Very simply, my enduring passion for employee ownership to which I’ve devoted over three decades reflects a delight in hearing workers tout the benefits of being an employee owner. And the advantages they cite go far beyond the substantial retirement funds they can attain from being part of an employee stock ownership plan, or ESOP.

These personal accounts illuminate the human aspect of employee ownership often restrained or overlooked when a family-owned or mid-size firm contemplates an ESOP. Thankfully, Danny Massey, head of strategy and communications at Expanding ESOPs – a coalition of over 50 organizations promoting wider adoption of ESOPs – is giving voice to and amplifying workers’ stories. Let’s listen in.

The account of Archie Reed of Web Industries, a flexible materials converter and ESOP in Marlborough, Mass., typifies many of the stories. Reed had been laid off from his previous job during the Great Recession, and it took a while before he got his opportunity at Web. It was at his interview there 16 years where he first heard about the ESOP.

“They explained it to me, but it went over my head. I was 31…and I was just looking for a steady paycheck,” he recounts. “But when I got hired and hit the shop floor, I could tell right away this place was different. I was used to a dusty, overheated warehouse, but the temperature was comfortable and everything was pristine. If a pallet was out of place, someone would pick it up.” Thinking about his future now, Archie says, “It’s a huge relief to know that my ESOP is there to make a secure retirement possible.”

Listen, too, to Mike Kromminga, a senior data architect at ITA Group, an ESOP in West Des Moines, Iowa. He also had been laid off and also learned during his ITA Group interview that he would have an additional retirement account as well as a financial benefit.

“I didn’t have any idea what it actually meant to work at an ESOP company,” he remembers. “I went from unemployed to owner. The ESOP has given me a sense of purpose and security. My voice is respected,” and as his annual ESOP financial statement grows bigger, he exclaims, “Wow, this is life changing.”

Also, consider the story of Karen Jones of Oconomowoc, Wis. She stopped working full-time for 15 years to raise her three children before becoming eager for a job. She was hired as a purchasing clerk at Sentry Equipment, but that it was an EOP “didn’t really register,” she says.

“The culture was different than anything I’d ever seen. Sentry wanted everyone to grow,” which explains how she attended a lunch about an accelerated adult learner program at a Milwaukee university. She had an associate degree but through the program, she earned her bachelor’s degree in two years.

With the degree, she emerged as a leader. She was promoted to materials manager, a new position she had suggested and, ultimately, she became director of Commercial Operations. Meanwhile, in her 19 years at Sentry, the value of her ownership has climbed 12 times as the company grew. She considers an ESOP “something special.”

These employees initially knew little about employee ownership. But now they enthusiastically tout its financial and other rewards to their and their families’ lives. Their satisfaction is common, and it helps explain the upswing in employee ownership interest. Among the factors: ESOPs outperform non-ESOPs in job retention, pay, and workplace health safety and lower voluntary worker quit rates.

It’s these expressions of happiness that spreads interest in the benefits of employee ownership and ESOPs. No wonder such interest grows, attracting the attention of Congress and a growing number of states to the benefits of ESOPs and of companies with an employee ownership element.

And take note. The Aspen Institute and Rutgers University are hosting their third annual Employee Ownership Ideas Forum this week (4-9 and 4-10) in the nation’s capital. It’s theme, appropriately, is “From Workers to Owners” and the forum will highlight how the experience of ownership changes the reality of work for workers.

I hope you will join me in my fervency for employee ownership. I urge you to learn more about it. Great resources include the National Center for Employee Ownership, hosting its annual conference the week of April 15 with over 1,000 attendees; the ESOP Association; ESCA, the Employee-owned S Corporations of America; and Expanding ESOPs, the aforementioned coalition of those of us who dream of welcoming many more worker owners.

Imagine how being an employee owner might impact your own work and financial security. If possible, reach out to employees and leaders of a local ESOP and ask them to relate their experiences. An estimated 14.9 million workers participate in 6,500 ESOPs with over $1.3 trillion in assets. It would be tremendous to see their ranks – and their voices of happiness – swell in the years ahead.