Employee Ownership Blog

The Center for Professional Development at Stanford is offering a Webinar on the Silicon Valley model of shared equity, employee empowerment, and the possibilities of building similar organizations in China.

In response to Iowa Governor Terry Branstad's January announcement that promoting employee ownership would be one of his administration's top three economic goals, ESOPs seem to be gathering increased press coverage, with legislators endorsing his call and well-known local ESOP companies appearin

The 2010 General Social Survey, one of the largest and longest-running national surveys, found that the percentage of employees saying they have ownership in the companies where they work has been stable since 2006 at 17.5% of the private sector workforce.

Results from the 2011 National Association of Stock Plan Professionals/Deloitte Consulting survey show that employee stock purchase plans (ESPPs) continue to be an important part of public companies' equity strategies.

The Principal Financial Group released its tenth guide to best practices in employee financial security, which draws on the lessons of the winners of a prize for small and mid-sized companies.

Reaching a goal it had been pursuing since 2002, Torch Technologies, a technical services company in Alabama, announced that it had become 100% ESOP-owned. In an interesting twist, employees and others contributed over $1 million to charities in connection with the transaction.

Registrations for the April Employee Ownership Conference in Minneapolis are 60% higher than they were at this point in 2011. Those who attended last year's conference know that it set an attendance record, so the signs are excellent for this year.

In its January 31 issue, the Western Farm Press raises an all-too-common issue: "One of the complaints that dairy owners often have about employees is ... they don't take ownership in the operation.

Saying "Employee ownership is great for the Iowa communities," Governor Terry Branstad announced that promoting employee ownership would be one of his three top economic priorities.

Three researchers used an exceptional dataset to examine the impact of employee ownership and other group incentives on company practices and performance.

Mitt Romney left Bain & Company in 1984 to lead the spinoff of the private equity company Bain Capital. The following year, Bain & Company set up a leveraged ESOP, which bought 30% of the company from its founding members for $200 million.

Nick Clegg, the Deputy Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, called yesterday for what he called "responsible capitalism," observing that "Firms that have engaged employees, who own a chunk of their company, are just as dynamic, just as savvy, as their competitors.