Employee Ownership Blog
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Join us this December for the Communications Committee Crash Course

A former communications committee member at a mature ESOP company recently told me that her participation gave her the tools to apply for an plan administration position that had opened at the company. Prior to participating on the committee, she had not gained the education or experience necessary for the role. She noted that being in a position to educate and communicate technical information to her colleagues made her a better learner in the process, but that the learning never stops. Whether you're new to employee-ownership or ESOP communications or you need a refresh, there's always more to be shared and ideas to be had when working with other employee-owners in all 50 states.

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Survey Your Employees with a Little Help from Your Friends!

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. 

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PPP Explained: ESOP Eligibility, Application Process, and Key Updates

Updated April 14, 7:12 am PT

The Paycheck Protection Program (PPP), part of the CARES Act stimulus package appears to be starting this morning, with some banks accepting applications. Some ESOP experts feared that the PPP may have been drafted in a way that would effectively have delayed ESOP companies’ participation, but some ESOP companies are reporting success. On April 13, we began reporting results from our survey of ESOP companies, which show, for example, that among companies that had filed a loan application, just under half (43%) had received confirmation that their loan was approved by the SBA. Approval typically took just over three days.

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CARES Act Payroll & Relief Loans for ESOPs

Title 1 of the CARES Act directs the U.S. Small Business Administration to make certain loans to qualifying small businesses to cover payroll, costs related to continuing group health care benefits, salaries or commissions, payment of interest on any mortgage obligation, rent, utilities, and debt obligations incurred before the covered period. Generally, the law applies to companies with 500 or fewer employees, with some exceptions, most notably for multi-location restaurants and hospitality companies and for larger companies that meet the SBA size standards anyway. ESOP companies can apply for this assistance, and some of the normal barriers that they might face have been removed.

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