I recently traveled to Washington, D.C. with Marisela Miranda (Giroux’s assistant controller) to attend this year’s ESOP Association National Conference. Our exciting reason for going was that Marisela was selected as Employee-Owner of the Year, for the California/Western States Chapter, for 2015-2016! The attendees at the National Conference included the honorees from all of the other regions as well. Everyone at Giroux Glass was so excited for her, since, together, our partners chose to nominate Marisela for taking the initiative in heading up our “Culture Committee,” and to educate and motivate her colleagues by promoting a culture of employee-ownership.
Over the two-day conference, we were able to share with and learn lots of helpful information from other national ESOP companies who are also working toward an employee-ownership culture. I wanted to share with you, a few tips that really stood out to me from among the many choices of interesting presentations and workshops offered. It’s information that could be useful for any company, ESOP or not. . . .
Strengthening Culture:
- Managers must model the behavior they want to see in all employees.
- Leaders need to follow through — “Do what you say you’ll do.”
- Leadership should feel encouraged to meet with new employees and ask what we could do better and what we do well as a company.
- Getting together to better our communities is time and money well-spent in strengthening a company culture that gives back.
If you’re an ESOP company…
- Describe the ESOP as a “wealth building plan” rather than a “retirement plan.”
- Go to schools — Prepare scholarship and internship programs with no strings attached.
- Invite motivational speakers and/or congressional representatives to ESOP month (they’re off in October).
- NCEO offers help with measuring your employee-ownership culture with employee surveys, ESOP quizzes, research surveys and more.
Staying Positive:
- For every negative circumstance in your day, think of three positive ones.
- At the end of each day, ask yourself which three things went well today.
- 10% of our happiness/unhappiness is influenced by external events, 50% is hereditary and 40% is under our control.
- Positive teams perform better. The highest-performing teams are rational, good about inquiring and good about sharing credit.
- Even in some world-class companies, 7% of employees are disengaged; in regular companies, 18% of employees are disengaged. To reverse this, we need to be specific and timely with the praise that we give to our employees. We can change our perspective, identify strengths of our employees and put them in positions where their strengths are needed.
Employee Engagement Ideas for ESOPs:
- Consider having a “dream manager” who asks your employee-owners about their dreams and helps them find mentors.
- Begin a regular, internal ESOP newsletter.
- Host an annual employee recognition dinner.
- Begin “passion projects” like courses in how to prevent falls, how to cope with death(s) in a family, financial hardships, etc.
- Host meetings to discuss your business’ financial performance, and allow your staff to ask questions.
- Film quarterly videos in which your staff can share about their projects and work.
- Celebrate two anniversary dates — partners’ date of employment and date fully vested in the ESOP.
- Make a big deal when a person gets vested, and be creative about it. Ex: Get a “vested” vest embroidered, design a plaque, have a knighting ceremony.
- Set up creative contests to promote your ESOP, such as drawing, poetry and song contests.
- Invite people from different departments to the culture committee meetings.
Strengthening an ESOP Ownership Culture in a Union Environment:
- Share all information (such as financials) equally with non-Union and Union employees
- Put the same emphasis on core values. For Giroux, they’re growth, integrity, respect, ownership, unity and excellence.
- Have your executives visit them, spend time with them, have lunch with them –- know them.
- Let Union employees know that having an ownership environment is to their advantage as well. As the business grows faster and with more profit, they will have steady jobs and financial gain as well. Let them know that employee-owners care more about all employees, Union or non-Union.
- Let them know that in an ESOP environment, money does not get sucked-out of the company to give to investors.
- Teach that, though there is a history of a divisive relationship between management and Unions, this is not true of ESOP companies.