Employee Satisfaction

Whenever I go to an event about workforce or employee benefits or employee retention or something like that, someone will inevitably say something like: “You have to make them feel and behave like owners.” That always makes me reach for my blood pressure medication, because what they are really saying is that you have to manipulate or deceive them into behaving like owners. So far, no one has suggested the possibility of making them actual owners.

Of course, if your motivation is to make lots of money off someone else’s labor, you can stop reading now. You deserve to have terrible employees. They should all go look for another job.

If, on the other hand, you are a small business owner just getting by, nothing extraordinary, just paying the bills, clothing and feeding the family like other middle class people do, this might be for you, too.

A small group of people, currently about 7,000 in the US, have figured out how to have great jobs without working for someone else and without going it alone starting a new business. They work in worker cooperatives. Worker cooperatives are companies 100% owned and controlled by their workers. They enjoy two major benefits:

1. They share all of the profits of their labor. No one else makes money off of them.
2. They govern the company through the democratic process. No one else decides how they should run their business.

Worker cooperatives are good for these four groups of people:

1. People who are struggling to find employment the traditional way, people who are over 50, who have been incarcerated, have disabilities, etc., etc.
2. People who are dissatisfied with their jobs. More than half are in this category.
3. Business owners who want to retire, but can't find anyone to take over so they simply shut the business down. Then the employees become the most motivated buyers.
4. Business owners who are struggling under the responsibility of being the one everyone looks to for leadership. Shared ownership could yield the same financial reward and reduce the stress of business ownership.

None of the fancy incentive programs come close when it comes to job satisfaction. Only actual ownership will provide the motivation workers want.

Building Co-operative Power: Stories and Strategies from Worker Co-operatives in the Connecticut River Valley

Worker cooperatives is a way for workers to take control of their lives, work the way they want and reap the benefits of their labor.