How do training programs at New Belgium support the companys strategy?

New Belgium Brews Success through Employee Ownership From the early days of Colorado-based New Belgium Brewing Company, founders Kim Jordan and Jeff Lebesch treated their workers as a valuable source of knowledge, not just labor. They based the company's culture on employee involvementseeking ideas and freely sharing information about company performance. Eventually they went a step further than most companies by making owners of their employees. At first they gave employees stock as part of an employee benefits program; eventually, following Lebesch's departure from New Belgium, Jordan expanded the employee stock ownership plan (ESOP) to 100% employee ownership. Now all employees are eligible for an ownership stake after they have worked for New Belgium for one year. When they are ready to retire, they sell their shares back to the company. According to Jordan, the advantages of the arrangement are significant. Employees are more satisfied, and the employee turnover rate is around 3%. Employees offer many constructive ideas for improving performance, helping to propel growth. New Belgium has become one of the largest craft brewers in the United States. Making ESOPs deliver results like these takes a serious commitment to communication, training, and employee empowerment. Every month, managers meet with their employees to discuss New Belgium's financial performance and its progress on major projects such as the opening of a new brewery. Employees also can look up the information anytime on the company's intranet, its employees-only Internet portal. Page 57 Of course, the scientists, production workers, and salespeople don't always arrive at New Belgium knowing how to make sense of the financial statements. Training for new employees includes lessons on financial literacy. Part of each monthly meeting is devoted to lessons on how to analyze financial information with ratios and other techniques. As employees learn, for example, that expenses eat up the largest share of a business's revenues, they become more invested in finding ways to cut costs so that the company keeps more of what it earns. In addition, employees elect eight of their co-workers to serve on a committee that fields employees' questions related to the ESOP. One committee member says that because employees understand where the money is going, employees are better able to help the company get by during its leaner years