Owner's Concerns
Sharing ownership with employees is a difficult decision for many owners. Considerations such as participation, allocation, timing, control, and financial disclosure must be carefully evaluated before implementing an employee ownership plan.
 Who Should Participate
Many forward-looking companies in a wide range of industries issue equity to all employees. At many of these companies, the equity program is not simply a form of compensation, but one of the lynchpins of an organizational culture in which everyone in the firm feels invested, both financially and psychologically, in the company and its fortunes.
How Much to Award and When
One of the most difficult decisions for companies implementing an individual-based stock program concerns the size of the equity awards --both to individual employees and to the workforce as a whole. These decisions should begin with a review of the owner's motivation for sharing equity in the first place.
Control
Some owners believe it is important to maintain more than 50 percent ownership of the company in order to remain in control. Others believe that control has more to do with leadership than percentage of outstanding shares owned. The differences between these two viewpoints are largely philosophical ones.
Disclosure Requirements
Financial disclosure is another concern of many business owners. Shareholder rights to receive information differ for companies whose securities are registered with the SEC versus privately held companies. Regardless of the disclosure requirements, information disclosure is a very important ingredient in building an ownership culture.
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