Corey Rosen
Colorado has become the most recent state to create a state employee ownership center. Governor Jared Polis has created the Employee Ownership Office as a standalone center in the Colorado Office of Economic Development and International Trade (OEDIT). The office will have its own dedicated staff. It has $1.75 million in funding over the next two years.
Corey Rosen
In its 128-page report “Creating an Economic System That Works for All,” the American Sustainable Business Council (ASBC) urges a variety of steps to promote broad-based employee ownership.
Timothy Garbinsky
At this year's Fall ESOP Forum, we wanted to highlight the member companies that are going above and beyond the call of duty in making their ESOP, their employee-owners, and their communities thrive. For this reason, we awarded the first annual Achievement Award to NCEO member Litehouse, Inc.
Dallan Guzinski
The direct involvement of employee-owners in the process of communication and education has proven powerful for ESOP companies working to improve their ownership cultures. While this involvement looks different for many employee-owned businesses, it most commonly comes in the form of an employee-driven communications committee.
Timothy Garbinsky
Our friends at Certified EO have launched a new tool to help consumers support employee-owned businesses. Shop EO is a search engine for employee-owned businesses that sell directly to consumers. So far, you can search by keyword, state, and industry category. The industry categories available to search include:
Corey Rosen
In June 2017, the NCEO created the Employee Ownership Index, an index of publicly traded companies that both had won major awards for high engagement management styles and had some form of broad-based employee ownership. The list was updated each year as some companies were added and some dropped off. Since that time, the Index outperformed the S&P 500 by about a 2 to 1 ratio. Until May of this year, the Index was housed at Motif Investments, an online platform that allowed users to develop funds that others could invest in. Motif was sold to Folio, and Folio does not allow that kind of investment. No other platform allows this, so the Index is not available as an investment.
Timothy Garbinsky
Today is the start of the America's Small Business Development Centers (ASBDC) annual conference, where employee ownership will be discussed not once, not twice, but thrice over the course of the event.
Loren Rodgers
NCEO members have been telling us that they want a creative way to reinforce a sense of team work and community during the pandemic, and courtesy of two of our member companies, we have a suggestion. Hire an employee-owned company to send packages to all employee-owners at your company -- these packages can connect people, celebrate milestones, generate engagement, and create meaningful shared experiences in a new virtual world. Two NCEO member companies, Crêpes à Latte and American Solutions for Business, are standing by to help.
Chris Cooper
No area has been as much of a source of questions from ESOP companies than trustee and fiduciary matters. To help clarify these issues, we are once again partnering with the Beyster Institute on its Certificate Program for Non-Professional ESOP Fiduciaries. If you are an internal trustee for your ESOP during these unprecedented times, you may be facing decisions that are both challenging and outside of your previous experience. While it’s likely that circumstances have changed for your company, the core requirements for fiduciary success remain the same:
