Overview

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In this course, you will learn about a well-researched tool for building a more equitable economy: “employee ownership.” You will learn what it is, how it differs from traditional business ownership models, and the forms it can take. You will learn how employee ownership can share wealth and profits with employees--while making businesses more productive. You will learn what the research shows about the benefits of this tool for employees, retiring business owners, and the economy. Whatever your interest in the topic, you’ll find information here that you can use. If you are a business owner or entrepreneur, you will learn why employee ownership could be a solution that benefits you and your employees. If you are an employee of a business, you will learn how you could gain an ownership stake in the business and what that would mean. If you are a student, this course is relevant to numerous fields including human resources management, strategy, entrepreneurship, organizations, history, economics, community economic development, labor studies, sociology, and more. If you are simply someone interested in tested real-world solutions to economic inequality, or concerned about social justice, this course is for you as well. By the end of the course, you will know key questions to ask to determine whether employee ownership may be suitable for your workplace. This course was developed by the Institute for the Study of Employee Ownership and Profit Sharing with support from the Beyster Foundation for Enterprise Development.

Syllabus

What is Employee Ownership?

In this course, you will learn about a well-researched tool for building a more equitable economy: “employee ownership.” You will learn what employee ownership is, how it differs from traditional business ownership models, and the forms it can take. You will learn how employee ownership can share wealth and profits with employees--while making businesses more productive. In the first week of the course, you will learn about how businesses are commonly owned. By the end of the first week, you will understand how employee ownership differs from common ownership models...and you will be able to name three relevant economic trends. Find links to more resources by clicking "Download" below the videos in this lesson. Let's get started.

Employee Ownership: Types and Traditions

Next we look more closely at four specific types of employee ownership: the Employee Stock Ownership Plan or ESOP, the worker cooperative, equity compensation, and the employee ownership trust. We will examine how these types of employee ownership work, how they differ from one another, and their prevalence. Then we will dive deep into understanding the historic roots of modern employee ownership. By the end of this module, you will have acquired a basic understanding of four key types of employee ownership. You will be able to visualize how several companies are successfully sharing ownership with employees. And you will understand how some ideas supporting employee ownership and profit-sharing trace back to the earliest founding of the United States, while the cooperative tradition has roots in Black and marginalized community experiences. Throughout this module, we will learn from several different scholars and experts.

What the Research Shows: Key Takeaways

Scholars have generated an enormous amount of evidence suggesting that employee ownership can strengthen firm performance, survival, and job stability, improve employee economic well-being, and address wealth inequality. In this module, you will learn some of the most important research findings, findings that are relevant to real-world practice. By the end of this module, you will understand several important takeaways from the research.

Why and How We Became Employee Owned

Welcome to the final part of the course. This section introduces basic information about implementing two forms of employee ownership, the ESOP and the worker cooperative. The two company founders who you met earlier will share more about how they adopted employee ownership. Tracy Till is co-founder of a company that became an ESOP. Jarret Schlaff co-founded a worker cooperative. Both will tell you why their business became employee owned, and how they and their colleagues did it. Both will describe important steps in the process and lessons they learned along the way. We have included links to optional, supplemental, instructional resources. By the end of this portion of the course, you will know much more about how one business owner sold the business she co-owned to employees through an ESOP, and how a different organization became a worker cooperative. You will take away a basic understanding of the key steps in the process, knowledge of important questions to ask, and resources for finding more detailed guidance.