Business View Magazine - July 2023

NCEO The NCEO’s Approach to Employee Culture and Member Support With a dedicated staff of 20, NCEO has been transformed into a fully virtual organization, a positive move according to Rodgers. He shares, “We’ve hired people all over the country. We all used to be in the San Francisco Bay area, but now we’re everywhere. Being virtual has forced us to stop relying on in-person conversations, just running into people. We’ve been a lot more systematic about setting up check-ins with each other and having metrics that we track from week to week, month to month. So being virtual has been awesome.” Despite being a nonprofit organization, Rodgers emphasizes the commitment to running the NCEO in a manner that closely resembles an employee-owned model. “We are really participative. Everybody on staff has a lot of autonomy to pursue their own projects within the business. We get everybody on staff involved in our strategic planning, we transparently share all of our strategic planning metrics.” In terms of how NCEO works for its members, Rodgers acknowledges, “We see ourselves more as supporting them than representing them. There are other great organizations in the field, the ESOP Association, and ESCA, and their roles are to represent the interests of employee ownership in DC and state houses. We support companies that already are employee-owned, and companies that are considering becoming employee owned.” He highlights that while the NCEO predominantly serves members with ESOPs or those considering that model, support is extended to other forms of employee ownership. These include approaches like direct share sales to employees, the utilization of employee ownership trusts, and the establishment of worker cooperatives. Factors to Consider and Benefits of Employee Ownership through an ESOP For those considering an ESOP, Rodgers says there are a few factors that are part of