ESOP Association New England Fall Conference

October 5, 2022 - October 6, 2022

Springfield, MA

Molly Mead will present Retaining and Recruiting Valued Employees with Christie Kane from Gardener’s Supply and Samanatha O’Neill from Cirtronics. The good news: companies have a lot of work. The challenge: companies don’t have enough employees to do the work. This session will focus on steps you can take to retain valued employees and recruit new ones. They will share examples from two employee-owned companies and also gather ideas from the people in the session. Don’t wait for a valued employee to tell you they have taken a new job. Tell them the many ways they make a difference.

Alex Moss will lead an interactive discussion on Financial Literacy. He will begin by briefly framing the issues: What information is required to be shared with ESOP participants? And what other information may not be required to be shared but can still be very smart to share? Why, how does doing this help our company thrive? How can we help employee-owners connect their understanding of our finances with their own day-to-day actions, and how they can drive increased value (which they will then share through the ESOP)? The group will then discuss how to do this effectively, both a general model for reference, and then attendees will be asked to share and discuss their current activities, what’s working best, where they have hit roadblocks and how they have responded, what continuing concerns they have, and what we are all learning.

Jennie Msall will present Encouraging Employee Ideas and Innovation with Aaron Moberger from AVID Products. Most ESOPs want employees to share ideas for business improvements and innovations but struggle to get them to do so. Come to this session to get practical tips for how you can help everyone at your company generate ideas for business improvements. We’ll also dive into some real-world examples to illustrate these strategies in action.