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With the economy in its 10th year of modest but steady growth, dealing with a downturn may not be on the minds of a lot of employee-owners. But any business in any economy can suffer a downturn, and a recession is bound to happen sometime.

In their presentation at the NCEO’s annual conference, Jacob Covell, media specialist at employee-owned Carris Reels, and Kyla Alterman, associate consultant at Workplace Development, acknowledged some of the ways in which ESOP communications and engagement might have experienced a bit of a slump since the pandemic.

Community is powerful and community has become more important than ever.

Semi-annual or annual performance reviews are a common feature of corporate life. The research on their effectiveness, however, is at best mixed. According to a Gallup poll, only 14% of employees strongly agree their performance reviews inspire them to improve.

ESOPs at their best do a lot more than provide working people with livable retirement income. Sure, this is perhaps the most important or compelling aspect of ESOPs, and one needn’t look far to see reasons why this sort of wealth inequality solution is so vital.

One common myth about employee ownership is that it is primarily for companies with well-educated and well-paid work forces.  

The DOL has issued new interim requirements (29 CFR Part 2520. Aug.

At the 2018 NCEO conference in Atlanta, we had a keynote panel of Web Industries, Polyguard, and Butler/Till. All are mature ESOPs that have had remarkable success in both business and ownership culture terms. They have highly engaged employees operating in high-involvement systems, using detailed financial and performance metrics, and generating not just better ideas for doing what they already do, but for new products and services as well.

Health care is a major cost for any company, but when employees are owners, the company has extra reason to create and maintain a plan that is good for employee health and company financial performance.

The NCEO’s 2021 Employee Ownership 100 list includes the nation’s largest companies that are at least 50% owned by an employee stock ownership plan (ESOP) or other broad-based employee ownership plan.