Microsoft has been one of the top 3 most valued companies in USA consistently. How has Microsoft managed its employees in such way that every employee is motivated and is willing to dedicate themselves to excellence? Microsoft chooses an unorthodox method to manage its employees. Microsoft gives away its share to employees as bonuses each year which has a vesting period of 5 years, and Microsoft gives its employees a 10% discount to buy Microsoft’s stock.
I think that this is a great way to extract the best performance out of the employees on a daily basis. It is very hard to have everyone producing at a high level especially for a company scale like Microsoft. Now that most employees have become a shareholder in the company, their incentive to work harder and sacrifice for the company increases because they want Microsoft to exceed, and the value of their shares would increase. This thought would even motivate the lower work status workers because their mentality would change to “I can contribute as well” rather than “whatever”. Furthermore, Microsoft doesn’t have to give up extra assets or cash to motivate its employees because Microsoft uses its share. Therefore, there is no concern over increasing expense to motivating employees.
There are many ways to unite the employees so that they all work at a high level. Microsoft chooses to create more incentive for hard work by rewarding employees with shares of the company, but a comparatively smaller company like Zappo chooses to create a family like environment for the employees. However, whatever gets the job done is the method to use.