Employee Ownership Expansion Network seeks to create one million more employee-owners by 2025 Employee Ownership Expansion Network (EOX) is seeking support to reach its goal of creating one million more employee-owners by 2025.

Employee Ownership Expansion Network (EOX), a national non-profit organization, is actively working to garner support to complete its goal of enabling one million employees to achieve ownership by 2025.

 

Logo of the Employee Ownership Expansion Network 

Since its founding in 2019, EOX has been committed to changing lives, building wealth equity, and saving jobs through education and outreach via the creation of State Centers for Employee Ownership. Many business owners don’t understand the benefits of employee ownership, and EOX is steadfast in bringing awareness and resources as avenues for change.

Employee ownership has been proven to help employees build wealth, stay longer at their jobs, and positively impact the community. Employee ownership models often ensure that workers don’t lose their jobs once a company is sold.

There is a network of State Centers representing 21 different states. These non-profit organizations offer unbiased outreach and education resources to the local community in the form of speaking engagements, seminars, webinars, and social media marketing campaigns. EOX plans to gain investments for its secondary goal of expanding the network of State Centers to 25 US states by 2025. The investments will be used for increasing staffing, grassroots outreach, and general support of all State Centers on a national level.

Employee Ownership Expansion Network is championed by board members with over 160 years of combined experience working at or running employee-owned firms. The business was founded to address the ongoing challenges of proliferating employee ownership centers throughout the US. Executive Director Steve Storkan believes there are so few employee owned companies in the United States because many business owners feel they are being sold employee ownership, not educated about it. EOX’s ultimate goal is to disprove the myths around creating and selecting an employee ownership model that works for a business and its employees.

Most everyday businesses reward their employees with profit-sharing and quarterly bonuses. While these programs are financially advantageous for workers, business owners could be doing more to share the success their company achieves with their employees. A business only reaches success due to the hard work and dedication of its employees, which is why EOX is passionate about employees being rewarded through equity ownership in their companies.

Within the private tech sector and large public companies, employee ownership is very common. Workers may receive discounts on company stock prices and access to stock options. However, this model is generally reserved for senior leaders and requires employees to invest their money to gain financial wealth. Employee Ownership Expansion Network’s model is entirely different because all employees can access equity and wealth at no cost.

EOX promotes three employee ownership models: Employee Stock Ownership Plans (ESOPs), worker cooperatives, and employee ownership trusts (EOTs).

ESOPs are the most common form of employee ownership in the United States. These plans allow workers to accumulate stocks annually in a retirement plan account, which can be exchanged for cash once they leave the organization.

Worker cooperatives are perfect for smaller organizations that want the business to run democratically. Each employee-owner has one voting share of stock on the members of the board of directors and major corporate decisions.

No matter the employee ownership plan your business may leverage, EOX believes it positively affects workers, businesses, and their owners, as well as the overall local economy.

“Employee ownership empowers workers, provides them with a stake in the company's success, and creates a sense of shared purpose and responsibility,” says Executive Director Steve Storkan, “As a result, it not only promotes economic equity but also ensures a smoother transition for businesses during the retirement of their leadership.”

Millions of business owners are looking to sell their businesses in the coming years. EOX hopes to be a guiding light for these individuals since employee ownership can provide employees and companies with flexibility and security on what happens to a business cultivated by decades of hard work and sacrifice.

Media Contact

Name: Steve Storkan

Email: SStorkan@EOXnetwork.org