Blue Ridge ESOP Associates Industry News

Your annual ESOP statement gives you a terrific opportunity to make the most of employee ownership. Seize it by implementing these seven practical suggestions to increase understanding of your ESOP, strengthen your company’s culture, and promote employee ownership as a powerful tool for improved performance and employee retention.

If you asked three people at your company what their roles are as employee owners, what answers would you hear? More importantly, would the responses be the same or even similar?

At some firms, the answer is no.

It’s no because defining employee owner roles and responsibilities is an ongoing challenge. But it’s a critical issue to address because it’s an essential building block in the foundation of your company’s success. Unfortunately, if you haven’t invested the time, energy and resources to define employee roles and responsibilities, people will do it themselves. Their definitions may wander far afield of your ideas and harm your ownership culture, rather than enhance it.

Here are four practical considerations in your effort to successfully define what it means to be an employee owner at your company.

Some people believe in making future account balance projections. Others see them as the proverbial subway ‘third rail” of ESOP communications; something to never be touched (i.e. stay away unless you want the equivalent of fiduciary electrocution). A recent encounter with a successful ESOP company illustrated the dilemma of sharing ESOP account projections.