Due to the limited start-up capital, many start-up companies want to attract talents and stabilize the team by implementing equity incentive plans. But how can it be implemented more effectively? Let's listen to the three guests in this issue talk about their practical experience.
Equity incentive is a natural choice
Text / Song Chongyu
How to enhance the centripetal force of employees? How to stabilize employees? These problems are the difficulties and key points that plague the vast number of start-up companies. And considering that it is difficult for start-up companies to achieve the stability of the workforce by increasing wages and benefits, equity incentives are the natural choice.
Fully consider the situation of both sides
Start-up companies should analyze the situation of both employees and the company to determine a better equity incentive plan.
From the company's point of view, the main considerations are: how to stabilize employees with lower cash costs, and how to lock and promote employees' long-term contributions. From the perspective of employees, the main considerations are: how to obtain benefits from the company's performance growth as soon as possible, and how to obtain future benefits from the company's future high growth.
Analysis implementation
There are several ways in which start-up companies implement equity incentives.
- virtual equity. Employees get a virtual equity ratio, not actual equity, and the benefits are related to the dividends of the corresponding company equity.
- Equity Appreciation Rights. Employees get the corresponding equity value-added income according to a certain equity ratio.
- Equity is granted directly. Equity in the company is directly awarded to employees under certain conditions.
- equity options. Grants employees the right to purchase or acquire equity at some point in the future.
If the start-up company has limited performance growth in the short term, then the methods of virtual equity and equity appreciation rights will cause greater pressure on the company to pay cash. Moreover, the method of virtual equity will not have a great incentive effect on the long-term performance of employees, because employees' income is related to dividends, even if their performance declines, they may still receive dividends. Although the method of equity appreciation rights can link the interests of employees with the growth of the company's future performance, employees do not receive actual equity and do not share the company's operating risks with other shareholders, so the incentives they receive are limited.
By adopting the method of direct granting of equity, what employees get is real "equity" (generally, the grantor is the major shareholder of the company), and the company can use this method instead of cash payment, thereby saving costs. In addition, after employees obtain equity, their interests are linked to the overall interests of the company, which is of great significance in locking in the long-term contributions of employees. From the perspective of employees, once they obtain real equity, they can not only get dividends when the company is profitable, but also share the benefits of the company's future development as shareholders.
As far as equity options are concerned, the employee's income and equity appreciation can be locked by setting the consideration for acquiring equity, so the incentive effect is much stronger than direct equity granting. However, factors such as the consideration for obtaining equity and the evaluation of benefits are very important to the implementation of equity options, which involves the issue of company value evaluation. For start-up companies in the IT industry, the development of the company may be non-linear, or there may be no rules to follow at all. Therefore, the evaluation of the current value of the company and the estimation of the future value are relatively difficult issues, and it is easy to cause conflicts between employees and the company. Disagreements arose. In this case, there are certain uncertainties in the implementation of equity options for start-up companies in the IT industry.
To sum up, for start-up companies in the IT industry, it is recommended to directly grant a certain amount of equity to employees to achieve basic stability of employees, and then set indicators such as performance growth or clarify working hours and other conditions, and implement equity in batches options. Finally, it should be emphasized that the tool for equity incentives is "equity", which is a "scarce resource" for the company. cost to achieve the greatest incentive effect.
Retain talents and stabilize the team
Text / Zheng Youcai
In the field of mobile Internet, the real assets are talents, and how to retain talents is the key to the success of entrepreneurship. This article will mainly discuss how start-up companies can retain talents and stabilize teams by implementing equity incentives.
Entrepreneurial companies have very limited resources in all aspects, so they must be careful when allocating and utilizing resources. Strengthening the training of newcomers can not only prepare for future talent echelon management, but also save a lot of salary costs. However, newcomers will gradually grow into veterans in the industry. Facing the current situation where it is difficult for companies to offer attractive salaries, they will inevitably feel psychologically unbalanced. Therefore, start-up companies need to strengthen the company's goals, enhance employees' sense of belonging and identity to the company, and at the same time take corresponding material incentives. From the perspective of long-term development, equity incentives are a very good way.
实施股权激励一般有股份和期权两种方式。无论采用哪种方式，都要有相关条件，如员工必须在公司工作连续两年、离职后期权失效，等等。目的是让员工与公司一起成长，一起奋斗，一起分享。
创业公司可以拿出10%～30%的股份，奖励优秀员工，留住人才。有两种操作方式：一是直接无偿给予员工，通常员工占股比例较少；另一种方式是有偿给予，要求员工出部分资金来购买公司股份。出资比例因各个公司的情况而定，常见比例是1:1，即员工购买1股，公司给予1股。
期权方式是大多数互联网公司经常采用的。在公司上市或并购后，员工能从中获取相应的报酬。中国法律上没有明确承认期权这种方式，属于公司与员工之间签订的一种民事协议。但在西方国家是予以认可的。通常的做法是拿出公司股份的5%～15%作为期权池，划分成若干股期权，对每股期权单独定价，根据员工的贡献和职位高低配以不同数量的期权。操作起来相对简单、有效。
股权激励是一种长期激励措施，是保持员工积极性、创造性的有效手段。但人都是有惰性的，创业公司需要不断刺激员工，让员工不仅能看到长远的发展，也能追求到短期利益。短期激励主要是奖金、福利手段。收入稳定的创业公司，可以按每个季度对员工进行奖励，最有效的方式是按月对员工予以奖励。福利手段，就比较多了，比如来自外部的培训和交流，及公司组织的各类活动、商业补充保险等都是让员工认同公司的一种有效的短期激励手段。
巧施股权激励，招贤纳士
文 / 肖鹏
对互联网领域的创业公司来说，人才尤为重要。能否吸引优秀的人才加盟，是决定公司未来能否成功的关键。“良禽择木而栖，贤臣择主而侍”，要想吸引优秀的人才，必然要提供足够的发展空间和比较丰厚的待遇。公司初创阶段，包括资金在内的各方面资源都比较紧张，没有能力单纯用高报酬来维持激励。这时，股权激励就成为创业公司招募人才并激励他们努力工作的重要手段之一。
合理的薪酬是根本
股权激励只是一种激励手段。按照马斯洛的需求层次理论，股权激励更偏向于被尊重和自我实现的需求，属于高级需求。而合理的薪酬制度属于生理和安全的需求，要优先满足。首先是基本薪酬制度设计必须合理，然后是以浮动薪酬调动核心人员积极性，最后是股权性薪酬激发管理层及核心人员与公司共同发展的积极性。而很多创业企业一上来就讲股权激励，在没有建立起完善的基本薪酬制度的情况下，搞股权激励显然是本末倒置的。
需注意的四个问题
创业公司在实施股权激励时，最容易出现问题的地方就是创始人和公司员工对公司未来估计的不一致。尚未经历过融资的创业公司的股票价格还没有进行过公开公平的估值，因此股票价格的确定具有主观性和不透明性。由于创始人对公司倾注了极大的
心血，很容易形成错觉高估公司的价值；而被激励对象往往因为创业公司条件简陋、各方面福利待遇和手头可供调用的资源不能与大公司相提并论，从而低估公司的价值，认为获得的股份或期权是鸡肋，不足以补偿自己的付出。所以，与公司员工充分交流，对公司的价值有比较一致的预期是非常重要的。
其次，空头支票也要尽量避免。在实施股权激励时，有些创业公司往往把前景描绘得特别美好，但基本实现不了。因为员工不是傻子，这样的空头支票没有任何作用。即便员工一时相信了，但一旦意识到公司的真实情况，就会感到受欺骗，产生反效果。
还可能出现一种情况。在公司真正达到股权激励条件后，创始人却突然反悔，觉得当初定的条件太宽松而不愿兑现或打折扣，这样也必然影响士气。
最后，要注意免费午餐造成的不良后果。拿到股份很容易，很可能反而导致员工失去工作动力，起到反作用。
小规模公司，全员持股
在规模较小的互联网创业公司里，每个员工都很重要，所以比较适合实行全员持股计划，由实际出资创始人持实股，核心人员持干股，其他员工给以期权。至于拿出多少股份来做激励，要依据公司的价值、员工的能力和贡献等，没有一定之规，分寸需要创始人自行把握。同时，也要参照激励员工的个人意愿。如果员工更愿意拿高工资、低股份，在公司条件允许的范围内，也无不可。
由于创业公司的业绩具有不确定性，所以股价通常具有主观性且定价机制不透明，但要注意定价不宜超过真实股价过多。如果是无偿赠予核心人员的干股，则要考虑人员中途离职的问题。
目前市面上流行的协议时间在四年左右，因为时间太长会造成过度的压力，太短则起不到激励作用。
购买股份的资金最好由被激励对象出，因为这能将被激励对象与公司利益捆绑，有助于发挥被激励对象的积极性，同时缓解公司的资金压力。
- 作者宋崇宇，北京市中银律师事务所合伙人律师。
- 作者郑友才，摩安CEO。
- 作者肖鹏，阿普创新创始人兼产品总监。