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Designing and Growing EO Panel
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Ownership at Work: A Discussion on Designing and Growing Employee Ownership
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Suggest questionThe contributions of frontline workers have been widely lauded over the last few years. Though this long-overdue praise is important, we continue to fail to adequately compensate most essential workers even as corporate profits remain high and wealth inequality and race and gender wealth gaps persist. Employee ownership has continued to emerge against this backdrop and across party lines as a potential strategy for building an economy where prosperity is more equitably shared. Awareness about employee ownership, however, remains a challenge. Designing jobs and workplaces that include employee ownership can also be difficult and complex and many opportunities for growing the approach remain unrealized in the US.
 Businesses looking to start or transition to an employee-owned business face a number of design choices. Employee Stock Ownership Programs (ESOPs), Employee Owned Trusts (EOTs, worker-owned cooperatives, and equity compensation programs each hold different advantages and disadvantages. They can differ in their profit sharing, costs, flexibility, and how workers are involved in decision making. Designing a workplace culture that fully leverages employee ownership’s strengths also requires intention. What drives businesses to choose employee ownership? What factors affect the design and structure of employee ownership and what workplace culture is needed for it to be effective? What lessons can we learn from employee-owned firms about improving job quality and worker engagement? What supports do employee-owned businesses need and how can philanthropy and government help more businesses find opportunities to build ownership into the jobs they provide?
 This event features closing remarks from Senator Chris Van Hollen and a panel discussion with Jennifer Briggs (Contract CEO), Frank Lindsey (Old Takoma Ace Hardware), Gina Schaefer (A Few Cool Hardware Stores), Jeanne K. Wardford (W.K. Kellogg Foundation), and moderator Alana Semuels (TIME).
 For more information and additional resources from this event, visit: https://www.aspeninstitute.org/events/ownership-at-work-a-discussion-on-designing-and-growing-employee-ownership/
About The Aspen Institute
Government has played a critical role throughout the history of the US in launching and supporting employee ownership. Today, the US Departments of Treasury, Commerce, Agriculture, and Labor and the Small Business Administration support employee ownership through financing and lending, regulatory reform, technical assistance, market development, and more, as they help business owners, workers, and local governments across red and blue states to grow worker ownership. In this conversation, speakers discuss what the executive branch is currently doing to support employee ownership and how those efforts can be improved to offer more workers a shot at the American dream through ownership. It features a panel discussion with Rajesh Nayak (Assistant Secretary for Policy, US Department of Labor), Dr. Karama Neal (Administrator, Rural Business-Cooperative Service, US Department of Agriculture), Melissa Hoover (Senior Fellow, Rutgers Institute for the Study of Employee Ownership and Profit Sharing; Founder and Co-Executive Director, Democracy at Work Institute), David Hincapie (Economic Development Specialist, Veteran Business Development Officer, Washington Metropolitan Area District Office, US Small Business Administration), and moderator Maureen Conway (Vice President, The Aspen Institute; Executive Director, Economic Opportunities Program). For more information about this event — including video, audio, transcript, speaker bios, and additional resources — visit: https://www.aspeninstitute.org/videos/unleashing-an-ownership-economy-the-role-of-government-agencies/ This discussion was held on June 14, 2023, as part of the Employee Ownership Ideas Forum, co-hosted by the Aspen Institute Economic Opportunities Program and the Institute for the Study of Employee Ownership and Profit Sharing at Rutgers University. This two-day convening brought together leading policymakers, practitioners, experts, and the media for a robust discussion on how we can grow employee ownership for the shared benefit of American workers and businesses. Learn more: https://www.aspeninstitute.org/events/employee-ownership-ideas-forum/