ESOPs Provide Greater Employment Stability and Increase Job Satisfaction

In addition to Increasing Employee Wealth and Wages, a review of existing research on ESOPs found that ESOP companies have greater employment stability. Studies found that the average employee tenure was "significantly longer" than their non-ESOP counterparts and that firms were more likely to adjust wages than the number of employees.

It also found a mild increase in "job satisfaction, organizational commitment, identification, motivation, and workplace participation." Job satisfaction is generally not impacted by employee ownership alone. Job satisfaction and employee engagement are driven by having a meaningful ownership stake AND active participation in the decision making process. The NCEO's Research on Employee Ownership and Corporate Performance reiterates the formula of OWNERSHIP + PARTICIPATIVE MANAGEMENT = OWNERSHIP CULTURE:

Over the years, the NCEO has conducted and reported on research on employee ownership and corporate performance. The research comes to a very definite conclusion: the combination of ownership and participative management is a powerful competitive tool. Neither ownership nor participation alone, however, accomplishes very much...Researchers now agree that "the case is closed" on employee ownership and corporate performance. Findings this consistent are very unusual. We can say with certainty that when ownership and participative management are combined, substantial gains result. Ownership alone and participation alone, however, have, at best, spotty or short-lived results.