Brokers could be making more use of employee share plans to engage and motivate their employees to think and act more like business owners.
CEO of Succession Plus Craig West told brokerage owners at the
NIBA Convention this week that one of the ‘biggest issues’ for businesses in today's market was the inability to get employees to think and act like business owners, hurting brokerage growth.
Citing statistics from
Mercer following a survey of 30,000 global workers, West said between 28% and 56% of employees are looking to leave at any one time.
Further, an Australian Gallup Poll found only about 20% of employees loved their work – leading to active engagement – while a huge 80% were actually disengaged.
West said such statistics meant the employees of brokers would be showing this ‘emotional detachment’ in areas such as performance and productivity.
Saying he understood the angry refrain: “I’m not a business owner I’m a bloody HR manager”, West said brokers could turn this around with employee share plans, which gave employees a stake in the success of the business.
West said most brokerage businesses don’t have share plans because they are ‘scared’ of them, fearing things such as ‘being told what to do’ by their staff.
However, he said that in fact this was not the case, and employee share plans were a demonstrated vehicle to get employees to think and act like owners.
He provided further statistics comparing businesses that offered equity against those who did not. West said one study of businesses offering share plans found that they had boosted sales by 2.4%, productivity by 14.8%, saw return on assets grow 5.5%, and experienced net profit margin growth of 10.3%. The employees of these businesses also had wages 5% to 12% higher, and total retirement assets 2.6 times greater.
One business that implemented an employee share plan experienced an 84% drop in sick days over the course of one year, West said.
If even half of a business’ employees could think and act like brokerage owners, West said brokers could see a ‘dramatic’ business improvement.
Why do employees hate their jobs?
West presented the results of a recent Dale Carnegie Training survey which listed the top 10 reasons why employees ‘hate’ their jobs:
10 They think the grass is greener somewhere else
9 Their values don’t align with the company
8 They don’t feel valued
7 Job insecurity
6 There’s no room for advancement
5 They are unhappy with their pay
4 There is too much red tape
3 They are not being challenged
2 The passion’s gone
1 Their boss sucks
