DINESEN: Make employees owners

DAVE DINESEN

The best day I ever had at work was the day my previous company sold. I walked around the office handing out cheques. For some, it was a life-changing amount of money. I think about the cohesiveness we had as a team, and the ownership everyone took for their work. We could have weathered any storm together. It’s an approach I’m proud to be taking again at my current agriculture technology company, at a time when businesses need unity more than ever.

As industries worldwide deal with a resignation wave, it’s clear many employees just don’t feel connected to their organizations anymore. From where I stand, there’s one obvious antidote that can play a huge role.

More companies should make their employees owners.

As CEO, I want everyone in our company to be a shareholder. The idea of employees creating wealth but being shut out of those gains has always made me uncomfortable. But what we’re doing is more than just a moral stand; it’s a retention strategy, a culture booster and a secret weapon for my company.

WHEN EMPLOYEES BUY IN, EVERYONE WINS

My previous tech company specialized in background checks. At 32 years of age, I was the oldest person in the building on most days. But what we lacked in experience, we more than made up for with eagerness. That’s because our employees were owners. Feeling invested in the company’s mission was a driving force behind our performance and engagement, and we quickly grew to become four times larger than all our closest competitors combined. On the day we sold, most employees benefited from those efforts, not just the executive bench.

It’s a lesson I’ve carried forward into my current company, CubicFarm Systems Corp., and one I think more people should consider right now. Business leaders are facing a critical juncture. More than half of employees recently surveyed by Achievers said they were considering quitting their job and a whopping 46% said they felt less connected to their employer now than before the pandemic.

The cost of disengagement is too high to ignore. A Gallup study pegs losses in productivity due to disconnected employees at around $550 billion in the United States each year — and that was before the resignation wave.

BARRIERS TO ENTRY MUST BE LOW

While the concept of making employees shareholders may seem simple, implementing it can be a challenge. Employee Share Purchase Plans (ESPPs) for instance, aren’t rare, but getting employees to buy into them is. According to Deloitte, only about 10% of companies have more than three-quarters of their workforce bought into an ESPP. The biggest barrier? The cost of entry.

Among those companies that do participate in these programs, most offer employees shares at a discount of 15% percent or less — an amount that hasn’t inspired many people to invest their hard-earned money. I’m personally a proponent of offering one-for-one matching — essentially doubling each purchase of the stock for employees. Our Grow Together program is available to Canadian and U.S. employees, making ownership accessible to everyone in the company.

With valuable employees resigning across all industries at alarming rates, there’s never been a better time to have your team bought into your mission. So why not make them owners?

Dave Dinesen is the CEO of CubicFarms, a local-chain agtech company specializing in automated, commercial-scale indoor farming technology.