Personally, I think that empowering people, begins by explaining how things work. And so, if you are so inclined, I think a lot of us would appreciate a lesson on payroll tax deductions. (Social security, Medicare, state and federal un-employment insurance (FUTA).

I was a self-employed consultant for several decades. When I opened a fabrication shop, I discovered my employees did not understand their own payroll taxes. My accountant held a workshop for my employees, explained how payroll taxes worked and ended up with new clients. We did another workshop on personal financial management including savings accounts, health insurance, mortgages, investments, fees, taxes, etc. and my employees started saving money and investing. A few years later, our accountant did financial management workshops for our employee’s children who were heading off to jobs and college.

After the ACA passed, we paid a consultant to review our health insurance plan. By reviewing each employee’s situation separately, the consultant discovered it was cheaper if our employees paid for their own policies. Unfortunately, we had a couple employees with a spouse or children with very expensive medical needs. Even though they knew they would be helping foot the bill everyone agreed it was right and fair for the company to pay for anything over the average cost of comparable coverage for everyone.

Talk about building a culture, people who worked for us really took care of each other. They built that culture, not me (but I loved it). And they succeeded because they knew how things worked.