Employee ownership is the process whereby employees are more involved in decision making processes – it is one of the means of employee empowerment. Individual employees show more mental and emotional involvement, their motivation is also improved because employees feel committed and responsible for organisational tasks.

Employee ownership can lead to individual, corporate and economic benefits. It also provides opportunities for more equal wealth distribution, higher investment and more growth-oriented entrepreneurship. While employee ownership is more widely used and encouraged in many countries, the Netherlands is currently lagging behind in this development. In the report Making Employee Ownership Work in Startups and SMEs, researchers from the European Centre for Alternative Finance (ECAF) at Utrecht University describe several options to increase the use of employee participation in the Netherlands, including a change in the timing of taxation, a change in the level of taxes and standardization of the valuation of shares.

With employee ownership, employees  become co-investors in an entrepreneurial economy. This can provide structural strengths for the Dutch entrepreneurship ecosystem.

Says Erik Stam, professor of Strategy, Organization & Entrepreneurship, one of the report’s authors.

For making employee ownership work in startups and SMEs, Ronald Kleverlaan, Laura Spaans and Erik Stam, on behalf of the ECAF of the Utrecht University School of Economics commissioned by Techleap external link, made an analysis of scientific literature and an international comparison of employee participation and employee stock options. The report provides an overview of international best practices and benefits of employee participation for employees, companies and society.

Ronald Kleverlaan says,

Employee ownership widens prosperity and creates a more inclusive society, as the value creation of companies is more widely shared. It also ensures higher employee engagement and higher innovation within the company.

Community Finance together with CrowdfundingHub work together with local and national governments to develop an alternative finance framework. We are experts in building the alternative finance ecosystem and we actively participate in several projects for the European Commission such as Altfinator, CrowdThermal and HUB-In.

Do you want to build a higher employee morale for your company? Are you looking to expand your company by introducing employee ownership into the system? Community Finance will provide you with professional strategic consulting and will accompany you during the decision-making. By combining the latest insights and market trends, we will support the development of alternative finance for your company.