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:
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Encourage a high-involvement culture with open-book management, high levels of employee education, and high levels of employee input;
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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.
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Risks
An ownership culture relies on several assumptions which won't always prove true. One assumption is that most workers can be trusted and will take pride in owning their companies. Do employees actually want to act like owners with all the extra rights and responsibilities? Not always. Furthermore, an ownership culture relies on employees' ability to come up with the right ideas to keep the company successful.
Advantages
Financial success isn't guaranteed by an ownership culture, but an atmosphere of increased mutual respect up and down the employee chain is very likely.
Employee education and an open-book management model empowers workers to make good decisions with great contextual understanding. And what workplace couldn't benefit from the added self-esteem and respect infused by the fact that everyone around them is an owner?
A team atmosphere is the likely outcome of an ownership culture. And enthusiasm for the company's success will prevail from the boardroom to the janitor's closet.
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