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One of the greatest motivators for employees is having an ownership stake in their company. And one company, Foldcraft Co. a furniture manufacturer based in Kenyon, Minn., has found this tenet to be so true that it devotes substantial effort to sharing operating data with its approximately 250 employees, who own the company through an Employee Stock Ownership Plan (ESOP).
While this is not unusual for ESOP companies, Foldcraft goes the extra mile by taking great efforts to educate employees about financial measures and financial performance. Financial Basics Training From the time Foldcraft became a 49 percent employee-owned business in 1985, company executives began to "try to transform people's thinking," to make them "act like owners," said Steve Sheppard CEO of the approximately 250-employee company.
The company instituted financial training programs--first voluntary, then mandatory--which explained company finances by comparing the financial operation of a company with that of a household. 'Fun and Games' Training After developing the basic training programs, the company moved to more innovative training programs structured in the form of games, which are a mainstay of its communications and training programs today.
One six-hour training program is known as "The School Desk Company" game. In this, two teams representing fictional companies use their...