ESOP Awareness Month

Employee Ownership Month occurs every year in October and is an opportunity for ESOP (Employee Stock Ownership Plan) companies across the nation to educate employee-owners, the media, the public, and government officials about the benefits of employee ownership.  It’s a terrific celebration of the spirit of employee ownership.

What does it mean to be an ESOP company?

An Employee Stock Ownership Plan (ESOP) is a tax-qualified retirement plan authorized and encouraged by federal tax and pension laws.

When companies launch an ESOP, they form a trust that purchases some or all the company’s shares and holds these shares in retirement accounts for employees. When the stock value increases or decreases, so does the value of employees’ accounts.

ESOPs provide unique benefits to the employee owners, the institutions, and the surrounding communities that they are involved with. ESOPs have been proven to motivate employees, increase productivity, improve employee retention, excel at providing employee training, keep jobs local, counter wealth inequality, contribute to business health and longevity, and so much more.

ESOP Celebrations

To celebrate our ESOP culture, we have brought employees from all locations to our corporate headquarters to recognize their hard work and dedication to our employee-owned company. Each of these employees received an award based on our core company values:

  • Acts with Integrity
  • Laser Customer Focus
  • Work Smart
  • Always Seeking Improvement
  • Produce Results

Congratulations to the following employees on their achievements:

  • Antuan Weddington
  • Jasper Cunningham
  • Jolene Stroup
  • Michael Tafolla
  • Alfonso Mendoza
  • Sandra Blanchard
  • Belinda Lee
  • Scott Wood
  • Grant Baudoin
  • Ben Ledet
  • Patrick Cotton
  • Oscar Bogarin
  • Hector Millayes
  • Matt Eckert
  • Don Overton
  • Chelsea Buff
  • Brian Sweet
  • Alex Poole
  • Rosa Moya
  • Michael Davis

We concluded our celebrations with a fun flag football game amongst employees. Team Red brought home the victory and bragging rights until next year! We enjoyed bringing all of our employees together and look forward to next year’s ESOP celebration!