In this episode of Owners at Work, we sit down with Liza Shifrin, researcher at the National Center for Employee Ownership (NCEO), to discuss the findings of NCEO's first Recruitment and Retention Survey, which gathered responses from 433 ESOP companies. We explore how ESOP companies are attracting and retaining workers, including findings that suggest employee-owned companies experience substantially lower turnover than their conventional counterparts. We also examine some surprising results, including why employee ownership may be a stronger tool for retaining employees than recruiting them, and which recruitment strategies companies report as most effective. Along the way, we discuss how ESOP companies can better communicate the financial and cultural benefits of employee ownership to prospective and current employees.
This episode of the Owners At Work podcast is brought to you with support from GBQ Capital Advisors. Headquartered in Columbus, OH, GBQ provides a full range of valuation and ESOP advisory services to clients nationwide, including pre-ESOP planning, feasibility studies, formations, valuations, and transactions.

The Owners at Work Podcast is a continuation of the biannual Owners at Work Newsletter which ran for 19 years (1990-2019). We are hoping to continue the same conversations and focus on providing updates on everything employee ownership. We plan to interview practitioners with expertise in different facets of employee ownership, academics doing new and interesting research, and most importantly, individuals who have a personal experience with employee ownership, including current and former employee-owners, mid-level to C suite management, and selling owners.
We want to produce a show that engages with relevant questions and provides practical lessons and information. We want this podcast to include the voices of those who practice employee-ownership each and every day. To that end we want to hear from you! We want to highlight what you are doing, whether you are an employee-owned company, a practitioner, or researcher.
***Please reach out via email: oeoc@kent.edu