The Employee Stock Ownership Association recognized tvsdesign in two national award categories at its 40th Annual Conference in Washington D.C. on May 11: first, as the winner for printed ESOP company materials and second, as the runner up for an ESOP intranet presence. In addition to two national honors, our ESOP Communications Committee chairwoman, Jennifer Durham, won a regional award as the New South Chapter Employee Owner of the Year.

The purpose of the competition is to highlight ESOP companies and their communication with employees from the past year.  2016 marked the beginning of tvsdesign’s ESOP Communications Committee and many activities aiming to improve educational tools regarding our employee ownership program along with it.

With many young architects on the tvsdesign roster, accessible and transparent communication about what ESOP means and how employee owners can benefit from it is an important goal for the Committee. Additionally, many of the more seasoned employees may have questions as they approach retirement. From crowd-sourcing anonymous questions via pen and poster paper to delivering answers in informal breakfast meetings and through the intranet, the Committee laid the groundwork for open, consistent communication across the firm in 2016.

Beyond answering questions about how an ESOP works, the Committee also aims to celebrate employee ownership through events like Field Day and an ESOP poster contest. The events attracted excellent turnout for the first year, and encouraged people across departments to meet each other and collaborate on team-building projects. As one employee owner remarked after this year of increased ESOP education, “Being in an ESOP makes coming to work about so much more than just putting in your 8 hours.” And that’s exactly what we want all of our employee owners to feel.