Nathan Nicholson
Our recent ESOP Topics Survey asked companies to reflect on how employee ownership is affecting their ability to respond to the coronavirus pandemic. The responses show some encouraging perspectives on how an ESOP and an effective culture of ownership can help companies survive and thrive in crisis.
Corey Rosen
A new study by Carver Edison shows that over the last five years, public companies with employee stock purchase plans (ESPPs) had a return on equity of nearly 12% per year, compared to 7% in companies without these plans. They had operating margins of 9.5%, compared to 8.2% for non-ESPP companies, and they had four times the annual sales growth (4% to 1%). Almost half the S&P 500 and 40% of the Russell 3000 offer these plans. The study was based on market-weighted indices of ESPP and non-ESPP companies. It is not possible to tell whether companies that offer these plans tend to be better performers to begin with or whether there is a causal relationship with ESPPs.
Dallan Guzinski
At the NCEO’s Fall ESOP Forum in 2019, I met with a manufacturing company that was concerned about engaging its shop floor employees more effectively in the culture of ownership it was trying to build. They were concerned that their employees working in their corporate offices had more opportunities for learning and more all-around engagement in the business and employee ownership. When their employees took the NCEO's Ownership Culture Survey later that fall, the feedback we collected confirmed their suspicions. Employees in other departments responded 20% less positively than those closer to corporate leadership when it came to ESOP understanding, ownership identity, decision-making, and access to business information.
Loren Rodgers
From September 14 to 16, the 2020 Fall ESOP Forum will showcase the best resources the ESOP world has to offer for you and your company. To help you navigate which sessions will give you the answers you need, NCEO founder Corey Rosen and I have put together a curriculum guide with six tracks for a variety of roles and ESOP questions.
Timothy Garbinsky
Adapting to the socially distanced world, both the Vermont Employee Ownership Center (VEOC) and the Ohio Employee Ownership Center (OEOC) have moved their annual conferences online.
Loren Rodgers
Update on Sept 10, 2020: This bill was not included in the Senate Republicans' most recent coronavirus relief bill.
Timothy Garbinsky
Following his earlier statement on linking employee ownership to government aid, Senator Ron Johnson (R-WI) has introduced a bill doing just that. In a press release issued on July 21, 2020, Senator Johnson described the Temporary Federal ESOP Grant Program Act. According to the press release, the bill would:
Nancy Wiefek
Each year, the NCEO compiles a database of all ESOPs in the US. This database breaks out privately held and publicly traded ESOPs, and includes the age of the ESOP, number of participants, total plan assets, and more.
Dallan Guzinski
In this new series of NCEO blog posts, I will explore interesting ownership culture insights on what the NCEO has learned over the years from companies, their stories, practices, and a wealth of survey data collected from employee-owners across the country. I will explore common challenges, best practices, and learn about what employees truly value when it comes to creating a workplace that thrives on ownership thinking.
