Companies with employee ownership cultures might be big or small, booming or staying modest. But for an employee ownership culture to succeed, a company must do two things:
-
Encourage a high-involvement culture with open-book management, high levels of employee education, and high levels of employee input;
-
Share the company's equity with employees via some form of broad-based equity ownership program, most commonly an employee stock ownership plan (ESOP).
High-involvement culture
A high-involvement employee culture encourages and incentivizes employees to participate in the decision-making and management of a company. Leaders rely on forward-thinking ideas from employees to propel the company forward and carry the company through slumps.
The company provides exceptional employee education throughout the organization to foster mutual respect among all employees. The management opens the books to give all employees an accurate understanding of "what's under the hood" — including, in some cases, all of their colleagues' salary figures.
ESOP
An employee stock ownership plan shares a company's equity among its employees, almost always as a contribution to the employee rather than an employee purchase. ESOPs offer companies a tax advantage, while giving employees an added benefit and a very real sense of ownership in the company.
Complete your profile to continue reading and get FREE access to BenefitsPRO, part of your ALM digital membership.
Your access to unlimited BenefitsPRO content isn’t changing.
Once you are an ALM digital member, you’ll receive:
- Critical BenefitsPRO information including cutting edge post-reform success strategies, access to educational webcasts and videos, resources from industry leaders, and informative Newsletters.
- Exclusive discounts on ALM, BenefitsPRO magazine and BenefitsPRO.com events
- Access to other award-winning ALM websites including ThinkAdvisor.com and Law.com
Already have an account? Sign In
© 2024 ALM Global, LLC, All Rights Reserved. Request academic re-use from www.copyright.com. All other uses, submit a request to [email protected]. For more information visit Asset & Logo Licensing.
