Dallan Guzinski
When employee-owned businesses openly share their best practices or approaches to employee engagement and communication, it’s not lost on those attending our conferences for the first time. Some of the best ideas or solutions attendees get from our conferences come directly from other employee-owners and ESOP companies. The networking and collaboration is a huge part of why so many employee-owned businesses thrive.
Dallan Guzinski
The NCEO’s 2021 Fall Forum broke new records once again this year with more than 700 people joining us virtually from across the country and world. Many of this year’s attendees participated in a series of roundtables where employee-owners and professionals hosted conversations and networking opportunities addressing some of the ESOP world’s most talked about topics. On October 13th we will continue the conversation around one of these topics: remote and hybrid work challenges. Read on for a few highlights from the conversations that took place at the Forum.
Dallan Guzinski
Research shows that the existence of an ESOP is not in itself sufficient for a company to attain the competitive and performance advantages associated with employee ownership. A company must also build an ownership culture—a workplace where employees think and act like owners. The NCEO's Ownership Culture Surveys are designed exclusively for employee ownership companies. The surveys measure how well employees understand their ESOP and ways the company can more effectively capture the benefits and competitive advantages of employee ownership.
Dallan Guzinski
Research shows that the existence of an ESOP is not in itself sufficient for a company to attain the competitive and performance advantages associated with employee ownership. A company must also build an ownership culture—a workplace where employees think and act like owners. The NCEO's Ownership Culture Surveys are designed exclusively for employee ownership companies. The surveys measure how well employees understand their ESOP and ways the company can more effectively capture the benefits and competitive advantages of employee ownership.
Dallan Guzinski
A long-term employee-owner at Web Industries with 20-plus years at the company once told an audience of NCEO conference-goers in Minneapolis that communication and learning at an ESOP company never really ends. He said that even thinking there is a finish line when it comes to improving your efforts on education might just mean that there is still a whole lot more to learn...
Dallan Guzinski
Research shows that the existence of an ESOP is not in itself sufficient for a company to attain the competitive and performance advantages associated with employee ownership. A company must also build an ownership culture—a workplace where employees think and act like owners. The NCEO's Ownership Culture Surveys are designed exclusively for employee ownership companies. The surveys measure how well employees understand their ESOP and ways the company can more effectively capture the benefits and competitive advantages of employee ownership.
Dallan Guzinski
Having a great corporate culture doesn’t necessarily mean you have a great ownership culture. In fact, a company that recently took the NCEO’s Ownership Culture Survey received feedback from employees that scored above average on just about every aspect of its culture compared to other ESOP companies in our employee survey database. Despite such positive feedback in all these areas, the company’s results were below average on survey items focused on ESOP understanding and ownership identity. For many employees, the ESOP benefit seemed distant and didn’t feel meaningful when it came to their day-to-day work.
Dallan Guzinski
The end of 2020 and the start of 2021 has already seen several companies transition their businesses to employee ownership through an ESOP. Just this week, one of the country’s largest and most prominent guitar manufacturers, Taylor Guitars, announced to employees and the world that they had transitioned 100% of the company’s ownership to its employees through an ESOP. I am always thrilled to see such transitions come to fruition, and especially so given what the business world and workers across the country have faced in the past year. And while the notion of employee ownership is certainly exciting for many new and future employee-owners, it’s inevitable that employees will still ask, “But… What the heck is an ESOP?” Taylor Guitars’ president, Bob Taylor, shared the reaction of his employees when the company announced its transition to ESOP ownership, noting that employees said, “This is wonderful! We don’t understand what it means yet, but it’s wonderful.”
Dallan Guzinski
I was recently joined by Trevor Monnig, CFO at employee-owned PFSbrands, and Patrick Carpenter, president of GRITT Business Coaching, to discuss the importance of rhythm and cadence in communications and internal education initiatives with employee-owners. As part of a series in the NCEO’s new seasonal training program, the Communications Committee Crash Course, employee ownership and business leaders have been meeting for several weeks to learn about what makes ownership culture and communications thrive in an ESOP company. My two guests joined us to focus on what has helped PFSbrands accomplish its goals in the midst of a pandemic and further engage employees in the financials of its business.
