Employees as shareholders: employee buy-in program boosting morale at BESTECH.

• Author: Kelly, Lindsay
• Position: SUDBURY

Sudbury-based engineering firm BESTECH is for sale--but not in the sense you may think.

This year, BESTECH introduced an Employee Stock Ownership Plan (ESOP), a rare move for a small- to medium-sized business, in an effort to reward and retain employees for their service. Under the plan, eligible employees can purchase shares of the company and reap the benefits along the way.

Pat Dubreuil, BESTECH's vice-president of operations for sales and marketing, said the reasoning behind the move is twofold. After watching the company grow at an impressive 30 per cent per year over the last five years, owners Marc Boudreau and Denis Pitre wanted to reward employees by letting them buy in to the company.

[ILLUSTRATION OMITTED]

"They're seeing this company grow and it's building well and they want to share this wealth with their employees," Dubreuil said. "They're saying, 'We're being successful and it's because of the employees, and we want to make sure that you guys benefit in our growth.'"

They also regard the ESOP as a smart retention strategy. As stakeholders, employees have a vested interest in the company's success, so by fostering a sense of responsibility and ownership, the employees will continue to work hard for success because they want to, not because they have to, Dubreuil said.

In this inaugural year, five per cent of the company was up for grabs, and another five per cent will go up for sale next year. Dubreuil said the program was an overwhelming success.

"We sold all of the shares that were issued in this first offering," he said. "We had a 54 per cent participation rate from our employees. That's phenomenal when you think about it. It shows that we're doing the right thing because people are responding like we hoped they would."

Only seven per cent of privately owned companies choose to go this route, but those that do see "exponential growth," Dubreuil said.

Behind the decision to introduce an ES-OP is the belief that, after an employer's basic needs are met--a good wage and good quality of life--employees crave a higher level of motivation and satisfaction from their work.

BESTECH believes that satisfaction can come from working for oneself and contributing to a vibrant organization that's generating interest in the industry. BESTECH was named one of the top 50 Canadian small to medium companies to work for in 2012.

According to the criteria, employees are eligible to enrol in the ESOP after...