ESOP and Engagement
In a time where all the buzz seems to be around Employee Engagement and Productivity enhancement, not much has been published about the contribution of a business structure to the improvement of Engagement. In 2005, G&T Industries (Employees thru an ESOP) purchased our business from Bob Wood, the remaining original partner in the business, which started in 1954. Since 2005, we have embarked on a journey to educate our team on business practices/principles, institute a shared company values proposition, and focus on the engagement of our team. In order to measure the migration/education of the team over time, we enlist the support of an outside survey group to conduct employee surveys. We measure 10 different areas of the business and separately look at Employee Engagement (thru embedded questions in the survey). We believe the ESOP business model is a HUGE contributor to the Engagement of team members since our employees are, in essence, owners. Owners must take a higher interest in driving success, taking care of customer needs, and working to continuously improve what we do and how we do it.. While we know we haven’t arrived, and will continue to focus on better meeting our employee needs and the needs our marketplace, we do clearly see substantial improvement in our survey results and engagement.
In the US today, the average American company has 30% of their employee base engaged, 52% partially engaged, and 18% disengaged in their daily work. This creates a significant loss of productivity and business performance. In our latest employee survey, which was just conducted, G&T Industries moved from 9% disengagement in 2015 to only 4% disengagement in our overall workforce in 2018.
Also, as a business, we scored higher in every category measured than the national average for all companies and all manufacturing companies (our benchmark group), which is a major accomplishment for our team.
We strongly believe in the ESOP model and the impact it will have on employee engagement if launched with a goal of “inclusion” and “education”. Let our engaged owners show your company the difference that it makes to be served by a company that CARES..
G&T Industries, Incorporated is a 100% employee-owned (ESOP) that has been solving complex problems for over 60 years. The company uses a people centric philosophy and unmatched capabilities in foam/rubber fabrication, contract assembly, sewing/upholstery, global supply chain management, and order fulfillment to create innovative solutions for customers across broad markets. Along with the Byron Center, Michigan corporate location, the company operates facilities in Jasper, Indiana, Reading, Pennsylvania, Woodbury, Tennessee, and Ningbo, PRC.
For more information, contact G&T Industries at 1-800-968-6035