Importance of Communications and the Competitive Advantages of Being a Small Business and/or ESOP Company
We have recently focused on how a company can implement its own two-step rescue package by Implementing an ESOP and Developing an Ownership Culture. Add in employee development, and you have ESOP + Strong Ownership Culture + Employee Development = Customer Satisfaction. We have also discussed how Open-Book Management can help build a strong ownership culture.
The Three C's of a Thriving Work Culture (Really One C) emphasizes the importance of communications in building and maintain a strong work culture:
If you're not doing this one thing over and over and over in your team building and employee engagement best practices, your work culture will not be as strong and effective as it could be to produce such bottom line-improving metrics as lower turnover, lower absenteeim and presenteeism, higher morale, and higher productivity:
Communicate!
Communicate!
Communicate!
It also lists some ways that some of the 2008 Top Small Workplaces, including 100% ESOP-owned ATA Engineering Inc., are communicating:
Consensus-based decision making is a company core value (ATA Engineering)
Open work spaces and collegiate-style campus encourages a free flow of ideas (Phenomenex)
Regular manager's luncheon at a local cafe where personal work stories from the week are shared (Lundberg Family Farms)
Another Winning Workplaces blog post, ABC: Small Business' Advantages Are Employees' Gain discusses the potential results of team building and employee engagement: "stronger camaraderie and higher productivity that yields greater sales and a healthier bottom line."
It also discusses some of the many advantages that a small business has over its larger counterparts:
Less bureaucracy
Closer relationships between owners, mid-management, and employees
Employees' jobs have a greater scope
Owners often treat their work force like family
Greater flexibility, job diversity, and higher growth potential
Ability to tailor the job to deal with employees' individual needs
Make sure you are working with your advisors to properly leverage the competitive advantages of being a small business and/or an ESOP company.