Cisco-Eagle Wins National ESOP Award
The ESOP Annual Awards for Communications Excellence help employee-owned companies learn from each other
Cisco-Eagle recently won a first-place national award for Communications Excellence for Printed Materials for 2020 according to the ESOP Association. These awards were established to identify companies that excel at communicating with employee-owners and the larger community about ESOPs. We were runners-up for this award in 2017.
“I work with a company of partners”
Employee ownership is baked into our culture and every decision we make as a company and as individuals. We believe in informed, empowered employee-owners who make good decisions that serve our customers and our company. Cisco-Eagle’s ESOP Advisory Committee (EAC), as well as other internal groups and committees, often use physically printed materials and email communications to provide education about our ESOP, keep employee-owners up to date on current events within the company, and celebrate shared and individual achievements.
Because many aspect of employee ownership can be mysterious, we’ve always worked to ensure our employee-owners have a clear understanding of ESOP, how it works and what the benefits of it are. One of our top key business objectives is to satisfy and empower our employees, and ownership is a critical part of fulfilling that mission.
Internal newsletters
We publish two monthly newsletters—one short format and one longer format—as well as posters and infographics hanging in each office that illustrate facts about our company’s ESOP and share value. Because appreciation is an important part of our ownership culture, each employee-owner has a monthly opportunity to recognize a fellow owner’s contributions with a printed certificate that is presented at company-wide huddles.
Each month a newsletter is printed and posted in the offices regarding employee ownership, ESOP happenings, upcoming holidays/events, or even just some fun ESOP facts. The newsletter has an easily digestible single-page format, inviting employee-owners for a quick read as they pour a cup of coffee or stop by the copy machine.
Footnotes newsletter
Footnotes is a total communications newsletter sent to all employees each month. It consists of business-related achievements as well as personal strides employees would like to share. It also captures important upcoming dates and holidays, and it frequently features articles about our ESOP and EAC-sponsored events. This publication has done a remarkable job helping build a community of employee-owners that support each other professionally and personally.
Shout-outs
Each month, employee-owners are given the opportunity to give a “shout-out” to a fellow employee-owner for something they went above and beyond to do, whether it be work-related or not. These “shout-outs” are read allowed during our monthly financial overview and are also printed for the recipient to proudly display in their work area.
We communicate employee ownership with customers and vendors
We believe that employee ownership is a competitive advantage for Cisco-Eagle, and we want our customers to know about it. It sets us apart from competitors who don’t invest as much in their people. Ownership culture improves our service and we want customers to know it, so we share it in every form of communication available to us.
Shoptalk tips from our employee-owners
- We feature employee-owners throughout our printed catalog and other literature promoting our services and giving product advice. Their expertise and input into the everyday workings of our business are captured in the phrase “employee-owner” that accompanies every Shoptalk snippet.
- We publish Shoptalk advice from our employee-owners across our website, which provides useful information specifically from employee-owners who are subject matter experts. Product and informational videos are produced that clearly identify our people as employee-owners.
- We publish a number of buyer’s guides that provide expert employee-owner advice on a range of industry topics that concern our customers in Shoptalk snippets.
About ESOP ownership
Cisco-Eagle provides exceptional service by employee-owners. We believe that no one provides better service than an owner, and based on our customer service ratings, our customers agree. Our employees are all shareholders and partners in the business. We have been employee-owned since 2000. For more information about our ownership culture, visit our ESOP page.
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Scott Stone is Cisco-Eagle's Vice President of Marketing with more than thirty years of experience in material handling, warehousing and industrial operations. His work is published in multiple industry journals an websites on a variety of warehousing topics. He writes about automation, warehousing, safety, manufacturing and other areas of concern for industrial operations and those who operate them.