This Labor Day, let's make more Wisconsin workers owners

Today, more and more companies talk about how great their culture is. But when you ask for examples, you tend to get the traditional, 'we're a family' or 'we celebrate our successes together.' In my opinion, truly great company culture starts with caring for employees. I don't think I understood this until I got firsthand experience at Oconomowoc-based Sentry Equipment. I can still remember my first day at the company, a 19-year-old sophomore at Marquette University just happy to have landed an internship. At that time, Sentry was small enough that you were introduced to every worker in the building. Only they weren't introduced as workers. I found out everyone, from the maintenance guy to the CFO, was an owner of the company. That's right, Sentry was employee owned, via an Employee Stock Ownership Plan, or ESOP, a retirement plan that lets companies share ownership with workers. Being relatively introverted, meeting so many new faces was an overwhelming experience. The feeling of being wanted and receiving a true warm welcome put my anxiety at ease. I didn't realize that I would be relying on my new team in a way I couldn't imagine. Later that summer, unforeseen circumstances put me in a bad financial situation, and as a 19-year-old, I didn't know what to do or how to handle it. I reached out to older colleagues and, eventually, to some members of the Sentry leadership team for guidance. These people quickly became more than just colleagues; they became supportive friends for a kid in a jam. They stepped up and guided me, even reaching into their own pocket to help. These people barely knew me. But they cared and wanted to make sure I was going to be OK. I didn't realize it at the time, but when I think back to those early days, I know it was Sentry's employee ownership culture that lifted me up. It's a culture that goes beyond the business: it's about people and caring for them as much as you care about the business. Nineteen years and four promotions later, I'm now Sentry's vice president of manufacturing. If you listen to industry experts, 19 years at one company for a millennial is unheard of. So why have I stayed so long? It was that first glimpse of the employee-ownership culture, which makes this a special place to be a part of. There are years of academic studies that show how employee ownership builds worker wealth and stronger companies, but to live it every day for 19 years is to really see its power. Every single employee-owner at Sentry is free to approach anyone else and we know they will point us in the right direction. Our maintenance manager, who is one of the most trusted people on my team, embodies this. He has been with Sentry for nearly 25 years and has worked across several departments, giving him an exceptional understanding of our products, processes, equipment, and facilities. His title may be maintenance manager, but his influence extends far beyond. People at every level of the company seek him out because they know he will share what he knows, challenge assumptions when necessary, and help find a practical solution. That type of trust, accessibility, and shared responsibility is what employee ownership looks like in practice, and it often leads to stronger results. My favorite example of this is how we have freed up time so that one of our welders can dedicate one day a week to solving problems for other employee-owners on the shop floor. This was only done by knowing who the employee-owner is as a person, not just as another name on an organizational chart. Those relationships revealed the true value he could bring to Sentry. When I first started, I didn't realize the true value of being an employee-owner. Nineteen years later, my ESOP balance has grown significantly. When I step back, I see this has truly changed my life. Not only do I have my standard retirement through a 401(k), but I have the ESOP on top of it. I grew up in a single-parent household. My mom worked long hours at various retail jobs to support my brother and me. We had to grow up fast because Mom was away at work a lot of the time. She pushed me to do something different from her, which led me to engineering and, ultimately, to owning the company where I work. Today, the ESOP has made me look at how I can do things differently for my family. Not only can I think about retiring when I'm ready — something my mom and many Americans only dream about — but I also realized I am building generational wealth to hand down to my four- and six-year-old boys. And like my fellow employee-owners, we are in control of our own stories. Unfortunately, my story is far from the norm. I have a lot of friends who have hopped from seven or eight jobs because they haven't found a place where their voices are respected and they can grow. You hear about people in my age group still living at home or delaying having a family because of affordability issues. I think people tend to interchange their needs with their wants. The ESOP has positioned me so that I no longer have to be concerned about my needs and can truly build towards what many consider the traditional American Dream. I wish more companies had an engaged and driven culture like Sentry's. There are only 240 ESOPs in Wisconsin, but I'm optimistic that is about to change. A growing coalition of companies and organizations, Expanding ESOPs, is working to expand employee ownership in Wisconsin and beyond. This Labor Day, I'm sharing my story as a call to action. Let's commit to a state and country where it isn't unusual for workers to own their company, where shared ownership bolsters workers, businesses, and communities. Nineteen years ago, my colleagues' kindness gave me a glimpse into a different kind of company. Today, Labor Day, I want to pay that forward. Let's give every worker a share in the wealth their labor makes possible and the opportunity to craft their own story, too. Marcease Warren is the vice president of manufacturing at Sentry Equipment, based in Oconomowoc.