Recognition and Culture to create Engagement

Written by

As a business owner, you know how important it is to attract and retain top talent, so you’ve created an employee share ownership plan; recognition and engagement are important. This can be a great strategy to offer recognition of employees’ efforts in order to increase engagement and retention.

Recognition and Engagement

I recently read an article in Benefits and Pensions Monitor called “How recognition bolsters engagement and shields employees from burnout”, which indicated a few things that align with ESOPs. A report from Workhuman and Gallup, ‘Empowering Workplace Culture Through Recognition’ shows employees who believe that recognition is an important part of their organization’s culture are 3.7 times as likely to be engaged, 3.8 times as likely to feel connected to their culture, and half as likely to experience frequent burnout as those who do not. ESOPs can lead to greater company performance if the company can engage their workforce (recognition and engagement). This comes down to what the report is saying about recognition and culture “the research highlights crucial considerations for leadership in reinforcing strong organizational cultures.” Without building a strong foundation in the culture, programs and initiatives like ESOPs or more traditional recognition plans likely won’t see the success you desire.

According to the article, a very small number (34 percent) of employees say their employer has a recognition program in place, only 13 percentage of which rate it as excellent. What seems to be the key here is aligning recognition program with the values of the organization as employees who perceive that to be the case are 4.9 times as likely believe they know what is expected of them at work. This is also a key element within ESOPs and the plan is more likely to be successful when employees understand why the ESOP was put in place, how it aligns with the company’s values, or how they individually impact company success in their everyday work (again recognition and engagement).

“Employee engagement is critical to the productivity, morale, development, and retention of every organization’s workforce.”

https://www.nceo.org/employee-ownership-data/academic-research

Making the most out of your plan can be challenging

We offer ESOPlus®, which is designed to provide detailed tools and resources to support the ESOP after it has launched. These are designed to improve activities that establish an ownership culture and drive Plan success such as engaging employees and establishing participative practices. It is ideal for Plans that are meant to be ongoing, drive higher engagement from employees, attract new talent, retain team members, and support succession planning.

ESOP companies that have established an ownership culture through participation and engagement are more likely to see positive results like higher productivity, innovation, retention, engagement, and profits.

What’s included in ESOPlus®?

  1. An engagement measurement tool (CORE4ESOP) to help you track and analyze Plan performance and ensure it is meeting its goals.
  2. Templates and guides that are detailed, clear, engaging, and customizable to help integrate your Plan into other company strategies such as attracting and retaining employees.
  3. Workshops along with direct access to an ESOP expert to assist the ESOP Committee and employee shareholders as a whole to truly engage and participate in ownership.
  4. A workbook with templates for you to establish your Plan Committee and communication strategy, and set them up for success long-term.
  5. Administration guides and third party portal access for employee visibility of company ownership
  6. Exclusive access to the most recent and relevant data specifically from small and medium sized private Canadian companies that have an employee ownership program.

All with access to your own ESOP advisor.

Learn more about the benefits of employee share ownership and how ESOPlus® can help you effectively administer your ESOP by visiting the ESOPlus® page or booking a call.

You have an ESOP; now what?

Written by

You have an ESOP; now what? ESOPs in Canada

Putting in place a new plan, any plan, is always only the first step; it never runs itself. ESOPs are no different. It is not a set it and forget it tool.
The ESOP transaction is over and has been well received; now the cultural transformation begins. The initial euphoria provides momentum for the work ahead, but how do you harness it into meaningful actions? Employees may be hesitant and uncertain about how to go about this. It is up to the board of directors and/or the leadership individual(s) to channel this new entrepreneurial energy and focus it on the goals of the corporation. The goal for the ESOP team is to instill a participative culture where the new employee-owners start to act and think like owners. The four areas of interaction with its employees are ownership, participation, training, and information. A challenge for companies transitioning to a true ESOP culture is how to communicate it in a meaningful way. There are many types of corporate information to be shared, including strategic, tactical, and investments. However, the one most commonly shared is company financial information. Some of our clients wonder, so be reassured: specific personal information about salaries is never disclosed.
The continuum of sharing of financial information stretches from sharing NO financial information to FULL transparency based on financial statements. In practice what does this look like? One of our clients decided to share quarterly and year-end financial statements with all employee-owners. To do this, they held town hall meetings quarterly, with highlights of company performance, and annually on a more expansive basis. Those attending were advised that the proceedings were to be kept confidential. At the annual meetings, summarized, condensed financial results were shown on the screen as the presenter explained them and answered employees’ questions. No personal identifying information was shown, no printed material was made, and no electronic material was distributed. However it allowed the new employee-owners to participate at a higher level than pre-ESOP and communicated important information in a way that employee-owners could make a meaningful connection to the results of their day to day work.

By Joanna Phillips CHRL, CVB, Vice President and Perry Phillips, CPA, CA, CBV, President

Employee Engagement is Affected by Neuroscience

Written by

What is the foundation for effective employee engagement within your ESOP?

Trust. 

Actually, trust is the foundation for every relationship, in any area of your life.  And the only way to create a workplace environment for greater connection, collaboration, innovation, creativity, and success, is by building incrementally higher levels of trust every day.

A basic understanding of neuroscience can allow us to have a simple, understandable dialogue about some of the elements that instill trust, employee engagement, and can lead to an even more successful Employee Share Ownership Plan (ESOP).

Continue reading

12 Successful Strategies for Creating a Participative Environment

Written by

Studies in the United States over the last 40 years have repeatedly identified that an employee share ownership plan (ESOP) with a participation component outperforms one without a participation element.

Participation means that the employees take on the responsibility of their particular job as well as the accountability that goes along with it by participating in decision-making in their sphere of influence within the organization.

Participation is vital to an ESOP. In fact, the same studies have shown that ESOPs without employee participation might be worse than having no ESOP at all. This negative result has been calculated at upwards of 6% of reduced production. 

Continue reading