCH and like most small business owners/entrepreneurs, he is ready for the next challenge! Nick will continue to lead CCH and will also focus on growing the business through acquisitions (buying other businesses). To grow the business, Nick knew he needed a partner, and he also wanted to be sure everyone at CCH was well taken care of in any kind of sale. So he found a unique way to transfer ownership of the business—by selling CCH to Obran, where CCH can be part of a worker-owned cooperative.
In this way, all of CCH’s operations and jobs will stay in place just as they are today. Converting to worker-ownership is a long-standing, though less common way for owners to sell their business. And it is the best way to protect all employees and provide them with the opportunity to grow and build wealth as owners!
I haven’t heard of people selling to their employees before, why is this uncommon?
Selling a business to the employees is less common because it is rare that the employees can pool together enough money to buy the business. That is why Obran Cooperative was created. Obran’s mission is to put the engines of business to work for humanity, and Obran does this by finding high-impact companies, paying the current owners a fair value for the business, and moving the business into worker-ownership, sharing the wealth with everyone in the process.
Why is worker ownership a good thing?
Obran Cooperative exists to grow worker ownership. We believe that worker ownership is great because it can help families and local communities grow their wealth and achieve economic stability. Worker ownership also gives people a sense of pride in their work, and it is just the fair thing to do.
What is Obran Cooperative?
Obran is a worker-owned cooperative organization that currently owns a few businesses—a staffing agency, a construction company, a freelancer platform, and a real estate company—and now CCH! We are growing our cooperative by buying small businesses like CCH. Obran is owned by its workers, specifically the worker-owners from all of these businesses.
When workers decide to become members, they become owners of Obran Cooperative, which entitles them to a number of benefits, including profit sharing. As a worker at CCH, you have the right to become a member of the cooperative, and if you do, you will be one of the new owners of CCH and all of the other Obran businesses.
What does it mean to be a worker-owner or member? Do I have to join?
The terms "worker-owner" and "member" mean the same thing! It means you become one of the many owners of Obran Cooperative. This entitles you to a number of benefits including your fair share of Obran’s profits, which are small now but will grow over time.
In addition to profit-sharing, worker-ownership is also about having your voice heard. All Obran members are eligible to run for the board of their own workplace (in your case, CCH) and the board of Obran itself! You also get to vote in future CCH board elections and Obran board elections, as well as certain special member decisions. In addition, members can choose to participate in Committees, groups that recommend new ideas to the Board about topics such as Culture, Finance, and Governance.
To be clear, while access to Obran membership is your right, as an employee of CCH, it is also open and voluntary. This means you are NOT required to join to continue your employment with CCH. That said, in other Obran businesses, between 90-100% of employees elect membership. We hope you will consider the opportunity and join!
How do I become a member and what do I need to contribute?
Once you decide to become a member, you elect membership by signing your membership agreement. This is available in your online member profile, and we also included a paper version in your welcome packet. To activate your membership you must do the following things:
Elect membership by completing a digital or paper membership agreement. If you choose to fill out the paper version, please give your signed agreement to Nick Smallwood
Buy a $250 membership share (payable over time)*
Contribute at least 1% of your paycheck to your Internal Capital Account**
Complete at least 10 hours of work at an Obran Cooperative company (including CCH) each year
Complete the 5-part Member Training curriculum (optional but strongly encouraged)
Pass the initial 90-day member candidacy period
Attend at least 3 member meetings (this includes Obran meetings as well as regular business reviews at CCH)
*We recognize that this financial contribution may feel big. So we do a few things to make this easier. First, we offer a 2% pay raise for all employees who elect membership. This is meant to help offset your contribution. Second, you don’t need to contribute $250 up front. You can pay it over time through paycheck deductions. Third, this money is yours! It is not dues that go to some other organization. Your contributions sit in an Internal Capital Account with your name on it, and you can access it when you need to. As long as you keep $250 in the account, your membership is active. **As with the $250 membership share, your 1% paycheck contributions go into your Internal Capital Account, which means that money belongs to you!
What do I get for membership?
Right off the bat, when you sign your membership agreement, you’ll receive a 1% pay raise. Once you complete the other membership requirements described above, you’ll receive another 1% pay raise. Each year, you will receive a share of the profits. At a cooperative like Obran, profit sharing is done evenly. This means that the CEO, an office manager, and a driver all get an equal share. If there are 100 members, everyone gets 1/100th of the profits. If there are 500 members, everyone gets 1/500th. It doesn’t matter your role or position. However, it does matter how much you work. So if you work 40 hours/week you will get twice as much as someone who works 20 hours/week.
One of the most valuable member benefits is the improved experience you’ll feel as a member. You have the power to vote on major member decisions at Obran, elect Obran board members, and beginning next year, you will also elect the board that oversees CCH management. In addition, we hope that you will feel supported by our dedicated people operations team. The organization exists to serve you and we believe you will feel that.
In addition to profit sharing and voting rights, over time members will also have access to other benefits. As we grow, we aim to offer more services like down payment assistance to buy a home, personal financial planning services, low-cost payday lending, a debit card account, access to free personal enrichment classes, and more. As a worker-owned cooperative, our goal is to make the business work for our workers. We are constantly looking for new and better benefits to provide to our members. That means we will be asking YOU what benefits would make your life better, and work to make them a reality.
How exactly does this transition work? How does Obran have money to buy CCH?
Obran Cooperative bought CCH from Nick Smallwood. That means the profits moving forward from CCH will go towards paying off the debt used to buy the company and then to all Obran worker-owners as benefits or profit sharing. This means we will take roughly 5 years to pay off debt and, during those years, profits to the membership will be small. After the debt used to buy the company is repaid, members of the cooperative will likely see greater profits.
When Obran buys a company, it invests some of its own money from its investment fund to pay the owner for the business. We work with mission-motivated investors and banks who want to see worker-ownership grow and who give us good rates. These good rates mean that we can pay back our debt faster, and members can see profits sooner!
What is happening to my job?
Nothing! Everything is staying the same. You will keep doing the same thing you are doing now, except if you elect membership, in which case you will have opportunities to participate in the governance of the company. That means you will be able to vote on who will be on the board, you can run to be on the board yourself, or you can join one of the committees that oversees other things at the co-op.
In the coming months, we will be launching teams to explore minimally disruptive ways to better coordinate business between Obran and CCH. This means looking at things like combining payroll systems and accounting software, and maybe adding a few people to help with this. If potential changes directly impact how you do your job, we will make sure you have the opportunity to get involved in the decision-making process.
For a full breakdown of what is required to join the cooperative, please check out Becoming a Member page. Any CCH employee that is ready to become a member-owner of the cooperative (and of CCH) can sign up online at the Obran Member Center.
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